My Europe: Xenophobia, nationalism can only be defeated together

Sunday marks European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. But remembering isn’t enough — we must decisively combat racism and nationalism, writes Romani Rose of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. On August 2, 1944, the last 4,300 Sinti and Roma still living in the so-called “gypsy camp” were murdered in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. This day marks the Nazi Holocaust of more than 500,000 Sinti and Roma in occupied Europe.

On August 2, a very important day for our community across Europe, we remember these final victims, and we remember all the victims of the Sinti and Roma genocide and all the victims of National Socialism. Remembering them has become an integral part of our identity. In 2015, the European Parliament declared this date as a European day of remembrance, and EU member states have been asked to observe August 2 as a day of commemoration in their own countries. Poland was the first member state to do so.

Racist nationalism has taken hold in many countries across Europe in the form of nationalist parties and governments, and there are no longer guarantees for the state of our democracy, the rule of law and European values. For some time now, we have seen an increase in hatred toward Sinti and Roma, Jews and other minorities. The attack in Halle last October and in Hanau this past February, are just the latest examples in Germany of an increasingly violent form of anti-Gypsyism, anti-Semitism and racism.

The governments of Europe must now — finally, unequivocally and once and for all — outlaw anti-Gypsyism, anti-Semitism and racism. To this end, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma welcomes the independent expert commission on anti-Gypsyism appointed by the federal government, whose task it is to study the issue in Germany and develop recommendations to fight it. This is the obligation imposed on us by the people murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in the other concentration and extermination camps, or at the hands of the SS killing squads. Europeans must face it together.

Source: DW