Dorset Council will be flying the Roma Flag at County Hall tomorrow (Friday, 2 August) in commemoration of the deaths of all the Roma and Sinti murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War.

On the night of 2-3 August 1944, the camp where Roma and Sinti people were held at Auschwitz-Birkenau was liquidated. Thousands of men, women and children of Roma or Sinti origin were murdered in the gas chambers by Nazi officers. Their bodies were burned in pits. Of the 23,000 Roma and Sinti people imprisoned within the camp, it is estimated that over 20,000 were ultimately murdered.

Across the world, August 2nd marks Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. A memorial Service, organised by local Gypsy & Traveller led organisation Kushti Bok, will be taking place in Sherborne Abbey on 2 August at 12pm, to reflect on the horrors of history and the prejudice and discrimination Gypsies and Travellers still face today.   

Roma people were massacred by the thousand.

The service will be opened by the Lord Lieutenant Angus Campbell CVO, and all are welcome to attend.

The service will also include readings and poems from Romany Gypsies, and a short presentation from Lynda Ford-Horne chair of Bournemouth and Poole Holocaust Committee.

Cllr Stella Jones, Chair of Dorset Council, said: "The genocide of the Romani communities (Porajmos) has long been described as "the forgotten Holocaust," and their struggle for recognition continues to this day.  

"It is important that their suffering is acknowledged, and their story is told, not as an afterthought, but as a vital part of European history."

 The Roma Gypsy Flag will be flown in remembrance above County Hall for seven days from 2-9 August 2024.