The Holocaust memorial is located in central Bucharest, the capital of Romania. But for a long time, the country had not planned to include the Roma and Sinti people murdered during the Holocaust here. It was only pressure from local civil society groups that eventually saw a Roma wheel in stone added, to commemorate the thousands of Roma people deported to their deaths in Transnistria during World War II.

The European Day of Remembrance for the Genocide of Sinti and Roma has been observed annually on August 2 since 2015 when the European Parliament recognized the date.

Two days before the official memorial day, Romania's new president Nicusor Dan and other notable locals participated in an event in Bucharest commemorating the day.

There were a large number of security personnel deployed in Bucharest that day because in the increasingly polarized political climate, precautions were needed to protect a minority that's often still scapegoated in Romania and elsewhere.

The presence of the new president, a pro-European candidate who beat right-wing candidateGeorge Simion in May 2025 elections, was more than just symbolic. It was an appeal: Romania needs to grapple with its own history properly and it needs a basic change in a public discourse often marred by hate speech and racism.

The two-hour ceremony brought together representatives from the president's office and government, European and Romanian diplomats and members of the

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