At the end of October 2025, Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz and Tetiana Storozhko, members of the ROCIT team, took part in the Road of Memory – International Forum (30–31 October 2025) in Berlin.
The event brought together Roma and non-Roma youth, artists, activists, researchers, and educators from across Europe to explore how the remembrance of the Roma Holocaust connects with the experiences of new generations. Hosted at the Bildungsforum gegen Antiziganismus and the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, the forum became a powerful space for dialogue — linking past and present, trauma and resilience, silence and agency.
The two-day programme was structured around a series of film screenings, panel discussions, and participatory activities that illuminated the many ways in which Roma communities today engage with their history. Screenings included DROMA — a documentary on the Roma movement in Ukraine — and an art film dedicated to the creation of the Memory Bridges exhibition, which brings together artists and survivors in a shared act of remembrance.
During the panels From Silence to Agency and Between Two Wars, participants reflected on how Roma memory activism can inspire social change and solidarity. A particular focus was given to the stories of young Roma living “between two wars” — between the inherited trauma of the Holocaust and the new reality of displacement caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Their voices, testimonies, and creative works were presented as a living archive of resilience and hope.
In this context, Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz and Tetiana Storozhko contributed insights from their fieldwork and analysis conducted within the ROCIT project, emphasising how Roma memory, mobility, and activism intertwine in the face of contemporary crises. They highlighted that remembrance is not only about commemorating the past but also about shaping the future — through education, dialogue, and collective empowerment.
The forum concluded with the official opening of the Memory Bridges exhibition, which transforms stories of survival into artistic testimonies, and an open networking session where participants exchanged experiences and ideas for future collaboration.
This international initiative is part of two larger projects:
- Memory Bridges: A Creative Dialogue Between the Past and Present of the Roma Community – supported by the European Union under the House of Europe programme, and
- Memory Ambassadors: Training Young Multipliers to Preserve Roma History and Holocaust Remembrance – funded by the EVZ Foundation and the German Federal Foreign Office under the YOUNG PEOPLE remember international programme.
The event was jointly organised by the Center for Social Transformations “TENET” and the Kherson Youth Roma Society (KYRS) in partnership with the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, the Jaw Dikh Foundation, TernYpe – International Roma Youth Network, NGO Ketane, and NGO Terne Bersha.
For the ROCIT team, participation in the Road of Memory Forum was both a continuation and deepening of its research perspective — showing how transnational Roma mobilisation, born out of experiences of exclusion and displacement, is increasingly shaped by memory work, creative activism, and the agency of youth who bridge generations and borders.
