Nazi persecution victims remembered in new exhibition

Treatment of Gypsy and Roma travellers is focus of show

The fate of Gypsy and Roma travellers persecuted under the Nazi regime is the focus of a new exhibition in Perth.

Believed to be the first ever Holocaust memorial exhibition to be held locally, it will be on display at Perth’s AK Bell Library until January 26.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, and the following day it will displayed at the Birnam Institute.

The exhibition has been created by the Gypsy/Traveller-led inter-cultural project Rajpot, with support from the Perth and Kinross Creative Communities fund.

The Rajpot project is aimed at developing an inter-cultural centre in the Pitlochry area.

The exhibition highlights the plight of Gypsy and Roma travellers across Europe during the Holocaust, with huge numbers remaining unaccounted for at the end of the Second World War.

The exhibition was opened yesterday in Perth by Provost Dennis Melloy.

“It is an honour to open this exhibition,” he said.

“It should not be forgotten that Roma Gypsies were among the groups the Nazi regime singled out for persecution on so-called racial grounds.

“The fate of the Roma people in some ways paralleled that of the Jews. Under the Nazi regime, the Roma were subjected to arbitrary internment, forced labour and mass murder.

“It is unfortunate that this project also highlights the fact that these communities often continue to face persecution and prejudice which is totally unacceptable in this day and age.”

Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on January 27 each year, was established to allow people time to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The date was chosen as it marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous Nazi camp.

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The fate of the Roma people in some ways paralleled that of the Jews. PROVOST DENNIS MELLOY

Picture: Steve MacDougall. From left: Provost Dennis Melloy, David McPhee of Perth and Kinross Council, local history officer Dr Nicola Cowmeadow, Roseanna McPhee, chairwoman of Rajpot, and Elaine Blair of the AK Bell Library at the opening of a new Holocaust-themed exhibition.