"Journey to the Past" will mark Roma Genocide Remembrance Day at Auschwitz this August

From 1-3 August the site of the former concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland will be visited in order to honor the memory of the Romani victims of the Holocaust. The "Journey to the Past" initiative ("Cesta k minulosti") arose from the need to commemorate the horrors of the Nazi ideology and the Second World War.

The organizer of the trip is Emilie Verona Horáčková and those interested in attending it can contact her by e-mail, Facebook or telephone. "By making this journey, I would like to support the importance of knowing our own history, which is a component of world history, and the reinforcement of Romani identity. We should never forget what was done to us. The aim of this project is to familiarize those members of the generations that did not personally experience the Second World War with the historical facts, and also to train them in how to take responsibility for preserving this history," she told news server Romea.cz.

The traditional commemoration of the Romani victims of the Holocaust takes place at the site of the former Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz where, on the night of 2 August and in the early morning hours of 3 August 1944, the Nazis murdered as many as 2 898 Roma and Sinti in the gas chambers. Other Romani people were murdered in other concentration camps, primarily at Bełżec, Chełmno, Majdanka, Sobibór and Treblinka.

Others, the numbers of whom are difficult to estimate, were shot dead and then buried in mass graves in the forests. Romani people all over the world commemorate 2 August as Roma Genocide Remembrance Day.

"On Remembrance Day we will attend the commemorative ceremony and again we will bring our wreaths, our cloth flowers in red and white, and our Romani flags inscribed with 'We Will Never Forget'," Horáčková said. "My efforts are to raise the financing needed to implement and realize our visit to Auschwitz. This project is being undertaken without any grant support, just with contributions from individual donors and from those who will attend the ceremony. I would like to appeal to all those interested in attending the commemorative ceremony at Auschwitz and to any potential donors to contact me by e-mail, on Facebook or by telephone," the organizer said.

To reserve a non-refundable place on the chartered bus for this trip, please contact Ms Horáčková by 15 June 2017. For more information, please write to her at horackovaemilie@seznam.cz or use the mobile telephone number +420 605 018 419.