Providing a practical educational tool to overcome the lack of knowledge of the genocide of the Roma in mainstream society and to help counter antigypsyism/anti-Roma discrimination.

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Learn about the Project’s approach and activities.

About our work

Launched in 2022, the IHRA’s Project to develop Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of the Roma during the Nazi era is addressing:

  • The importance of education on the Roma genocide
  • Difficulties educators face in the classroom and the lack of teaching materials on the genocide of the Roma
  • How to encourage curriculum developers to create more educational materials on this subject

Why is education about the genocide of the Roma important?

Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe. For centuries they have suffered discrimination, racism, and persecution, which peaked with the murder of Roma and Sinti during the Second World War. Yet the genocide of the Roma and Sinti has long been widely ignored. While the genocide of the Roma took place alongside the events of the Holocaust, the distinct experiences of all victim groups explicitly targeted by Nazi Germany and its collaborators are specific in many ways. In order to appropriately teach about the genocide of the Roma, it is important to acknowledge the unique history of this genocide and pay tribute to the Roma victims and survivors. Learning about this history can help dismantle stereotypes and discrimination today.

IHRA Member Countries share a commitment to “Remember the genocide of the Roma” and “acknowledge with concern that the neglect of this genocide has contributed to the prejudice and discrimination that many Roma communities still experience today.”

The project aims to fulfill one of the IHRA’s three pledges made at the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Remember – ReAct.

What we’ve learned so far

How key learnings have been fed back into our approach

There is a lack of recognition of the crimes against Roma communities during the Nazi era and a lack of interest in the topic at a societal level.

We will address this by encouraging educators to include teaching about the genocide of the Roma in their classrooms and to raise awareness of the need to educate about this topic.

 

 

Despite some noteworthy progress in recent years, there is a lack of research about this history, which has led to a lack of teaching materials and experience among teachers and education professionals in dealing with this subject matter.

We will provide practical teaching recommendations to help fill this gap.

The genocide of the Roma took place in different ways in different regions or periods or was committed by different perpetrators, making it a complex topic to explore.

We will develop recommendations to provide a solid starting point for national policymakers to develop further educational concepts and teaching materials that reflect their own national history and meet the needs of their population.

Meet the Project team

The project is led by the IHRA’s Committee on the Genocide of the Roma in close interdisciplinary cooperation with the experts from the IHRA’s other Working Groups and Committees, its Permanent International Partners, and in dialogue with Roma civil society actors and representatives.

The project team is led by Misko Stanisic (EWG/Serbia, Project Chair) and Nina Krieger (MMWG/Canada, Deputy Project Chair), and includes IHRA experts from the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as representatives from the Council of Europe ADI-ROM, OSCE/ODIHR, the United Nations, and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.

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What we do

Learn how we address contemporary challenges related to the Holocaust, the genocide of the Roma, and their remembrance.

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