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Centrul Memorial al Holocaustului Romilor

The toll

How many were killed

Published estimates of the Roma and Sinti murdered in the Holocaust run from at least 250,000 to as many as 2,000,000. The spread is not doubt about the genocide. It is a measure of how the killing was done, and of how late anyone began to count.

The span of published estimates
At least 250,000, to as many as 2,000,000
Institutions compared
USHMM, IHRA, REGARD
Why no single figure
There is no surviving record naming all the Roma and Sinti murdered. Many were never individually registered; many were shot without any list being kept.

The Holocaust of Roma and Sinti was part of the systematic racial persecution, deportation and mass murder carried out by Nazi Germany, its allies and collaborators between 1933 and 1945.

Roma and Sinti were persecuted because of Nazi racial ideology. They were subjected to discriminatory legislation, forced sterilisation, imprisonment, forced labour, deportation, medical experimentation, mass shootings and murder in concentration camps, killing centres and occupied territories.

250,000 – 2,000,000

The span of published estimates of Roma and Sinti murdered — from the floor of the lowest to the ceiling of the highest

Section 1

Different historical estimates

Different Holocaust institutions and researchers currently use different estimates. Each figure below belongs to the body that publishes it, and none of them is the site's own.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Estimates that at least 250,000 Roma were murdered, while noting that some scholars estimate approximately 500,000 victims.
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Uses an estimate of approximately 250,000–500,000 Roma and Sinti murdered.
REGARD, a European Union-funded research project
Records scholarly estimates ranging from 500,000 to 2,000,000 Roma and Sinti victims.

These differences demonstrate the continuing importance of archival, demographic and historical research.

One qualification belongs with the highest figure. The 2,000,000 upper bound reaches this page through REGARD’s educational toolkit, which is itself reporting a range it found in scholarship rather than a total it established. It is a citation of a citation, and it is set out here as that.

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Section 2

What the historical research tells us

Specialist research into the Holocaust of Roma and Sinti has produced estimates ranging from approximately 500,000 to as many as 2,000,000 victims.

The European Union-funded REGARD — Remembering Genocide Against Roma Discrimination — project records scholarly estimates ranging from 500,000 to 2 million Roma and Sinti murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.

This wide range reflects the extraordinary difficulty of reconstructing the demographic destruction of Roma and Sinti communities across Europe.

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  • REGARD — Remembering Genocide Against Roma Discrimination, Educational Toolkit on Samudaripen, Roma Resistance, History and Culture (European Union-funded project)

Section 3

Why are the numbers so different?

There is no single surviving record containing the names of all Roma and Sinti murdered during the Holocaust.

Many victims were never individually registered. Large numbers were murdered in mass shootings and other killing operations without surviving death records.

Pre-war population statistics were often incomplete, while Nazi authorities and collaborators destroyed, concealed or failed to create documentation concerning many of their crimes.

For these reasons, the total number of Roma and Sinti victims cannot currently be established with absolute certainty.

The figure of up to 2,000,000 victims represents the upper end of estimates recorded in specialist research. It is therefore an important part of the historical discussion concerning the scale of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust, although it is not a universally accepted final figure.

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Section 4

Why the historical record is incomplete

Several factors contribute to the uncertainty surrounding the total number of victims:

  • Roma and Sinti populations were often inadequately recorded in pre-war censuses.
  • Many victims were murdered without individual registration.
  • Mass shootings frequently left no complete lists of those killed.
  • Nazi authorities and collaborators destroyed or concealed evidence.
  • Records from occupied territories were often incomplete or subsequently lost.
  • Systematic documentation of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust began much later than research into many other aspects of the Holocaust.

The absence of a single figure does not mean the genocide was uncertain.

The historical evidence clearly establishes that Roma and Sinti communities were subjected to systematic racial persecution, deportation and mass murder throughout Nazi-controlled Europe.

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Section 5

New archival evidence and continuing research

The historical record is not closed.

New archival discoveries, recently declassified documents and continuing demographic research may provide additional evidence concerning the persecution, deportation and murder of Roma and Sinti.

Such evidence should be carefully examined by historians, archivists, museums and researchers and incorporated into the continuing study of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust.

The search for the truth must continue.

Section 6

Remembering the victims

The history of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust is an integral part of European history and Holocaust remembrance.

Preserving the names, testimonies and histories of the victims is essential to ensuring that their experiences are neither forgotten nor marginalised.

Continued research and the preservation of archival evidence remain vital to establishing, as accurately as possible, the full scale of the destruction.

Remembering Roma and Sinti victims also has an important contemporary purpose: confronting racism, antigypsyism and Holocaust denial, while ensuring that the persecution and murder of Roma and Sinti are properly represented in education, memorialisation and public history.

This history must be remembered

  • This history must be remembered
  • The victims must be named
  • The evidence must be preserved

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Sources

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