Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová on the Holocaust and its Romani victims: Romani people are a full-fledged component of our society

Speaking on the occasion of European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová said yesterday that it is necessary for public authorities to vigorously reject hatred against any group, whether it be for reasons of ethnicity, race, religion or sexual orientation, and to stand up for all who experience such hate speech today. "We are all in this together with Romani men and women, that is why our collaboration must be built on an equal partnership. That principle must be felt throughout our entire society - Romani people are a full-fledged component of our society, after all," she said in a statement that news server Romea.cz is publishing here in full.

Zuzana Čaputová on the occasion of European Roma Holocaust Day

Today in Europe we are honoring the memory of 500 000 Romani victims of the Holocaust. It has been 76 years since the mass murder in the gas chambers of the 2 900 Romani prisoners who were the last remaining inmates of the "Gypsy Camp" at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Holocaust of the Roma and its unimaginable horrors, which have been engraved into the fates and memories of specific people, families and communities, cannot remain forgotten. It is our social responsibility to know these facts and remember them.

We will only build a cohesive, tolerant society if we have a thorough understanding of how easy and immeasurably dangerous it is to deprive members of a minority of their human dimension and to exploit prejudices to justify physical and verbal violence or, in its most extreme form, to even commit genocide. It is exactly today, when we commemorate the tragedy of the Holocaust of the Roma, that the public authorities have the duty to vigorously reject all displays of hatred toward any group, whether for reasons of ethnicity, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Standing up for all people who experience such displays of hatred is also their duty. We are all in this together with Romani men and women, that is why our collaboration must be built on an equal partnership.

That principle must be felt throughout our entire society - Romani people are a full-fledged component of our society, after all. We must stand up for all who are experiencing such displays of hatred today.

We are all living together in one world. Savory Jekhetane dzive pro jekh luma.

Let us never forget. Ma Bister.