EDUCATION FOR REMEMBRANCE OF THE ROMA GENOCIDE

Education for Remembrance of the Roma Genocide…
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Rroms, a Roma youth NGO in France, represented by Saimir Mile
and Pierre Chopinaud 7 at the event 8 .
“Memorial days, commemoration and recognition” were main
topics of the second panel. Ethel Brooks 9 , Associate Professor in
the Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology
at Rutgers University, first addressed the question of how to bring
meaning into memorial days, how to find alternatives and to talk
across generations through different sources, such as oral histories.
She talked about international recognition and commemoration
and pointed out that analyzing life stories allows us to understand
diversity of experiences and not transform it into a simple number.
It is important to tell history from the perspective of difference.
Transnationality and trans-generationality should enrich how we
think about historical records.
There has never been a consistent reeducation to avoid both
the regrowth of fascist movements and their renewed presence
in public spheres. Therefore, there is still a long way to fight
discrimination and hate towards difference. We need to build
resources, collaborate and work together on alternatives, across
countries, ethnicities and generations. Institutional recognition
is also important. August 2 nd as the Roma Holocaust Memorial
Day has been recognized by the Polish Government and recently
by the European Parliament 10 , where the need to commemorate
the victims of the Roma genocide and combating Antigypsyism
7 See Chapter “A Romani Resistance Manifesto” by Pierre Chopinaud.
8 An interesting book called “Avava Ovava” has been recently written and
published by Anina Ciuciu, Lise Foisneau, Pierre Chopinaud, Samir Mile
and Valentin Merlin, co-edited by Al Dante /La Voix des Rroms, France, 2014.
9 See Chapter “International Commemoration: A Watershed Moment in
History and a Wish List for the Future” by Ethel Brooks.
10 “European Parliament recognizes August 2 as the European Roma Holocaust
Memorial Day” (2015) http://2august.eu/ep-recognition/. Also, see
the Declaration of the European Parliament at http://www.europarl.europa.
eu/news/en/news-room/content/20150414IPR41851/html/MEPs-urge-endto-Roma-discrimination-and-recognition-of-Roma-Genocide-Day
(access:
15/09/2015).