Ladies and gentlemen,
President Juncker marked today's Holocaust Commemoration Day with a resounding 'Never again!'
He reminded us that this was the solemn promise of our founding fathers when they rebuilt this continent on the debris of WWII and the ashes of the Holocaust.
In her memoirs, Janina Bauman, a Jewish Holocaust survivor recalls an interesting story.
She was once asked whether she encountered any Roma in the Warsaw ghetto.
The question came as a surprise. To her knowledge there were no Roma in the Warsaw ghetto.
To her astonishment, she later discovered that in fact there the number was actually close to 5000.
That is when she decided to dedicate herself to learning about the fate of Roma people during the Second World War and bringing it a wider public.
Roma people have for long been the unknown victims of the Holocaust.
I am therefore particularly pleased that we dedicate this year's Holocaust Remembrance to Roma victims.
Under the Nazi regime, Roma people were subjected to arbitrary detention, forced labour, and mass murder.
Thousands of Roma perished in different concentration camps.
Roma people were also the target of systematic persecution in all occupied countries.
We know it happened in the Baltic States, France, Serbia, Croatia, Romania.
While the precise number of victims is still unknown, historians estimate that Nazis killed around 25 percent of the around one million European Roma.
The numbers are telling on the magnitude of this tragedy.
What statistics do not tell us, is the individual tragedies of people who were deprived of human dignity and their right to live.
One of the survivors of those dark times is with us here today.
Mr Nicolae CALDARAR, I would like to express my gratitude and my deep appreciation for being here today.
Your presence Mr CALDARAR is a reminder of the lessons from our not-so-distant history.
And there are many things we must remember.
We must remember that our democratic societies need to be developed and protected.
We must remember that democracy is not a given; it is the result of hard work protecting the norms and values – the values that are the foundations of our European project.
We must remember, that healthy, functioning democracies are an absolute prerequisite to avoid anything like this happening again.
Not only against Roma victims. Against all the victims of the Holocaust: Roma, Jews, homosexuals, disabled people, and so many other innocents.
I am speaking to you today also as the Commissioner responsible for citizenship, and more specifically, in charge of the Europe for Citizens programme.
It is this programme that supports today's commemoration exhibition.
Hundreds of similar projects have been supported by the Programme to date.
It is a fitting tribute, presented here, at the very heart of the European Union – to the memory of these innocent victims.
These victims, as well as all the millions that died needlessly in the Holocaust.
Thank you for your attention.
