ABOUT US
A message from FORSHV president Helena Šafářová
I was born just a few years after the war to two Roma Holocaust survivors. My family was a mix of Roma groups and Sinti. In Slovakia, some of my mother's relatives were killed while the rest survived. In the Czech Republic, home to the rest of my family, an estimated 90 percent of the prewar Romani population was murdered. There were over 400 Auschwitz victims with my father's Roma surname alone -- and thousands more from our region. I grew up in the shadow of this unspeakable trauma, with a constant underlying fear of how non-Roma may react to me and the small remnants of my family. The fear has not left me.
You can imagine how painful it is for me and other relatives of victims to attend Holocaust remembrance events as well as exhibits that misrepresent, trivialize or completely erase the legacy of Roma and Sinti Holocaust history. That is why I am honored to work with a team of Roma and Sinti educators, family representatives, allies from other historically oppressed communities, and academics, all working to advocate for dignity in genocide commemoration.
We are deeply grateful for the work of older organizations and projects that have documented Roma and Sinti in the Holocaust, including but not limited to www.romasinti.eu, www.romasintigenocide.eu, RomArchive’s Voices of the Victims section, Romanipe, the Sinti Roma Holocaust Memorial Trust, Voice of Roma, the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust, and especially the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. A number of non-Romani scholars and organizations have also come forward as leaders in equitable representation. Together, we can make Holocaust education truly count. Thank you for your support.