THE Roma flag will be flown over Dorset to commemorate the ‘forgotten Holocaust’.

Dorset Council will fly the flag at County Hall from August 2 to 9 in commemoration of the deaths of all Roma and Sinti people murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War.

On the night of August 2 into 3, 1944, the camp where Roma and Sinti people were held at Auschwitz-Birkenau was liquidated.

Thousands of men, women and children of Roma or Sinti origin were murdered in the gas chambers by Nazi officers, with their bodies burned in pits.

Of the 23,000 Roma and Sinti people imprisoned within the camp, it is estimated more than 20,000 were murdered.

Across the world, August 2 marks Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.

On the day a memorial Service, organised by local Gypsy & Traveller-led organisation, Kushti Bok, will be taking place in Sherborne Abbey at noon, to reflect on the horrors of history and the prejudice and discrimination Gypsies and Travellers still face today.

The service will be opened by the Lord Lieutenant Angus Campbell CVO, and will include readings and poems from Romany Gypsies, and a short presentation from Lynda Ford-Horne, chair of the Bournemouth and Poole Holocaust Committee. All are welcome.

Cllr Stella Jones, chair of Dorset Council, said: “The genocide of the Romani communities (Porajmos) has long been described as ‘the forgotten Holocaust’ and their struggle for recognition continues to this day.

“It is important that their suffering is acknowledged, and their story is told, not as an afterthought, but as a vital part of European history.”