50 Roma and non-Roma activists, youth and community leaders from all around Hungary came together in Krakow to develop a network against antigypsyism and to commemorate the Roma Holocaust on August 2 in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The 3-days meeting between July 31 and August 2. 2023 allowed 50 participants to get to know activists and NGOs, mainly from the grassroots level and besides networking, to raise the awareness of the importance of commemorating the Roma Holocaust and for the importance of challenging current antigypsyism.
After arriving to Krakow, participants spent the evening with getting to know each other, their organizations or field of work, activism. The second day morning was started with group discussions and developing our knowledge of the history of the oppression of Roma people in Europe through the methodology from Compass, called Dosta. After the interactive discussions about tools on combatting racism and discrimination after 79 years of the Holocaust, participants had a visit to the Kazimierz Jewish Quarter and Former Ghetto in Krakow. In the afternoon participants had a guided tour at the Auschwitz-Museum.
The next day, on the 2nd of August, participants had a guided tour in the Auschwitz-Birkenau former concentration camp, where colleagues of Phiren Amenca shared their methodologies and tools working with young people on remembrance education then we joined the central commemoration to pay tribute in front of the Roma victims of the Holocaust. The afternoon was spent together with the group of the Dikh he na bister initiative, with almost 400 representatives from 50 Roma and non-Roma organizations at the Oswiecim youth meeting center, where we could expand our knowledge with international experience.
