On August 2nd, Europe marked Genocide of the Roma Memorial Day, remembering the hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti people murdered during the Nazi era. Yet, the persistent question remains: what happens on August 3rd and every day thereafter? Victims of persecution risk being lost twice: first by death, then by historical erasure.
For decades, a haunting image of Nazi persecution, known simply as the “girl with the headscarf,” was widely assumed to depict a Jewish child. She was filmed looking through the closing doors of a train departing the Westerbork transit camp. Only years later did historical research restore her true identity. Her name was Settela Steinbach. She was Sinti.
Settela was nine when she and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944, 82 years ago. She was most likely murdered there with her mother, two brothers, and two sisters on the night of August 2 to 3, 1944, also 82 years ago. Only the photograph survived. Her name, her identity, and the history of her people almost vanished from the story attached to that image.
The Bureaucracy of Erasure
Roma and Sinti people faced racist laws, imprisonment, forced labour, deportation, mass shootings, and murder across Europe. Despite this, their genocide remains one of the least recognised chapters of Nazi persecution. This neglect did not end in 1945. For decades, Roma and Sinti victims were denied recognition from national histories, and many survivors received neither justice nor proper acknowledgement. The prejudices that enabled persecution did not disappear with the war's end.
Nazi crimes did not begin with mass murder. They started with stereotypes, exclusion, paperwork, racial classification, and the steady removal of rights. These were the bureaucratic preliminaries to barbarism. Teaching this history reveals how prejudice emerges as administrative and legal, eventually becoming lethal. It must also show Roma and Sinti people as more than anonymous victims. They had families, professions, communities, and ambitions. They resisted persecution and rebuilt lives afterwards. Settela was not merely a frightened child caught on film; she was a daughter and sister, whose father was a trader and violinist.
Some progress has been made. Memorials have been established, and research has deepened. Survivors, descendants, scholars, and organisations have painstakingly recovered names and histories. However, recognition remains patchy. In too many classrooms and museums, the genocide is still presented as an optional appendix to the history of the Nazi era, rather than an integral part of it.
A Double Standard of Remembrance
As opportunities to hear directly from living survivors and witnesses diminish, responsibility increasingly falls to institutions. Because recognition came so late, many Roma and Sinti voices were never recorded, making the testimonies that remain all the more precious. Archives must be opened, sites connected to the genocide safeguarded, photographs correctly identified, and Roma and Sinti perspectives placed at the centre of education and commemoration. This mirrors the ongoing struggle for migrant voices to be heard and centred in contemporary Europe, rather than silenced or criminalised.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of the Roma during the Nazi Era” were developed to translate this obligation into practical action. Designed for governments, policymakers, teachers, museums, memorial sites, archives, and civil-society educators, they provide a framework for why this history should be taught, what students should learn, and how it can be approached responsibly. The Recommendations help countries integrate this history into mainstream education and memory culture, safeguard the historical record, counter distortion, and ensure teaching includes Roma voices, resistance, and crucially, agency. They also offer guidance on curricula, educational resources, and teacher training, while recognising national and local experiences and involving Roma communities themselves.
Challenging the Narrative
Europe’s commitment to remembrance cannot be measured only by ceremonies held on August 2nd, however moving or well attended. It must be measured by what happens in classrooms, archives, museums, and public institutions throughout the year. The test is whether future students will still encounter silence where this history should be taught, and whether people like Settela remain merely an anonymous face in an old film, or are remembered as people with names, families, and a history. Europe cannot return those who were murdered. It can at least refuse to lose them twice. This refusal is a critical step towards dismantling the racist logic that underpins Fortress Europe's current border regime, which continues to criminalise and erase the identities of those seeking safety and opportunity today.
Michaela Küchler, Secretary General of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, authored the piece. She has held various positions, including Press Attaché in Santiago de Chile and Consul General in Chennai. She also served as a negotiator for European Union enlargement and as a European policy adviser to multiple Federal Chancellors and Presidents. As Chair of the IHRA German presidency in 2020, 6 years ago, she spearheaded initiatives to counter distortion of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma. The opinions expressed in the article are hers and do not represent the editorial position of Euronews.