Today is the anniversary of that evening in 1944, when over 6000 Roma and Sinti stood up to the Nazi SS in Auschwitz-Birkenau and delayed the liquidation of the ‘Gypsy camp’ (zigeunlager) by fighting off the soldiers sent to take them to the gas chambers.
The concentration camp prisoners had received a tip off and so mobilized and united together, making crude weapons from whatever they could. In fact Roma often resisted the Nazis by fighting back in whatever small ways they could, sometimes by singing and many gave their lives believing it was better to die free than live as slaves to the Nazi regime . This should make us proud and give us hope and those are the sentiments that this anniversary will bring forth. Sorrow, pride and resistance in the face of adversity, and hope for a better future.
Annually there is a very moving service organised by The Gypsy Council in Hyde park to remember the night of August 2nd 1944, when the Nazi SS returned to the zigeunlager and succeeded in murdering the remaining 3,000 inhabitants of Auschwitz-Birkenau, but this is not official, nor is it attended or acknowledged by any Government representatives.
Link: https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/may-16th-1944-day-sinti-romani-and-roma-resistance
