Between 15 January 1941 and 25 November 1942, French authorities interned 1334 Romani men, women and children in the Rivesaltes camp (South France). The Memorial recently opened on the site camp pays tribute to them through a new temporary exhibition, Roma Memory, on the history of Roma culture, persecution and genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries.
During the Second World War, Romani people were victims of the barbarism of the Nazis and their collaborators. In the former occupied Soviet Union and in Romania, a genocidal policy was being established. Between 1941 and 1944, Einsatzgruppen (German units) systematically executed Romani people. In Romania, the national Romanian army deported Romani groups to camps in Transnistria in appalling conditions. Tens of thousands were murdered during this period.
The Yahad - In Unum association, chaired by Father Patrick Desbois, has been working for about ten years to interview Shoah witnesses, as well as the Roma survivors of the genocide perpetrated in Eastern Europe by the Nazis and their collaborators.
In Romania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, survivors deliver a painful account of their deportation. In Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, interviews with villagers, who witnessed the shooting of Roma during the war, shed light on the tragic fate of massacred entire families.
link to the web site of the exhibition: http://www.memorialcamprivesaltes.eu/49-exposition-temporaire.htm
link to Yahad in Unum: https://www.yahadinunum.org/