GERMANY: Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak visits a Berlin memorial commemorating the half-million Sinti and Roma minorities persecuted during the Nazi regime

Record ID: 860109

  • Title: GERMANY: Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak visits a Berlin memorial commemorating the half-million Sinti and Roma minorities persecuted during the Nazi regime
  • Date: 17th January 2013
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF REICHSTAG
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: International Relations,History
  • Reuters ID: LVA3BMPV6X6QX81T5IFDW3NEWVZT
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  • Story Text: Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak paid homage on Thursday (January 17) to the Sinti and Roma minorities murdered by the Nazis, with a brief visit to a Berlin memorial dedicated to them.
    Built near the Reichstag and inaugurated in October 2012, the memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe commemorates the genocide of the half-million Sinti and Roma who were killed or deported to concentration camps during World War II.
    Accompanied by a small delegation which included the head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, Lajcak laid flowers over a stone engraved with the name of Dubnica Nad Vahom, the site of a concentration camp in what was German-occupied Slovakia.
    The Slovak Foreign Minister, who is on a diplomatic visit celebrating 20 years of economic and political relations with Germany, emphasized the importance of remembering the victims of atrocities such as the Holocaust and of taking a strong stance against discrimination.

    "I really believe that we must never forget all these awful crimes and I wanted to express my appreciation to all those people who are working hard today to make sure that the memory will not disappear," Lajcak said.

    "We are not living in easy times right now and in times of crisis it's always the weak ones, the most vulnerable ones, who become the easy targets and the easy victims of this crime and therefore I really believe that we have to demonstrate clearly that we will never, ever tolerate discrimination we have to show tolerance and we have to show solidarity and this is one of the way how to do it, to cherish the memory of those who fell victims of bad times and to make sure that there will never be bad times again," he added.
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