International Roma Genocide Remembrance Day – August 2nd
Topovske Šupe, 2025
Young People Remember
This year, on August 2nd, International Roma Genocide Remembrance Day, we commemorated the event at the site next to the remains of the former German Nazi camp, known as Topovske Šupe, in Belgrade.
The initiative was realized through the cooperation of the associations “Tačka gledišta” (Serbia), Regional Roma Youth Association – RROMA (North Macedonia), Association of Roma Women (BiH), and the organization “Amaro Drom” (Germany), within the project “From Awareness to Action – Youth and the Roma Genocide”.
The program was opened by young activists presenting an outdoor exhibition set up opposite the camp remains. Young guides stood by the panels and introduced the audience to the history and culture of Roma in Europe, as well as their persecution during World War II.
Addresses by the Israeli IHRA presidency and other officials
The commemoration began with the anthems of the Republic of Serbia and the Roma anthem Đelem, Đelem, followed by speeches from officials. A message from the Ambassador of the State of Israel to Serbia, Avivit Bar-Ilan, also a representative of the Israeli Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), was read. Carsten Meyer-Wiefhausen, Chargé d’Affaires of the German Embassy, Igor Jovanović, Deputy President of the Belgrade City Assembly, and Miško Stanišić, Director of Terraforming and a member of Serbia’s delegation to IHRA, also addressed the audience.
Also addressing the attendees were Urmeta Arifovska (RROMA, North Macedonia), Nasim Ragus (Amaro Drom, Germany), Fatima Džanić (Association of Roma Women, BiH), and Mina Lešić (Point of View, Serbia).
The artistic part of the program included presentations of works by young people from Serbia, Germany, BiH, and North Macedonia, created in workshops dedicated to the culture of remembrance of the Roma genocide.
The official part of the program concluded with the laying of flowers. In addition to officials and organizers, representatives of the Roma Youth Organization of Serbia – ROMS, the Youth Club of the Jewish Community of Belgrade, and Terraforming, among others, also laid flowers.
The Roma genocide has its specificities and characteristics. It must not be mentioned only in passing, in parentheses, or only when listing groups of victims who suffered in war crimes. Samudaripen must have its special place because this crime has characteristics that we need to understand if we want to ensure it never happens again.
From Miško Stanišić’s speech
Samudaripen indeed began with the Nazis’ rise to power, but antigypsyism had been present in Europe for centuries before that. Samudaripen may have reached its most extreme form — the mass destruction of the Roma — in 1945. Still, even after that, there was no recognition of this crime, no acknowledgment of the suffering and loss endured by the Roma community, and no recognition of the role European nations played in the persecution and extermination of Roma before, during, and even after the Nazi era. This lack of recognition has contributed to discrimination, racism, and violence remaining part of Roma daily life across Europe, including here in Serbia.
From Miško Stanišić’s speech
Enhancing Awareness of the Roma Genocide and Supporting the Preservation of Topovske Šupe – an Endangered Site of Memory
This youth initiative greatly helps preserve the memory of the Roma genocide, supports Roma organizations, and promotes regional cooperation between Roma and non-Roma youth.
Topovske Šupe, a German Nazi camp where 5,000 Jewish and 1,500 Roma men were imprisoned and later killed in 1941, is still endangered, in ruins, inaccessible, unmarked, and largely unknown to the wider public, which further emphasizes the importance of this commemoration.
On the night between 2. August 2 and 3, 1944, in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, the Nazis killed the last group of over 2,500 Roma. In total, more than 23,000 Roma were killed in that camp, while it is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 Roma perished in Europe during World War II. Many Roma communities refer to this genocide as Samudaripen.
The idea of commemorating August 2nd as International Remembrance Day developed gradually, through the work of Roma organizations, international bodies, and national institutions, with a key moment being the European Parliament Resolution of April 2015 which calls on EU member states to recognize this day.
In Serbia, this day is still commemorated exclusively through civil society initiatives, especially Roma organizations.
IHRA Recommendations for Education about the Genocide of the Roma
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) adopted in 2024 Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Genocide of Roma during the Nazi Era. A number of IHRA member countries have already begun the implementation process by translating the Recommendations into their national languages and organizing seminars and training for relevant stakeholders, decision-makers, museum professionals, teachers, and other educators.
To date, we have no information that the institutions responsible for education and memory culture in the Republic of Serbia have taken any concrete steps to translate, promote, and implement these IHRA Recommendations.
To develop critical thinking, we must explore the darkest corners of our past and ask ourselves: how was it possible for Serbian gendarmes to arrest Roma and hand them over to the Germans for execution? How did it happen that this Serbian gendarme made such a choice in life? By doing this, we ask ourselves: what would I have done? And even more importantly: what am I doing today?
