Preserving Romani and Jewish memories 79 years after the Holocaust

Politics is rife with references to the Holocaust, from claims that COVID-19 lockdowns were “like Nazi Germany” to debate over the Israel-Hamas war today. Yet actual memories of the Holocaust slip further away each day, with a dwindling number of survivors trying to preserve their stories.

Today, on the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, many young Americans cannot identify basic facts about Hitler’s genocide of European Jews. Even less understood is the Third Reich’s persecution of Romani people. Yet the histories of these two genocides are interwoven, sometimes in chillingly close ways, as Vanderbilt University historian Ari Joskowicz explains. Increasingly, he writes, Jewish and Romani activists are collaborating on efforts to support Holocaust education and counter prejudice – “linked by a sense that understanding history is essential for the defense of liberal democracy.”

The Conversation’s podcast recently relayed an especially intimate form of Holocaust remembrance. When Auschwitz prisoners got tattooed, it reduced their identities to numbers. Decades later, some of their descendants are choosing to have those codes inked on their own arms. It’s a bittersweet tribute to love and survival, and a vow not to let the world forget.

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