Budrys says Roma genocide remains in Lithuania’s memory and conscience

Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said the genocide of Roma and the community that suffered it have not been forgotten in Lithuania or Europe, LRT reported.

Speaking at a Roma Genocide Remembrance Day ceremony at the Paneriai Memorial in Vilnius, Budrys said he hoped participants would leave with the understanding that the genocide belongs not only to Lithuania’s memory but also to its conscience.

He said remembering and commemorating the genocide was not only a sign of respect for the victims. Restoring historical justice also helps ensure that such crimes are not repeated, he added.

More than 500 Roma were killed in Lithuania during World War II, or about one in three members of the community at the time.

The commemoration began with a symbolic Memory Road procession. Members of the Roma community and other guests walked from the Paneriai railway station to the memorial, where the official ceremony was held.

The event marked the destruction of the Roma camp at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on August 2, 1944. An estimated 3,000 Roma were killed in gas chambers at the camp.

In 2015, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognising the genocide of Roma during World War II and calling on all countries to commemorate August 2 as Roma Genocide Day. Lithuania’s parliament added the date to its list of remembrance days in 2019.