We speak today not only to remember, but to bear witness—on behalf of every Roma and Sinti child murdered, tortured, or dehumanized under the Nazi regime. We speak as survivors, descendants, and members of the Roma Nation, whose grief has been compounded by historical erasure and post-war silence. Two names stand as symbols of this barbarity cloaked in science: Eva Justin and Josef Mengele.
The Crimes of Eva Justin – Betrayal Disguised as Science
Eva Justin, a racial anthropologist under the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, exploited Roma and Sinti children under the false pretense of research. She visited orphanages, smiled in the faces of children, gained their trust, and meticulously documented their features—all while preparing them for deportation to Auschwitz.
She selected over 40 children in Mulfingen for her doctoral study. These children were subjected to humiliating measurements, psychological tests, and racial classification. When she was done using them for her thesis, she sentenced them to death—many were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in May 1944. Eva Justin’s so-called “science” served as a passport to genocide.
And what happened to her after the war? Nothing. She was never prosecuted. She returned to public life, worked as a psychologist, and lived out her days in peace—while the children she betrayed were buried in mass graves.
The Crimes of Dr. Josef Mengele – The Butcher of Auschwitz
Josef Mengele, known by survivors as the “Angel of Death,” carried out sadistic medical experiments on Roma and Sinti children with chilling detachment. In the Zigeunerlager—the “Gypsy camp” at Auschwitz—he hand-picked children for inhuman tests.
• He sewed twins together in crude attempts to create conjoined bodies.
• He injected chemicals into children’s eyes to try to change their color—causing blindness and excruciating pain.
• He performed sterilizations, amputations, and mutilations without anesthesia.
• He infected children deliberately with deadly diseases to observe their slow death.
• And when he no longer needed his “specimens,” he had them murdered with a phenol injection to the heart.
His victims—often Roma—were numbers to him. But to us, they were our children, our siblings, our future.
After Nuremberg: A Deafening Silence
At Nuremberg, the world swore: “Never Again.” Yet for the Roma and Sinti, the promises of justice and remembrance were empty.
• Not a single person was tried at Nuremberg specifically for crimes against the Roma.
• Eva Justin walked free. So did many others responsible for the Roma genocide.
• Josef Mengele escaped to South America and died in Brazil, unpunished.
• Our dead were not mentioned in textbooks. Our pain was not taught in schools. Our genocide was ignored.
Germany did not formally recognize the Porajmos until 1982—nearly 40 years after the war. Reparations were delayed or denied. Memorials came late. And to this day, in many parts of Europe, Roma are still treated as second-class citizens, still denied justice, still spoken of with the same racist pseudoscience that killed our children.
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We Remember, We Demand
On behalf of the Roma Nation Movement, we say clearly:
• The crimes of Eva Justin and Josef Mengele were not isolated acts—they were part of a systemic racial war against our people.
• The world’s failure to prosecute these crimes and acknowledge our suffering is itself a historic injustice.
• We demand full recognition of the Porajmos as part of the Holocaust, including in education, memorialization, and reparations.
• We demand that the silence ends—because silence is complicity.
We are not forgotten shadows in the margins of history. We are still here. We remember our dead, and we will speak their names.
Never again—for anyone. Never again—for the Roma.