“The whole truth, the fear and the misery, and what they have really done to us, I cannot tell you.” (Ceija Stojka, Am I dreaming that I live? Freed from Bergen-Belsen)

On the eve of the 2 August 1944, the Nazis abolished the “Zigeunerlager” (“Gypsy camp”) in Auschwitz-Birkenau and in one single night killed several thousand Sinti and Roma in gas chambers. In memory of this tragic event is the 2nd of August  in individual countries marked as the International Genocide of the Roma Remembrance Day.

At this year International Porrajmos Remembrance Day we are kindly inviting you to attend the memorial event The Night That Silenced the Violins. The event will be held on Friday, 31 July 2015, at 11 a. m. on Židovski Square (between the synagogue and Židovski Tower). We will honour the victims of Porrajmos with the cultural programme performed by the Romani society “Ređina” from Dolga vas near Lendava and with the presentation of Austrian-Romani writer Ceija Stojka. The excerpts from her literary work will be interpreted by Sandi Horvat, while the event will be moderated by Jasmina Ahmetaj.

The event will be officially opened by Alja Klopčič, deputy head of the 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.

The event is organized as part of the Stone Tears project, which is financially supported by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and Maribor Municipality. The partners of the event are “Frekvenca”, socio-cultural association of active and restless, and the Terne Roma – Young Roma Society.