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During this year’s Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month, historian Rainer Schulze reminds us of the systematic persecution the Roma and Sinti suffered during the period of Nazi rule in Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe.

This blog has been written by John Wood, the son of a soldier who was among the troops who entered Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945, to mark the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation.

Dorit Oliver-Wolff BEM was just five years old when war came to her home country of Yugoslavia. She spent the following years moving from one hiding place to another, and narrowly escaped imprisonment on a number of occasions. After recovering from her experiences during the Holocaust she moved to Germany and became a star.

Kemal Pervanić and his family were Muslims living in Kevljani, Bosnia. In 1992 Bosnian Serb forces imprisoned Kemal and his brother in the notorious Omarska concentration camp. As part of our 2011 Hidden Histories project Kemal showed us a photograph of his family which survived the Bosnian war.

Susan grew up in Hungary, and experienced antisemitism (anti-Jewish hatred) from a young age. In 1944 Susan was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was separated from her family. After the war, she found out that more than 50 of her relatives had been killed and that only her brother had survived.

Iolo Lewis was part of the British 11th Armoured Division, which liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. Iolo wrote a poem based on his experience called 'Belsen Silence'.

Tomi Komoly, born in Budapest in 1936, survived the Holocaust in hiding with his Mother. Post-war, he struggled under Communist rule, leading Tomi to escape to Austria in 1956. He completed his education, reunited with his mother, and was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2020 for his contributions to Holocaust education.

During the Holocaust many Albanian Muslims chose to rescue and protect Jewish people. One of those was shop owner Ali Sheqer Pashkaj.

Take a look at the main civic events in the UK’s devolved nations for HMD 2013.

The Srebrenica memorial centre was created in October 2000, barely five years after the genocide that took place there. The cemetery, which now holds over 5,000 of the 8,000 victims, has since been joined by a memorial room and exhibition. In spite of local controversy, it has encouraged many survivors to return to the town, and draws in visitors and dignitaries from across the world to hear its message.