January 27, 2009, Prague, Czech Republic: The Dzeno Association is speaking out after the United Nations exluded Romani participants from its annual Holocaust commemoration.

The UN held its annual observance in memory of the victims of the Holocaust from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in New York today. No Romani representation was sought. Requests to the UN from several Romani agencies, asking why and seeking inclusion, have remained unanswered.

“We are enraged by the exclusion of Roma from the UN Holocaust Memorial Day,” Ivan Vesely, Executive Director of the Dzeno Association, said in a statement. “This is an effective denial of history and another example of the refusal to acknowledge the suffering of Romani from an institution charged with its protection.”

Up to 500,000 Roma are believed to have died in mass shootings and Nazi gas chambers during World War II. Only Jews and Roma were subject to Hitler’s Final Solution, and both peoples lost the same percentage of their total number. Nothing has been done to acknowledge the Romani survivors after 1945.

Dzeno, a leading Romani rights organization based in the Czech Republic, is a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP).