Department of Global Communications to Open Online Exhibition Honouring Roma, Sinti, Forgotten Victims of Nazi Genocide, 6 August

The United Nations Department of Global Communications will open the online exhibition “Forgotten Victims:  The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and the Sinti” on Thursday, 6 August, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. EST via Microsoft Live Events.

By the end of the Second World War, the Nazis and their collaborators had murdered as many as 500,000 Roma.  Through the stories of the victims and survivors of the Nazi campaign against the Roma, the exhibition traces the history of persecution and mass murder at the hands of the Nazis, and the struggle after the war for recognition of the atrocities committed against the Roma.

Speakers at the opening include the Charge d’Affaires of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, Jonathan Allen; the senior curator of the Wiener Holocaust Library, Barbara Warnock; and Sinti survivor Rita Prigmore.  Rita’s mother defied the Nazi forced sterilization order, and had twin daughters, Rita and Rolanda.  As infants, both daughters were subjected to medical experiments conducted by Nazi medical officers.  Only Rita survived.  Director of the Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications Maher Nasser will moderate the event.

The exhibition, curated by the Wiener Holocaust Library, forms part of the year-long programme of educational outreach organized by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, Department of Global Communications, was established by General Assembly resolution 60/7 in 2005.  Its multifaceted programme encompasses online and print educational resources, seminars, exhibitions, a film series and the annual worldwide observance of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, held on 27 January.  The Programme provides guidance on this observance to the global network of United Nations information centres.

Contact:  Tracey Petersen, the Holocaust and United Nations Outreach Programme, at email:  petersen3@un.org; tel.: +1 646 508 8729/+44 7914945643.

Registration for the live event:  bit.ly/30O8TSC.

For media accreditation, please contact the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit at:  www.un.org/en/media/accreditation.