Council of Europe urges Rom and Sinti Holocaust remembrance as Berlin bans memorial gatherings

Georgios Stamatis, the general rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), announced on 31 July that the European Day of Remembrance for the Rom and Sinti Holocaust will be observed on 2 August. He highlighted the murder of 4,300 Rom and Sinti victims in a single night at Auschwitz‑Birkenau and the total loss of half a million lives during the Porajmos. Stamatis said the episode is largely omitted from schools and museums, fueling ongoing discrimination. He cited a parliamentary conference in Athens that involved parliamentarians, historians, civil‑society representatives and the UN Office on Genocide Prevention, and urged PACE to adopt a resolution to translate memory into concrete measures against antiziganism. An 11‑member delegation will attend a ceremony at Auschwitz‑Birkenau on 2 August.

In Berlin, police issued a general prohibition on public assemblies around the Sinti and Roma Memorial in the Tiergarten district for 2 August 2026, from 06:00 to 23:59. The ban covers the area surrounding the monument, aiming to preserve the solemn character of the remembrance day and maintain public order, while exempting diplomatic delegations. The memorial, inaugurated in October 2012, commemorates up to 500,000 Sinti and Roma victims of the Nazi regime.