The most commonly used term "Holocaust" is a word that comes from the ancient Greek word "olokauston" meaning "completely burned".

Trying to put into words the civilizational collapse wrought by the political turmoil and appetites of the time will forever remain a challenge.

This is also reflected in the official name "Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism", introduced in 1996 by then German President Roman Herzog and then by the UN in 2005.

When it comes to the HOLOCAUST, we always think of a certain gruesome and dark period of the Second World War, we think of the Nazis, we think of Hitler's orders, the mass extermination of the Roma, the Jews, the extermination of LGBT people, the disabled and political dissidents. But it is very important not to forget the same and to create awareness and knowledge among our peers about the same.

We must remember the bad things, the senseless, ugly and dark things of the past, because if we do not recognize them in our societies, they can happen again, now and in the future. We must act in the present, learning from the past, to ensure a secure future for all of us as humanity!

In our opinion, as the International Roma Union - IRU, raising awareness among all of us requires active involvement in the fight against anti-Semitism, discrimination, intolerance and anti-Roma sentiment.

That struggle implies preparations and organization of various events, conferences, dialogues, etc. prepared in joint coordination and cooperation through European institutions, IRU, NGO sector, political subjects and other organizations.

In this way, we believe that we will preserve in memory the meaning of remembering the victims of the Holocaust, the history and culture of the Roma community in one of the darkest periods in the history of the Roma.

Finally, on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the IRU points out that at a time when the world is facing the war in Ukraine, we are reminded of another "war", caused by a different form, and that is anti-Semitism.

"Anti-Semitism denies the truth that we are all human beings with equal, inalienable and innate human dignity, that human life is priceless because it is unique and unrepeatable. Instead, anti-Semitism, racism, and Nazism divided people and nations into more and less valuable, thereby paving the way for their dehumanization and destruction. This "war" that caused persecutions and pogroms against Roma, Jews and other peoples over the centuries eventually culminated in the Holocaust.

Anti-Semitism continued to mutate as the negation of the Holocaust, and that it is the moral obligation of our generation to respect the dignity of every human being, to stand in solidarity with the vulnerable and disenfranchised, and to remember the Holocaust, so that it never happens again.

Let us not forget

Ma te bistra

With respect

Zoran Dimov

President of the IRU