02 August 2025

International Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

Every year on August 2, the victims of the Nazi genocide of the Roma people are commemorated. On this day in 1944, approximately 3,000 Roma were murdered in gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp solely because of their ethnicity.

During the Second World War, the Roma suffered massive losses. The extermination of the Roma population was part of the Nazi policy of genocide — during the Holocaust, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Roma were killed across Europe as a result of persecution.

In Crimea, several unique ethnic groups have historically formed, known by the Crimean Tatar term çingeneler, as well as by their self-designations krymitká romá and krymurâ. In the steppe regions of Crimea, they were also commonly referred to as dayfular or tayfalar. Additionally, names such as urmaçel, qrımı, and tataçe were used. Across the peninsula, there were entire neighborhoods and areas inhabited by Crimean Roma, most often located on the outskirts of major cities.

Crimean Roma led a sedentary or semi-sedentary lifestyle, engaging in various trades such as jewelry-making, music, small-scale commerce, and blacksmithing. The wealthier among them opened their own workshops both in their own neighborhoods and in Crimean Tatar quarters. According to the 2001 census, around 1,900 Roma lived in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, including Crimean Roma, making up 0.1% of the peninsula’s total population.