Posted on 08/02/2004 8:31:47 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
WARSAW (AFP) - Hundreds of Roma from across Europe walked through the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland to pay homage to the half a million gypsies who died in the Holocaust 60 years ago.
The gypsies, many of them Holocaust survivors or relatives of victims whom had travelled from Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic, took the same path some 20,000 Roma on the night of August 2-3 travelled to Birkenau's crematorium five where they died.
Known as the "Pharrajimos" in the Romani language, the Holocaust took the lives of nearly half a million gypsies in different countries.
European gypsies remember Holocaust victims on August 2 because it was on this day in 1944 that the largest massacres took place at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Roman Kwiatkowski, who represents the some 25,000-30,000 Roma living in Poland, said that all sites where Roma died "should be properly commemorated", the PAP news agency said.
In Hungary gypsies were to stage a silent evening gathering to mark the memory of the Roma exterminated in the Holocaust, Budapest's Holocaust museum announced on Monday.
The impoverished minority -- estimated at between six and 10 million -- still suffers discrimination and poor living conditions throughout Europe.
More of the overlooked losers in the holocaust lists.
Those without political clout are never heard about.
What a legacy Hitler left behind :(
I wonder why there's no mention of what has happened to the Roma at the hands of the KLA-types in Clinton's Kosovo Quagmire?
These are the lesser known victims of the Holocaust. Unlike the Jewish people, they have not produced spokesmen to make world know about the catastrophe they went through. We, Jews, have much in common with them throughout history: every country that expelled Jews expelled Roma as well. This included Isabella the Catholic, who in 1492 infamously expelled both Roma and Jews from Spain, with greatly tragic consequences for both. In Romania, they were legally enslaved until 1880s. And, the Nazis too were looking for Jews, Gypsies, and communists -- in that order --- in every village they took.
My heart goes to these people, who suffered throughout history so much. The world need to know more about their fate --- and continuing prejudice and persecution in Eastern Europe.
I know of a Roma woman who was a very small child in one of the camps. She managed to survive, but lost her family. When she was a teen, she had the the tattoo burned off, so she now has a really ugly scar.
Anyhow, she how lives in NY. No one I know loves this country and the freedom it has given her (to be an eccentric old woman) more than her. Anytime someone starts whining, she always says "Chickies, I have seen worse. This is a walk in the park!"
Jehovah's Witnesses were also wiped off the map of Hitler's Europe. "Never Forget"? There were 12,000,000 slaughtered, not 6,000,000. Our history has already forgotten the quiet half.
I've got a few questions to You. I will send You a mail later.
Our media still covers up for Clinton. He sided with the militant Moslems of the KLA against the Christian Serbs. At that time most of the Joe-Six-Pack ignorant Americans did not know the difference, but now after the fanatical Islamist declared war on us, why are we still supporting the Islamists in Kosovo? The Moslem president of Bosnia awarded Osama bin Laden an honorary citizenship!!!
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