Lithuania to Officially Observe Roma Genocide Remembrance Day

• by Human Rights Monitoring Institute
The Lithuanian Parliament has approved a proposal to include the Roma Genocide Remembrance Day (2 August) to the list of observable special occasions. On 2 August 1944 the Roma concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau was destroyed, with all the prisoners being killed. The decision will benefit the Lithuanian Roma community, drawing public attention to a dark period of the country’s history, fostering cross-cultural dialogue, and fighting stereotypes. It is believed that around 500 Roma people were killed in Lithuania (500,000 overall in Europe) during the Nazi occupation.