On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the UN in New York marked a historic first, with the presentation of testimony from a Ukrainian Roma researcher and advocate during the annual commemoration.

Nataliia Tomenko is a youth advocate and expert on Romani history, and Deputy Director of Ukraine’s Youth Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture.

She presented a video account by her grandmother, Halyna Tomenko, a Holocaust survivor whose story reflects the persecution endured by Roma families across Eastern Europe. Too frail to travel from Ukraine, her testimony was shared on her behalf.

Speaking to UN News’s Evgeniya Kleshcheva, Ms. Tomenko reflects on her grandmother’s extraordinary story and on how young people can turn remembrance into action.