As every year since 2012, the European Commission will commemorate the International Holocaust Day on 27 January 2016 in its Berlaymont headquarters.

A tradition of commemorating the International Holocaust Day

In 2012, the first edition of this event was based on an exhibition of posters designed by young artists in the framework of an international competition launched by the International Task Force on Holocaust Remembrance, Education and Research.

In 2013, the same event was organised around the exhibition on the fate of children in Theresienstadt "Room 28".

The 2014 commemoration was conceived with the Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif (CCLJ) and focused on the fate of Jewish children and young people in Belgium during the Nazi occupation.

In 2015, the event was organised in cooperation with Paris-based Mémorial de la Shoah, one of the beneficiaries of an operating grant under the 'Europe for Citizens' programme. The exhibition introduced comprehensive history of Holocaust and the accompanying event highlighted testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

This 5th edition will be dedicated to "Roma Memory"

For 2016, we plan to hold an exhibition "Roma Memory" focusing on the history of Roma persecution and extermination during WWII and the persistent discrimination against the Roma today. This exhibition, which will enable visitors to become familiar with the testimonies of Roma survivors on their lives before the war and the persecution which followed after the break of the war, is produced by Paris based Yahad – In Unum. Founded in 2004 by Father Patrick Desbois, this organization is dedicated to systematically identifying and documenting the sites of mass executions of Jews and Roma by Nazi mobile-killing units in Eastern Europe during World War II.

The opening ceremony of this exhibition will take place on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Berlaymont Building, European Commission on Wednesday  27 January 2016 from 14.00.

Agenda

14:00    Opening remarks by Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality

14:15    Statement by Father Desbois, Founder and President of Yahad - In Unum

Musical interlude by Esma Redzepova

14:30    Brief address by Costel Nastasie, Head of Yahad - In Unum research on the Genocide of the Roma

14:40    Testimony of a Roma Holocaust survivor

Musical interlude by Esma Redzepova

15:15    Closing remarks by Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship

Musical finale by Esma Redzepova