"Kali Trash" or "Paraimos". Why the victims of the Roma genocide are commemorated on August 2

Kali Tras or Porajmos - is what activists today call the Romani genocide during the Second World War. During that time, the Nazi regime initiated the systematic extermination of Romani and Jews in the countries that came under occupation. It is known that during the war, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Romani were deported from occupied countries and killed in concentration camps. People were also exterminated in forced labor camps, nomadic settlements, and punitive operations. In the territories of Ukraine, at least 20,000 Romani perished due to the actions of the occupying regimes.

The memory of the Romani genocide victims is commemorated annually on August 2nd. This date is associated with the events of 1944 when, in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the Nazis killed approximately four thousand innocent Romani prisoners. It was a time when Adolf Hitler's National Socialist regime was implementing an ideology aimed at the physical extermination of ethnic groups they considered a threat.

Deportations to "camps for Romani people" began in the early years of Nazi rule, specifically in 1935. However, from 1940 onwards, this tragedy escalated significantly, with mass deportations of the Romani population to concentration camps, primarily located in occupied Poland.

During the 1940s, the Romani population in Ukraine had diverse ways of life, including a nomadic lifestyle and settling in certain areas. However, with the arrival of the Nazis, they faced persecution regardless of their level of socialization. The criminal actions of the Nazis included over 140 cases of mass killings of Romani people in the occupied territory of Ukraine.

Every year on August 2nd, Romani people lay flowers at the memorials dedicated to the victims of the tragedy.

In Chernihiv region, near the Podusivskyi Forest, the occupiers carried out mass shootings of the Romani population for three consecutive days. Under the pretext of deportation to Serbia, entire families were transported to their deaths. During this time, they managed to annihilate approximately 2,500 people of different ages, including the elderly, young adults, and children.

During the years 1941-1943, Babyn Yar witnessed approximately 100,000 executions of innocent people, including civilian Romani and Jews. In addition to that, Romani camps were destroyed in Berezniaky and Sviatoshyn. Today, in Babyn Yar, there is a monument known as the Romani kibitka, to which flowers are regularly brought in remembrance.

Almost every settlement in Ukraine experienced shootings of Romani people, with entire families or settlements being transported to these tragic events.

It's hard to believe, but even after the victory over Nazism and the end of World War II, Roma people continued to be accused. There was a belief that the Romani population was exterminated not due to racial policies but because of their "antisocial behavior." It was only in 1982 that Chancellor of West Germany Helmut Schmidt officially recognized the persecution of Roma as racism.