24 January 2018, was the first time(!) at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day when the European Parliament also commemorated the Gypsy victims of the Holocaust. The Czinka Panna Roma Cultural Association, at the invitation of Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, attended the commemoration as the only Hungarian Roma organization.

The commemorative ceremony was opened by Mairead McGuinness, Vice-President of the European Parliament – Dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations. Lívia Járóka, EP’s first vice-president of Roma origin, also gave a speech. In her speech, the representative of the European People’s Party said: „The forgotten victims of the Holocaust are the Roma, so it is a special joy and honour for me to have a speech at the commemoration, where the Roma victims, for the first time, are officially commemorated.”
At the commemoration, the attendees had the opportunity to watch a short film about the survivors of the Holocaust, attend the presentation of the Brussels Chief Rabbi, and listen to a survivor, who spoke about the horrors of the Holocaust. It was an uplifting, yet shocking experience.