Europe's Roma Ask U.N. To Recognize Them As Holocaust Victims
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter New York, NY (AHN) - Europe's Roma, or gypises, asked the United Nations to include them in Holocaust commemorations and to be recognized as victims of the Nazis. The German Central Council for Sinti and Roma introduced plans for an exhibition at U.N. headquarters that details gypsies who died in the Holocaust and the discrimination they still endure in Europe. The exhibition will open January 25 as part of annual events commemorating the U.N. International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The council's Chairman Romani Rose spoke about the exhibition at a news conference that was sponsored by Germany's U.N. mission. Rose said to Reuters, "The objective of this exhibition is to raise public awareness of the Holocaust and the murder of half a million Sinti and Roma, which is not as well known as the murder of six million Jews." According to Reuters, between 200,000 and 800,000 Roma people were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Rose said, "Over 60 years after the end of the Second World War, Roma and Sinti continue to face cases of serious violations of their human rights... And there is still insufficient knowledge in the international community of the historical dimension of the Holocaust against the Roma and Sinti." Roma and Sinti are the largest minority in central and eastern Europe, with about 12 million people.
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