The Virtual Museum of the Roma Holocaust is the first of its kind in Romania

Romania’s first Virtual Museum of the Roma Holocaust will be launched at the National Museum of Romanian History on October 9, on the National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust.

This project was put together on the occasion of August 2 - the National Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was designated as such in Romania by Law 124, in 2020.

The designation followed the European Parliament’s initiative, which in 2015 decreed that this day be a day of commemorating the approximately 3,000 Roma that were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau on August 2, 1944, and the 500,000 Sinti and Roma that were murdered in Europe, in the Porajmos or Samudaripen, during the Nazi occupation.

On August 2, the National Museum of Romanian History announced its new project, in partnership with the Ion Cioabă Roma Social & Cultural Foundation and the National Cultural Fund Administration.

"The main objective of this project is to raise awareness of the historical past during the Holocaust, and we hope that this virtual museum will be an important source of information for the young Roma generation, as well as historians, researchers, students, and the general public," says the press release.

"Project activities include identification, selection, research, transcription, translation, and digitization of archival documents and images."

(Photo source: Aleksey Popov/Dreamstime.com)