Roma resistance day marked at ombudsman’s office

Budapest, May 17 (MTI) – An exhibition and presentations were held at the ombudsman’s office on Tuesday to remember the unidentified Roma victims of the Holocaust in Hungary.

The history of Roma resistance in Hungary during WW2 is still an under-researched and lesser known topic, deputy ombudsman for protecting minority rights Erzsébet Sándor said at the event marking Roma resistance day.

Certain sources show that the prisoners of a Roma lager in Auschwitz-Birkenau refused to cooperate with the guards and rebelled against the SS officers on May 16, 1944 when they tried to direct them to a gas chamber.

Such resistance was unprecedented in the camp and as a result of their action, no Roma were killed on the day. However, the cruel treatment of the Roma intensified after the rebellion and the Roma were transferred to camps in Buchenwald, Ravensbrueck and other places. Then, during one night from August 2 to August 3 in 1944, some 3,000 Roma men, women and children – those who remained in Auschwitz-Birkenau – were executed.

Sándor said today’s event is a tribute to those Roma who “refused to accept their faith without resistance in a hopeless situation”.

Timea Junghaus, a research advisor from the Tom Lantos Institute, said in her lecture that it is important to study history again to “replace the story of suppression with the history of Roma activeness, resistance and awareness”.

A photo exhibition at the ombudsman’s office presents the life of Roma during and after WW2.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters