The Night that Silenced the Violins: In memory of the Nazi pogrom against the Roma

The Nazis killed more than 3,000 Sinti and Roma in the so-called "gypsy night"

On the night of the 2nd of August, 1944, the Nazis abolished the so-called Zigeunerlager (Gypsy camp) – a part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – and in just one night killed more than 3,000 Sinti and Roma in gas chambers. Foto: Mariborska sinagoga

"Serious research into the Roma genocide has been presented to the Slovenian public only recently. In the way we not only raise awareness about those historic events, but also help break deeply rooted centuries-long stereotypes against the Roma population," says Marjetka Bedrač, a representative of the Maribor Synagogue.

In order to observe the international Roma Genocide Remembrance Day, which is otherwise observed on the 2nd of August, the former synagogue in Maribor will hold the traditional The Night that Silenced the Violins event. In memory of the victims of the Porrajmos – the Nazi genocide of the Roma population – they will also screen the documentary film A ti, Bože, preživi! by Serbian-Roma director Ljuan Koka (1960).

Exact number of killed Roma not known
On the night of the 2nd of August, 1944, the Nazis abolished the so-called Zigeunerlager (Gypsy camp) – a part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – and in just one night killed more than 3,000 Sinti and Roma in gas chambers.

According to some estimates the Nazis killed around half a million Roma people between 1939 and 1945. According to some other estimates the figure stands at around one million and a half. Unlike the Holocaust, a more precise figure on the number of Porrajmos victims is not known.

P. G.; translated by K. J.