ÖVP Mandl on Holocaust Remembrance Day for Sinti and Roma: “Responsibility for Good Synergy”

“Remembrance of the victims is a civilized duty, and minorities make societies diverse and rich.”

Brussels (OTS / ÖVP-PK) – “Almost half a million Sinti and Gypsies were killed by the criminals of the National Socialist regime – on the night from August 2 to August 3, 1944 alone, 2,897 were counted in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Today’s Remembrance Day commemorates the children, women and men of the Roma and Sinti community who were murdered. at the hands of the National Socialist criminal state. The memorial of the victims of the Holocaust is a civilized obligation and an important prerequisite for taking responsibility for a good, peaceful and fruitful coexistence”, says Lucas Mandel, Spokesperson for Foreign and Security Policy in the European Parliament, on the occasion of the European Day of Holocaust Remembrance for Sinti and Roma.

About 50 million people in Europe belong to linguistic and cultural minorities. “Burgenland Croats, Carinthia’s Slovenes” and Styria, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak minorities as well as Roma and Sinti make the local language and cultural scene as rich as they are, says Mandel, referring to the Austrian variety. We also have a special Austrian responsibility for the people of South Tyrol.”

At the end of last year, Mandel took part in the European Citizens Initiative for the Protection of Minorities in Europe, which is supposed to promote minority rights: “One of my suggestions was to designate August 2 as the official day of commemoration of Sinti and Roma in Austria, as it is at the European level.”

(Conclusion)