This day moves each of us to the depths of our soul.

The pain of realizing the scale of the tragedy our ancestors endured still wounds our hearts. It lives on in our family stories, in photographs of those who are no longer with us. That pain lingers in the places where tens of thousands of people stood alive for the last time. Today, we stand there to honor their memory.

On August 2 — International Roma Holocaust Memorial Day — the Voice of Romni team took part in memorial events held at Babyn Yar in Kyiv. This ravine is one of the most notorious sites of Nazi crimes against humanity in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of civilians were executed and buried. During World War II, over 20,000 Roma men, women, and children were murdered across Ukraine. In Europe, the number of victims is estimated between 300,000 and half a million. We commemorate them on August 2 — the day when, exactly 81 years ago, nearly 3,000 Roma were murdered in a single night in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

Today, we joined a mourning march to the memorial “Roma Wagon.” Together with the families of the victims, diplomats, government representatives, and civil society, we bowed our heads in sorrow — remembering those who were killed for being Roma.

After the ceremony, our team, led by Voice of Romni President Anzhelika Bielova, visited the exhibition “The Invisibles. Resilience: The Past and Present of Roma People.” Held at the Living Memory exhibition center, the display featured photos preserving memories of the past and stories that bear witness to the systemic persecution, oppression, and genocide our people faced for decades.

And we know that even today, Roma men and women in Ukraine stand side by side with others in defending our statehood and independence. Our community is an active participant in democratic processes. Together with others, we are building a tolerant and equitable European future for Ukraine.

That is why we are no longer afraid of who we are. The path the Roma community has walked is a tribute to those who perished — and to those who never hid their identity. We have preserved it. And we are proud of it.

For us, this is a day of mourning. But it is also a day to remind the world that the Roma community has always been a force for change — one that honors its nation’s historical memory and does everything possible to prevent the horrors of the past from ever happening again.

Photo by Dmytro Holovchenko