Search

International Roma Day is an opportunity for us all to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Roma people.

The Roma people are one of the oldest and most persecuted groups of people in Europe. Those called ‘gypsies’ by their neighbours were originally from groups, including the Roma, and also the Sinti, Lalleri and others, who preferred a travelling or nomadic lifestyle. For centuries, most countries had tried to send them away, refusing them permission to travel within their lands.

Commemorating the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, the millions of other people targeted and murdered by the Nazis, and the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur has a powerful impact on those who organise and those who attend events.

We promote and support Holocaust Memorial Day - the international day on 27 January - which marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

Holocaust Memorial Day is a national day that takes place on 27 January. We commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust, and the millions more murdered under Nazi persecution. Prejudice still continues today within our communities and across the UK. We also learn and commemorate where persecution led in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is the charity established by the government to promote and support Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) in the UK. We help protect the legacy of the Holocaust against denial and distortion, and shape a future built on empathy, understanding and respect. We bring the nation together to remember persecutions of the past and stand against hatred and prejudice in the present.