Romas from around the world visit Auschwitz-Birkenau for commemoration

Romas from all over the world met yesterday at Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp to commemorate the death of 2,897 kinsmen murdered by the Nazis on Aug. 2 1944 in the so-called Zigeunerlager. At the commemoration the president of the Romas Association in Poland Roman Kwiatkowski said, "For us, Birkenau is an ever living symbol of cruelty towards our people. This however does not evoke any hatred in our nation." Polish authorities were represented by Senate speaker Alicja Grzeskowiak, who called for preserving the memory of the past, now very often put into question. Still, the consoling words do not cover sad reality. Fifty years after the tragedy, the Romas say they still feel unsafe and point at Yugoslavia, Slovakia and Greece and say in Poland they are greeted apprehensively. Twenty-thousand Romas were murdered in medical experiments or in gas chambers during World War II at Auschwitz- Birkenau Concentration Camp. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 4) J.K.