On the evening of 2 August 1944 the Nazis liquidated the »Zigeunerlager« (»Gypsy camp«) in Auschwitz-Birkenau. In one night many thousands Sinti and Roma were brutally murdered in gas chambers. Women, children and men with a camp number, prefaced with the letter Z for »Zigeuner«, tattooed on their forearm shared the fate of numerous »Gypsies« during World War II.

At the 70th anniversary of the tragic event we are kindly inviting you to attend the memorial event, dedicated to Porrajmos victims. On Friday, 1 August 2014, at 11 a.m., we will honour the victims on the Jewish Square in Maribor with the poem Tears of Blood by Bronisława Wajs – Papusza interpreted by the Roma author Jasmina Ahmetaj and the lecture From Persecution to Genocide: The role and Importance of Porrajmos in History by Dr. Andrej Pančur.

The event will be officially opened by Alenka Markov, Minister Plenipotentiary, Human Rights Department of the Directorate for Global Issues and Multilateral Political Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.

In case of bad weather the event will be held in Maribor Synagogue at Židovska ulica 4.

Organizer: Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor

Partners: Frekvenca, socio-cultural association of active and restless, and the association Terne Roma – Young Roma

The event is organized as part of Stone Tears, a project financially supported by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) from 2014 until 2016.