At the 7th of April 2011 the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" organized a podium discussion with the title "Unnoticed Victims: The Genocide Against The Roma". It was the second event within the annual series with the topic "70 years after the invasion of the Soviet Union". The discussion was held at the representation of the European Commission in Germany in Berlin.

The event started with three official greeting speeches. Mr Matthias Petschke who is the leader of the representation of the European Commission in Germany talked about contemporary strategies of the EU concerning Roma. A new strategy aims to initiate national concepts for a better integration of Roma in all 27 EU states. Afterwards, Mr Guenter Saathoff the director of the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" shortly discussed the barriers which the foundation was facing during the payments of former forced labourers especially in the case of Roma labourers. One of the difficulties was the lack of historical information about the situation in the occupied Soviet Union. Through the event Mr Saathoff hoped to make a contribution to a better understanding of history. The last greeting speech gave Petra Rosenberg the director of the Sinti and Roma Organization of Berlin and Brandenburg. The speech was very personal. It described the majority's treatment of the Roma and Sinti as well as her family history during the Nazi regime.

The main part of the evening were two historical presentations focusing contemporary approaches on the topic of Roma persecution in the occupied Soviet Union.

One of the experts was Martin Holler who does research in the area of the genocide of the Roma in the Soviet Union (1941-1945) and published a report on this subject in 2009. He pointed out that in scientific research the comparison of both German and Soviet sources was often missing. Through newly opened Russian archives Mr Holler was able to consider sources from both sides and therefore gained new information about the genocide in the Soviet Union. Against the common assumption that only non-settled Roma were executed by the Nazis Holler proved that "during the persecution of Roma it was not relevant if the Roma were settled or non-settled. Quite the opposite, the settled were systematically selected and after 1942 they were massacred." Another aspect of the discourse is the question: How comparable is the persecution and mass murder of the Jews and Roma? Holler comments that chronologically the Roma were murdered later than the Jews but with the same systematic brutality. One example for such a case is a poster were the Germans called up the Roma to appear at a certain place in Chernigov. It was written they would be relocated but in fact they were murdered. This practice was only known for massacres of the Jews. Further Martin Holler describes how racist criteria were used when Germans selected and murdered inhabitants of a Roma kolkhoz in Alexandrovka near Smolensk.

In addition to the first presentation Mr Tyaglyy, who works at the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in Kiev/Ukraine, concentrated on the Roma at the Crimea. "The Roma community at the Crimea wasn't similar to those of other areas because this community was an islamicized one. They adopted the language and religion of their Crimean Tatar environment." When the Nazis and their Allies began to murder Jews, Krimtschaks and Roma some Crimean Tatars showed solidarity with the Roma. Tyaglyy says that the common Islamic faith and the progressed assimilation could be a reason for the solidarity. He summarized the information within the thesis: "if they were not Islamic assimilated they would have been killed." According to Tyaglyy the Roma partly seen theirselves as Crimean Tatars as well as Crimean Tatars seen some Roma as their fellows. That could be one aspect why Roma escaped from a mass murder through the help of their fellow believers.

The presentation followed a short film with interviews. Actually, the Foundation wanted to invite Roma survivors from the former Soviet Union but witnesses who were addressed are already too old or weak to come to Germany. However, the film gave them an opportunity to talk about their experience. Two persons who had survived the Nazi occupation in the region of Rostov on Don/Russia were interviewed. The first was a Romni who was deported for forced labour to Germany. The other interview was taken with a Romni who, under tears, talks about a massacre which only she, her mother and another girl survived.

The film was provided by Pawel Limanskij who is the director of the Roma Organisation "Amala" in Rostov on Don/Russia. The subsequent discussion dealt with the subject of contemporary commemoration in context of the genocide. Therefore Mr Limanskij emphasized the importance of the film as a historical document, especially as it is an authentic record with contemporary witnesses. According to the remembrance of victims of the Nazi regime he referred to the misbalanced relation between Jews and Roma. Official memorials are rare in Russia. One of them as Mr Holler already mentioned is in Alexandrowka. "However, it has a typical soviet character because it is not written that 176 Roma were killed but 176 peaceful Soviet citizens", Martin Holler added. In the Ukraine, Mr Tyaglyy says that there is a similar in deficit situation: "We are at the beginning of our way of immortalization of the victims of NS terror." He knows only three places were Roma victims of fascism are honored - those are poorly known.

About the current situation of the Roma in Russia Mr Limanskij refers to the prejudices the majority has and which are hard to abandon. Still, Roma are badly educated compared to the majority population and have therefore less access to the job market. They try to cover their living expenses through collecting and trading metals and other things. Hence, it seems to be essential that appreciating and honoring the victims of genocide during the Nazi occupation are related to an improvement of their current situation. The raise of historical knowledge through pushing scientific research could pave that way. So far the subject of Roma history during Nazi times and World War II has been highly understudied.