On November 19, 2025, a thematic walking tour titled Sites of Memory, Acts of Resistance: Roma Holocaust in Vienna took place in Vienna, organized by the Romani Studies Program at Central European University (CEU). The walk focused on sites connected to the Roma Holocaust while also drawing attention to the ongoing invisibility of Roma genocide in Vienna’s public space.
The event unfolded under typical late-autumn conditions—cold weather, strong wind, and darkness. These circumstances were not only physically uncomfortable but also reinforced the subject of the walk itself. At several locations where one might expect a memorial or another form of public commemoration, there was nothing. Participants were often shown only potential sites where a memorial could exist, yet no permanent marker of memory was present.
Historical and political context during the walk was provided by Mirjam Karoly, who explained why the Roma Holocaust—despite the fact that approximately 90 percent of Austrian Roma and Sinti were murdered during Nazi persecution—remains insufficiently embedded in Vienna’s official memory structures.
Rather than functioning as a conventional commemorative route, the walk created space for a confrontation with absence: missing memorials, delayed recognition, and fragmented historical continuity. For many participants, this experience was emotionally demanding, as Roma Holocaust memory was not mediated through monuments, but through their absence.
The event took place within the broader context of memory and advocacy initiatives by Roma organizations in Austria, including activities linked to Romano Centro. At the same time, the walk revealed a lack of reference to the longer history of Roma activism in Vienna that predates today’s institutionalized forms of memory work.
Already in 2015, a collective of young Roma in Vienna initiated the first public commemorative event dedicated to the Roma Holocaust, emerging from grassroots organizing rather than formal structures. From these early initiatives grew sustained demands for the public recognition of the Roma Holocaust, and later for the creation of a dedicated memorial. These youth-led efforts—often invisible, undocumented, and unsupported by institutions—formed the foundation upon which later organizational and official projects were able to build.
The walk on November 19 was neither comfortable nor symbolically complete as a commemorative act. Instead, it highlighted that Roma Holocaust memory in Vienna remains an ongoing process—marked by the absence of memorials, incomplete recognition, and the continued need to acknowledge the community-based initiatives from which these efforts originally emerged.
Written by Oliver Mako, Roma Graduate Preparation Program participant