The Romani people worldwide are celebrating International Romani Day. This day commemorates histories first-ever World Roma Congress, convened near London in 1971. The initiative
We, the Roma: An Interview with Ian Hancock
The name Ian Hancock has become synonymous with Roma advocacy. As the pre-eminent Roma scholar worldwide, and by far the most vocal of the handful of Roma-rights advocates, Professor Hancock is definitely a major player in the area of Roma advocacy. But how did Ian Hancock rise to where he is today? How does he feel about the way the Roma are viewed? And, perhaps more important, what are his hopes for the Roma in the years to come?
I interviewed Ian Hancock on the morning of November 12, 2004, after having attempted to reach him for several days. His official day job is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, but Hancock wears a multitude of different hats. He is the Roma ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, a member of the International Romani Parliament and as White House appointee served as the Romani delegate to the U.S.
2 AUGUST 1944: ROMA GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY
On the night of 2/3 August 1944, the ‘Gypsy Family Camp’ (The Zigeunerlager) at Auschwitz-Birkenau was liquidated. 2,897 men, women, and children of Roma or Sinti origin were murdered in the gas chambers by Nazi officers. Their bodies were burned in pits.
Of the 23,000 Roma and Sinti people imprisoned within the camp, it is estimated that around 20,000 were ultimately murdered. The anniversary, often referred to as Zigeunernacht, is an opportunity to remember the Roma and Sinti people murdered under the Nazi regime, and is now marked as Roma Genocide Remembrance Day.
The link is taken from
Holocaust Memorial Day trust :https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/2-august-1944-zigeunernacht-2/