[plschwartz]

BBC NEWS
Roma mark holocaust at Auschwitz
By Adam Easton
BBC, Warsaw

Commemorations are under way to mark the 60th anniversary of the Roma holocaust at Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp in southern Poland.

Hundreds of Roma from across Europe are attending the remembrance ceremony at the Roma memorial at Auschwitz.

It is the largest act of remembrance ever for Roma victims of the holocaust.

In August 1944, the Nazis killed all those in the camp they had created for the Roma, or Gypsies, who like Jews were singled out for extermination.

On Monday, beside the barbed wire fence in a corner of the 175 hectare field that housed the Birkenau death camp, both Roma and political leaders talked of the need not to forget.

Entire families were incarcerated together in what the Nazis called the Gypsy family camp.

Discrimination

Exactly 60 years ago, the Nazis marched old Roma men, women and children into the gas chambers for the last time before destroying the camp.

Estimates say 19,000 of the 23,000 Roma sent to Auschwitz died there. Many succumbed to typhus and smallpox epidemics.

Like the Jews, the Nazis singled out the Roma for racial extermination, but the Roma holocaust is often forgotten, said local Roma leader Roman Kwiatkowski as he opened the ceremony.

He reminded the listeners the present-day Roma still face discrimination.

It is not known precisely how many Roma were killed in the Nazis' drive to wipe them from the face of the earth, but estimates say around a quarter of the million Roma living in Europe were murdered.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...pe/3527024.stm

Published: 2004/08/02 12:38:03 GMT

© BBC MMIV

[Ciberblade]

I feel this, like so many other painful memories, should never be forgotten. Move on, don't let it effect life today, but never forget - or doomed we may be to repeat such sad times.

[plschwartz]

CB
I posted this for two reasons
1. to remind those who would minimize the holocaust
2. To remind those who thing it was against Jews only that it affected many others.
Has anybody offered the Roma a national homeland?

[Ciberblade]

The holocaust should not be marginalized for any reason!

About the homeland. I posted these a while ago, I have not found anybody who can dispute it's information.

[plschwartz]

CB
item four is a little misleading. It states that Arab dominionwas short lived. But Moslem dominion was of course not. That the Arabs were also dominated by others is not to say that they were not living there for that time. They deserved and recieved the lands post WWI as did many others

I do agree that the whole problem today was caused by the unwillingness of other arab govts to take them.
There are two other significant factors.
1. Many Arabs were drawn to Palestine as the Jewish settlers began to bring the economy from what we would call today third world to first world standards.
The Brits in their wisedom decided that anyoneone with TWO YEARS residency could be counted as a Palestinian. Thus it is extremely difficult to differentiate "descendents" if I may borrow a phrase, from newer settlers. While determining this group would have been simple in 1948 what with intermarriage etc it is probably now impossible

2.According to the partition agreement Egypt was to be given Gaza. Unlike the Jordanians they refused to give citizenship to the Palestian refugees after
the first war. This caused the Gaza problem.
The fact that there were UN "feeding stations" in Gaza allowed this situation to continue. Ditto for the camps in Lebanon

[Ciberblade]

PLS
Thanks for the additional info - I will see if I can find anything else regarding Arab dominion of this area.

[sligo]

Can you imagine what would happen if the Jews descreated Mosques? There would be a huge public outcry. There would be UN sanctions.