The Samudaripen is the genocide of Roma people perpetrated by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Remembering it means recognising those who were murdered, listening to the people who have defended their memory and giving this history a place in education and public life.
In this guide
A history that cannot be reduced to one night
Persecution included imprisonment, deportation, forced labour and murder across different European territories. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum documents this process before and during the Second World War.
The name Samudaripen evokes a history of remembrance that cannot be summed up in a single image or number. To approach it, we suggest distinguishing documented events, personal testimonies and later forms of commemoration. Each helps us ask a different question: what happened, how was it experienced, and how do we remember it today?
Why is it remembered on 2 August?
The date commemorates the murder of the remaining prisoners in the Roma family camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau during the night of 2–3 August 1944. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum explains this event in its remembrance material.
2 August is European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. The Council of Europe documents European commemorations and the participation of Roma organisations and survivors.
The date can open a path to learning, but remembrance need not be confined to an annual ceremony. Schools, associations and cultural spaces can continue reading, checking sources and discussing the responsibility to preserve this history throughout the year.
Approaching this history in the classroom
- Begin with a specific question. For example: what do we commemorate on 2 August, and which source explains it? Establish places and dates before discussing interpretations.
- Choose a testimony or document with an identifiable origin. Explain who created it, in what context and what it can tell us. Do not present a photograph without its provenance.
- Adapt the material to the group’s age and needs. There is no need to use graphic images of violence or activities that ask pupils to act as victims or perpetrators.
- Allow room for questions, silence and emotion. Explain that a testimony concerns one particular experience, not every Roma life.
One possible activity is to compare a historical factsheet with a commemorative text: what does each contribute, and whose voice is present? This is a suggested reading activity, not an account of work already carried out by the association.
People and lives beyond persecution
We suggest reading testimonies without reducing people to the violence inflicted on them. Where the sources allow, explore their relationships, work, languages, creative lives and choices. Remembrance encompasses suffering, but also the dignity of each life and people’s capacity to act.
This perspective can connect with the present without treating every historical period as identical. The guide to addressing anti-Roma racism in the classroom considers current stereotypes and educational practices; the introduction to the Romani language offers another way to explore cultural diversity.
Remembrance in Rromanipe’s work
The Samudaripen education project is one of the association’s areas of work. Its page explains the approach and provides a way to ask for information, without implying that a particular session or programme is currently available.
You can also read the article published on 2 August 2024. It retains the context of the 80th anniversary: an archive article with a different purpose from this introductory guide. Keeping its original date helps readers understand what was reported then and avoids confusing a past commemoration with a current activity.
Sources and further reading
External references in English, consulted on 16 October 2026.