From Miško Stanišić’s speech
Miško Stanišić’s Speech at the August 2nd Commemoration at Topovske Šupe
Dear citizens, esteemed guests, dear friends,
Today, we have gathered to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the genocide committed against Roma across the European continent during Nazism and World War II, a crime that many Roma call Samudaripen. This is a crime that the German Nazis initiated as soon as they came to power in 1933, creating a state system based on Nazi racist ideology. But the crimes were not committed by Germans alone. They were joined by fascists and extreme nationalists, looters and collaborators, who in various European countries themselves initiated the arrests, expulsions, and killings of Roma.
Serbia suffered immense civilian casualties and made a huge contribution to the fight against Nazism through the national liberation movement, in which Roma also participated. But even here, some collaborated with the occupiers and directly participated in identifying, arresting, guarding, and killing Roma. We must speak about this clearly and loudly.
Today we gather at a place of suffering, sorrow, and warning – in the shadow of neglected, unmarked remains of Topovske Šupe, a site where, in late summer and autumn of 1941, there was a German camp exclusively for Jewish and Roma men. The state of our culture of remembrance regarding the suffering of minority communities is best shown by this very place. The authentic camp buildings have miraculously survived over time. They are completely neglected, in a semi-ruined condition, overgrown with thick weeds and forgotten. And if it were not for civil society and the efforts of these same minority communities, this space wouldn’t even be recognized as much as it is today – with a plaque on a wall unrelated to the camp or a sign in the nearby meadow – but not within the camp itself. This day is not only a reminder of the crime that occurred here nearly 85 years ago but also a mirror held up to our entire society to highlight injustice, neglect, and the responsibility we all share – as individuals, as a society, and especially as members of the majority nation.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is an intergovernmental organization with 35 member countries, including the Republic of Serbia. IHRA is the leading international authority on setting guidelines and high standards for Holocaust and Roma genocide remembrance culture. As a delegate of Serbia, I am a member of the IHRA Working Group on Education and the Committee on the Roma Genocide. I want to inform you that in December 2024, IHRA adopted the Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of Roma during the Nazi Era. These are the first documents of their kind, supported by international partner institutions. The recommendations resulted from three years of work by experts worldwide, who, in collaboration with Roma organizations and experts—including authentic perspectives of Roma women and men from Argentina, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Croatia, Romania, and Serbia—developed these guidelines. They urge educational institutions, museums, archives, teachers, and decision-makers to systematically, seriously, and respectfully incorporate knowledge about Samudaripen into educational and cultural policies. This should be part of education about the past, a foundation for building European values, and a fulfillment of our civilizational responsibility.
We expect the Republic of Serbia to translate the IHRA Recommendations into Serbian and to adequately implement them in practice, both in education, in museums, and in commemorative practice.
Samudaripen may have started with the Nazis’ rise to power, but antigypsyism had existed in Europe for centuries before that. Although Samudaripen reached its most extreme form with the mass destruction of the Roma population in 1945, afterward, there was no acknowledgment of this crime, no recognition of the suffering and loss faced by the Roma community, and no acknowledgment of the guilt that all European nations share towards the Roma community. This lack of recognition has contributed to discrimination, racism, and violence remaining a part of everyday life for Roma across Europe, including here in Serbia.
The Roma genocide has its own unique features and characteristics. It should not be mentioned only in passing or in parentheses, only when listing groups of victims who suffered during war crimes. Samudaripen must have its special place because this crime has traits that we need to understand if we want it never to happen again. When a German Wehrmacht soldier in 1941 shot at a group of civilians in Serbia—a Jew, a Roma, and a Serb—he killed them for three different motives. This doesn’t imply a hierarchy of victims—every victim is a victim, and every human life has value—but it shows us that the criminal ideology, fueled by antisemitism and antigypsyism, targeted different groups in different ways, and therefore identified and destroyed them accordingly. Different mechanisms of hatred drive these crimes. That is why it is so crucial to investigate and understand them—mainly so that we ourselves do not become perpetrators.
The culture of remembrance has two main goals: first, to honor victims with respect and reverence as individuals, each with their own unique story – and not as anonymous, faceless statistics and stereotypes.
The second goal is to develop critical thinking. To do this, we must examine the darkest corners of our past and ask ourselves: how was it possible for Serbian gendarmes to arrest Roma and hand them over to the Germans for execution? How did it happen that this Serbian gendarme made such a choice in life? By doing so, we ask ourselves: what would I have done? And even more importantly: what am I doing today?
Therefore, on this day, August 2nd, the day when the last group of Roma was killed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, we must loudly affirm that we are committed to building a culture of remembrance that is inclusive, meaningful, and courageous enough to confront uncomfortable truths.
In this culture of remembrance, young Roma women and men must take an active role—not just as participants, but as creators of narratives, those who craft the content and language of remembrance, and who serve as the guardians and interpreters of their stories. This will create a truly inclusive culture of remembrance with a secure future.
Thank you.
