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Ma Bistrass! Lest we forget - Remembering the Roma and Sinti Genocide

This photo essay is based on the photo exhibition 鈥淢a Bistrass! Lest we forget鈥 by UNESCO Artist for Peace, Luigi Toscano, who photographed and interviewed the last survivors of the Roma and Sinti genocide and their descendants to capture their stories, characters and strengths, and highlight their fate.
Developed in collaboration with UNESCO and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ Foundation), the exhibition intends to send a strong signal against the discrimination of Sinti and Roma and to promote the recognition and appreciation of their community and culture.
Marking the UN International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime (9 December), the exhibition will be on view at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 5 to 19 December 2024.
Maria Kopylenko, born in 1949
Jews and Roma were taken away to dig their own graves on the sports field of Maria Kopylenko鈥檚 village. Her aunt and her cousin were taken there. Her cousin was holding the hand of a girl who was shot.

So, she fell into the pit with them and waited until night fell to escape. 鈥淚t's actually a miracle, it's God's work that my cousin survived.鈥

Koloman Kadet, born in 1936
In 1943, Koloman Kadet鈥檚 father was deported by the Wehrmacht and has been missing since then. His Hungarian Roma family was living in hiding during the war

鈥淚 just want to know where the Germans buried my father. I would give anything for that.鈥

Raisa Biryuchenko, born in 1939
Raisa Biryuchenko escaped the war and now lives with her son and grandsons. During the Second World War their home was ruined. 鈥淚 was forced by the Nazi soldiers to watch as they shot my little brother. My mother and I were then deported to Poland to join forced labor.鈥 Raisa vividly recalls the day on which she and her mother escaped by jumping off the moving train and into the fields.

Wladimir Litowtschenko, born in 1949
Wladimir Litowtschenko is a proud Roma. His father received many decorations as a soldier at the front during the war. His mother stayed at home with the children, his older siblings. 鈥淚t was very hard during the war and afterwards. Sometimes there was famine. War is war, you understand.鈥

Alla Matyushenko, born in 1947
Alla Matyushenko鈥檚 uncle was a soldier in the Red Army.

He was in one of the first Red Army tanks to enter Berlin during the liberation.

Helena Kurov谩, born in 1944
鈥淲e had to go into hiding after my father was deported to a concentration camp. He returned and died a few days later. I am a proud Romani. I brought 11 children into the world and won't let anything, or anyone get me down.鈥

Hanna Pechnikova, born in 1948
Hanna Pechnikova鈥檚 grandfather worked as a security guard, her grandmother worked in the kitchen. 鈥淎nd that's how we survived.鈥 After the war, she always felt well treated as a Roma.

Bartolom臎j Begala, born in 1944
Bartolom臎j Begala is a Hungarian Roma. His father, who was deaf-mute, was forced into a labor camp. He recalls that his family suffered from poverty even after the war. He went to school without a bag nor anything to eat.

Anna Kon铆kov谩, born in 1939
Anna Kon铆kov谩 recalls that the men were deported for forced labor. The women and mothers were raped. Anna had to drink from puddles during the escape to survive.

Karel Berousek, born in 1939
On their way to deportation, Karel Berousek鈥檚 family was warned by a local police officer not to go to the assembly point and to hide instead in the countryside until the end of the war. His other family members were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Olga Andreychenko, born in 1947
Olga Andreychenko鈥檚 father fought in the war. He was wounded, contracted tuberculosis and died in 1953.

Olga Bud铆nsk谩, born in 1944
Olga Bud铆nsk谩 was only one year old when she survived the persecution of the Nazis. Today, she lives in a small town outside of Prague in very poor conditions. Even after the war, she experienced violence and harassment: 鈥淓ven long after the war, and even today, we are discriminated against as Roma. Some members of my family were forcibly sterilized.鈥

Ivan Danchenko, born in 1949
Ivan Danchenko鈥檚 uncle was killed in the war. He himself fled and returned to modern day Lviv, Ukraine, after the war.

The exhibition is part of a larger project through which Luigi Toscano endeavors to depict all groups of victims of the Nazis. He has portrayed almost five hundred survivors of Nazi persecution since 2014, and the project has been shared with almost 2 million visitors worldwide.
