Monthly Archives: October 2014

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.10.2014 Remembering instead of suppressing: addressing the Rroma Holocaust at German schools

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Mirwald (2014) reports on the work of Petra Rosenberg, chairman of the national association of German Sinti and Roma in Berlin-Brandenburg, as an expert on thematic days in German schools. Rosenberg continues the work of her father, Otto Rosenberg, which campaigned until his death for the equality of the Rroma and informed about the history of the minority: “the 62-year-old graduate teacher described the terrible experiences that her father documented in the book “The burning glass”. The young audience, who in the classroom is currently learning about the Third Reich, learned that Otto Rosenberg, who was one of the founding fathers of the civil rights movement of the Sinti and Roma in Germany, was able to write down his memories only in old age. Her father was a broken man, who was never able to work again. He woke up at night, cried and asked why he had survived as the only one of eleven siblings. “As a child I didn’t know anything. I only felt the grief, took his hand and cried with him”, Petra Rosenberg described scenes from her childhood. […] It was shocking to hear that doctors and scientists that had questioned and examined Otto Rosenberg in 1936 as race researchers in the camp Berlin-Malzahn, were able to practice after the war in Frankfurt am Main, and that the policeman who sent Otto Rosenberg to Auschwitz, later worked in Ludwigsburg as a detective in a high position.” Even after the war ended, discrimination against Rroma therefore continued, and it took the collective protest of many Holocaust survivors and their descendants, so that the injustices were finally officially recognized. Unfortunately, the prejudices about the minority continue until today, as the debate on the so-called “poverty immigrants” reveals.

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.10.2014 Lille: evacuation of an informal Rroma settlement

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Bergès (2014) reports on the evacuation of an informal Rroma settlement in Lille. Numerous families inhabited it. However, the journalist does not report any exact numbers. The Rroma were repeatedly exposed to the pressure of the police and local residents, who demanded the closure of the site. Under the threat of eviction, the last remaining inhabitants have now abandoned the settlement. The camp was built on wasteland next to a motorway junction. The site will now be immediately fenced and handed over to the authorities of a real estate program, who wants to create office and residential premises on the parcel. At an adjacent intersection, there are other Rroma camps that have not been evicted yet.

Also in Loos, in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, one discusses the eviction of an informal Rroma settlement, while the affected Rroma and their supporters plead for a referendum. The focus of the discussions is especially concerned with the location of the settlement: the parking field of the prison of Loos (Mocellin 2014).

It should be emphasised that the forced evacuations of informal settlements complicate a long-term integration of the Rroma immigrants. The forced evictions or the harassment of residents do not solve the existing problems and the integration question, but simply move them from one location to the next. The rigorous expulsion of the minority reflects the unwillingness of the French government to engage in an active integration policy. Also, through the biased media focus on the informal settlements, the impression is created that there are only Rroma belonging to the lower class, who are poorly educated. However, the Rroma from the informal settlements constitute only a small portion of all Rorma in France. According to estimates of the Rroma Foundation, 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma are integrated and live unobtrusively in French society. They belong to the middle or even upper-class and are constantly ignored by the French media, the public and politicians. Out of fear of discrimination, a lot of these integrated Rroma keep their identity a secret (compare Nord Éclair 2014, Radenovic 2014).

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.10.2014 Demagoguery against Rroma in the Internet

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Meier (2014) reports on open agitation against Rroma in a Facebook group from Duisburg. A user posted a wanted poster with a blurred photo, in which he claimed that two dark-haired, veiled women had tried to abduct a child. The offenders are Rroma, the initiator suggested. However, according to the police, theses accusations are unfounded: “The police sees the story, which reproduces the century-old stereotype of child-abducting “gypsies”, as invented. Nevertheless, the Facebook does not fail its purpose: “to Auschwitz”, “rape them”, “to the gas chamber”, these are comments under the “wanted poster”. It was shared about 6,000 within a few days, spread by other users. A stupid conflagration of hatred, having no consideration for the law, logic or spelling.” Meier sees the many affirmative responses to the inflammatory posting as a symptom of general, increasing xenophobia in Duisburg, that is not directly only towards, but in particular against Rroma. The inflammatory facebook group was in the meantime taken offline and an investigation for demagoguery was started. The accusations were not without impact, as the many supportive comments on the social network show, as well as similar expressions at town hall meetings. They stand in a tradition of negative stereotypes, which have been spread about the Rroma for centuries: already in the Middle-Ages, the minority was accused of abducting and trafficking children. It is thought provoking that these allegations still find so much response. In Germany, according to the Rroma Foundation, there are an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma. The majority are well integrated, work, send their children to school and live in apartments.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.10.2014 Bulgaria: vote-buying and the Rroma

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Sergueva (2014) reports on the illegal vote buying in Bulgaria. In the last elections for the European Parliament, the problem did become particularly manifest: on the one hand, we have found that some employees were forced under threat of dismissal by their employers to select certain parties or candidates. On the other hand, votes of people with low incomes were bought with financial incentives. This was also the case with Rroma with low income: “Forced to survive with a minimum income of 340 leva (174 Euros) per month, Maya Ivanova did not hesitate for a second to sell her vote for the legislative elections taking place this Sunday in Bulgaria. “Who would reject 50 Leva, today, in such a misery?”, this 51-year-old woman from a Roma household states, that was met by AFP in Bobovdol. Only to “us, the Roma, one gives merely one meat dumpling and two sandwiches”, she adds: “The 50 leva are taken by the organizers.”” According to Transparency International, about 6% of the surveyed voters already have sold their vote once. Just as many are ready to do the same. Antony Galabov by Transparency International explains this with the very high rate of poverty in Bulgaria. According to estimates, 20% of the population in Bulgaria now lives below the poverty line. In many Romany ghettos, according to Vania Noucheva from the IMRI institute in Paris, there are usurers whom many slum-dwellers are in debt of and therefore can be extorted votes. Under the pressure of the European Union, several countermeasures have been decided now: at the next elections, a thousand persons suspected of vote-buying will be monitored. The notice on the ballot saying “Vote-buying is prohibited” exists since 2007, but was not of much use so far, Sergueva states.

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