Cultural Trip for Roma and Irish Traveller Women

We led a group of 25 Roma and Irish Traveller women to Auschwitz during 2016 to learn about the World War II genocide; we were joined by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.  Encouraging integration and challenging discrimination, the women learnt about the atrocities of World War II, particularly for marginalised groups who were tortured because of their ethnic background.

Sorina Toma, Project Worker “It was a really powerful experience seeing them going through all that process and seeing all the emotions that they went through, was really heart-breaking. The way they got to learn about their own history with their own eyes, was really powerful. Even the way they reflected back and how they made a connection with the present and what they see in the news today was really powerful”

For Ecaterina Daroczi, a member of the Roma Community, the visit evoked memories from her childhood.

My mother told us stories about the war, she said, “During the war we were afraid that we were going to get killed so my grandmother used to dig large holes in the woods as hiding places for us to escape.  They said that those who go to the concentrate camp will never escape”.  I remember all those stories Mum used to tell me when I was a child.  I remember how it was like at that time and I am glad I got to see it all but I hope that God will see and protect us from war and what we saw there in Auschwitz. I hope it will never happen again to our children’s children.