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Roma Holocaust Memorial Centre

What's on

Events

Commemorations, talks and exhibitions.

Fixed dates each year

  • 2 AugustRoma Holocaust Memorial Day
  • 27 JanuaryHolocaust Memorial Day
  • 8 AprilInternational Roma Day
  • 16 MayRomani Resistance Day

Upcoming

  • 27

    Jan 2027

    27 January — Holocaust Memorial Day

    A short public commemoration with readings, a minute's silence and the laying of flowers, held on the United Kingdom's national day of remembrance.

    • 27 January is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. Of the prisoners the Red Army found alive there, one was Roma.
    • The commemoration lasts around forty minutes and takes place in the open air. Please dress for the weather. Anyone is welcome and there is no need to book unless you are bringing a group.
    • The start time is confirmed a few weeks beforehand and published here. If you would like to be told, ask us and we will write to you.
    Where
    Monument to the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust
    Cost
    Free
    Booking
    Not needed

  • 8

    Apr 2027

    8 April — International Roma Day

    Not a day of mourning. A gathering to mark the anniversary of the first World Romani Congress, at which Roma delegates adopted the flag, the anthem and the name they had chosen for themselves.

    • The first World Romani Congress met near London on 8 April 1971. It agreed the term Rom in place of the names other people had used, adopted the blue and green flag with the red chakra, and took Gelem, Gelem — a song that laments the Roma murdered during the war — as the anthem.
    • A memorial centre that only ever marks deaths teaches half a history. This day is for the other half.
    • The start time is confirmed a few weeks beforehand and published here. If you would like to be told, ask us and we will write to you.
    Where
    Monument to the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust
    Cost
    Free
    Booking
    Not needed

  • 16

    May 2027

    16 May — Romani Resistance Day

    Marking the day in 1944 when the Roma and Sinti of the Auschwitz family camp refused to leave their barracks, and the SS withdrew.

    • On 16 May 1944 the SS surrounded section BIIe intending to kill everyone still held there. The prisoners learned what was coming, armed themselves with stones and tools, barricaded themselves inside the barracks and did not come out. The SS withdrew and the operation was called off.
    • It bought them eleven weeks. It is also the answer to the question schools ask most often, which is whether anybody resisted.
    • The start time is confirmed a few weeks beforehand and published here. If you would like to be told, ask us and we will write to you.
    Where
    Monument to the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust
    Cost
    Free
    Booking
    Not needed

  • 2

    Aug 2027

    2 August — Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

    The Centre's principal commemoration, marking the murder of the remaining Roma and Sinti in the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau on the night of 2 August 1944.

    • The European Parliament formally recognised 2 August as a day of remembrance for the Roma Holocaust in its resolution of 15 April 2015.
    • Candles are provided. Families are welcome to bring photographs and names to read aloud. The commemoration is led by members of the Roma and Sinti community in the North East.
    • The start time is confirmed a few weeks beforehand and published here. If you would like to be told, ask us and we will write to you.
    Where
    Monument to the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust
    Cost
    Free
    Booking
    Not needed

Past events

  • Sunday, August 2, 2026

    2 August — Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

    The Centre's principal commemoration, held at the monument on the anniversary of the destruction of the Roma family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Invite us

Libraries, unions, faith groups, festivals

We give talks. A forty-minute account of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust and what followed it, delivered by someone whose family it happened to, is usually a more useful hour than a panel about remembrance in the abstract. There is no fee for community organisations; we ask larger institutions to cover travel.

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