Aug. 2 is marked as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, one of the most tragic chapters in the history of the Romani people in Europe. In Turkey, members of the Romani community came together in Istanbul to pay their respects to Roma killed in Nazi Germany, on the anniversary of the most publicized murders in 1944 in a section of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The genocide is also known as Porajmos, or Pharimos, which can be roughly translated as "The Devouring" or "Destruction."
Representatives of Romani associations across Turkey gathered at the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul early Tuesday to mark the day. They performed morning prayers together and prayed for the souls of those killed at the hands of Nazis.
Making a statement on the occasion, Ahmet Çokyaşar, head of the Turkey Roma Confederation, said the genocide “unfortunately went unnoticed for a long time.” “We are talking about a genocide where 500,000 to 800,000 people were massacred, between 1940 and 1944 in Nazi Germany. As Turkish citizens, as Muslims, we came here today to remember it. We seek to raise more awareness of this issue by marking its anniversary here at Hagia Sophia, where we also prayed for them,” Çokyaşar said.
Çokyaşar said that the world turned a blind eye to the genocide. “We cannot truly comprehend it. Thousands of people were murdered (in the middle of Europe) and there are official accounts of genocide but unfortunately, the world did not care about it. Genocide is a bad thing whoever it targets,” he said. Quoting late Bosnia-Herzegovina leader Alija Izetbegovic, “Never forget the genocide. If forgotten, it will be repeated,” Çokyaşar said they have to ensure it is remembered.
The Romani community, like Jews, faced widespread discrimination and persecution in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. They were interned in concentration camps and/or suffered restrictions on their rights. Long before the war, the Nazi regime had enacted the notorious Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases, seeking to eliminate what they deemed as people with physical and mental disabilities. "Gypsies" as they were called, the Romani community were included in those groups of people and forcibly sterilized in large numbers. In 1935, another law excluded Roma from citizenship along with Jews and they were gradually forced to move into "camps" outside cities. The final blow to the community came in 1942, when Nazi officials ordered their deportation to the Auschwitz camp, specifically the Zigeunerlager section exclusively allocated for the Roma community. Thousands were killed there before the remaining Romani people were sent to other camps or gassed in 1944 when the camp was liquidated.
