The Roma, in order to become a nation and a people need history. Roma need to know their own history. The Roma nation needs values and role models..

Catalin Manea, Executive President of the Roma Party Pro-Europe;

Those who were strong, they kept going on, the weak ones could not. They were dying. People were eating dogs, and horses, whatever, because there was nothing to eat. When my mother died, my father dug a hole behind the ditch and buried her. And they put my brother next to her, too. There were no cemeteries.

Duda Hristache, survivor;

 Approximately 25.000 Roma were deported to Transnistria. More than 11.000 were nomads and were deported in the summer of 1942. In September 1942 over 13.000 sedentary Roma were deported by train. By the summer of 1942, already the horses, the carriages, the tents and obviously the gold, meaning the fortune that the family had gathered for generations, were all lost. Approximately half of those 25.000 Roma deported in Transnistria died there. We are speaking of a very high mortality, during those two years.. 

Petre Matei, PhD Historian, The Research Group for the History of Minorities at the Nicolae Iorga Institute of History;

The Roma Holocaust represented for the Roma culture, the Roma mentality and for the Roma in general, the biggest problem in recent Roma history. It has destroyed their dignity, their self-esteem and their identity. The parents who survived did not want to speak their Roma language with the children. They did not want to teach it to their children, afraid of being identified as Roma. Their self esteem was very low. They have developed a self-hate affecting their entire lives. They have become mental slaves to it. They were acting around the non-Roma with the fear of being persecuted, with some kind of mental slave behaviour. 

Mihai Neacsu, Director of the National Centre for Roma Culture Romano Kher;

 We were 6 children that returned to Romania (from Transnistria). My mother died, my father died. We return back and we were in a terrible, deplorable condition. The people who had money, they were going on with their lives. The ones without money were dying. 

Duda Hristache, survivor;

From 19th century until 1989 the Roma were perceived by the state, by the government and by Romanian population more as a social category than as an ethnic minority.

Viorel Achim, PhD Historian, Senior Researcher at the Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Romanian Academy;

Many Roma are facing forced evictions. They are being kicked out of their homes where they were living for generations by the mayors of the cities as a result of corruption or racism or both. Everything that was gained for two generations has been lost in one day. They are outside with absolutely nothing, maybe a blanket or whatever they could get their hands on. 

Marian Mandache, Executive Director NGO Romani CRISS, Lawyer and Roma activist;

Roma are free (from slavery) only for 160 years. During this time Roma had very few opportunities to develop. All these disparities and gaps have reduced Roma opportunities to integrate, to develop as a people well rooted. 

Adrian Berbec, President of the Youth Organization of the Roma Party Pro-Europe;