Monthly Archives: August 2022

Frankfurt: Movie and Discussion

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The Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR) invite to a film screening and discussion about the fight for civil rights on September 5, 8 p.m., in the German Film Institute & Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main a.

Racist discrimination has always been part of the everyday experience of the Sinti and Roma in Germany. Discrimination manifests itself in different facets: from unlawful special registrations by the police to disadvantages on the housing market to verbal hostility and physical assaults.

Roma and Energy Prices

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Roma and Travellers in the UK fear being left out on the help on energy prices. There are thousands of people in park home in the UK for whom the increased energy prices will prove to be dramatic.

Portugal, Football, and Roma

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Ricardo Quaresma, a Portuguese Rom and a star footballer is strongly engaged in helping the Roma community in Portugal. His fame certainly helps, but as they say right now in Portugal, can one man end 500 years of racism and discrimination. Not an easy task.

Racism against the Roma community is firmly anchored in Portugal, and it is enough that one Rom steals to brand all Roma as thieves, something that alas, is not only the case in that country.

Duda and the Litzmannstadt Ghetto

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“The truth about the Holocaust is and will remain a shocking warning against disregarding chauvinism and imperialism in any form,” stressed President Andrzej Duda in a letter read during the celebration of the 78th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto and the 80th anniversary of the so-called Wielka Szpera.

There were also Roma in the Ghetto.

Hungary: Roma Design

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Clothes and accessories designed by the two sisters, Erika and Helén, are now internationally known, having been added to the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, for example. Their goal is to use the tools of their own Roma culture and the treasure of its traditional motifs to shape today’s clothing fashion.

Interview with the Slovak Plenipotentiary

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Ján Hero, the Slovak plenipotentiary for Roma communities grew up with his parents and nine siblings in difficult conditions in a Roma settlement. When his mother died, he was taken in by an aunt who made sure he graduated from college. He succeeded in the demanding field of nuclear energy machines at the Faculty of Engineering, and later studied teaching. In the past, he worked at the Ministry of Education and Culture, founded a private gymnasium for talented children in Kreminica.

Ján Hero has been the government representative for Roma communities for several months.

Bulgaria: Murder and Arrests

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Two Roma were murdered in Nova Zagora, Bulgaria, during a fight between two Roma groups. Three persons have now been arrested. This is bad, as it casts Roma as dangerous criminals, and this in a country where populism is on the rise.

French Chronicle …

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Not much news on Roma this last week in France. The usual ones, a camp vacated near Paris in Vaujours; another one that was abandoned in Livry, also near Paris, leaving a lot of garbage; a camp that will be closed near Nice; and finally in Toulouse, an expulsion of a squat of minors.

Bratislava – Festival

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After a one-year corona break, Gypsy Fest brings exclusive concerts of top Roma artists to the capital again. The 14th edition of the international festival will take place from September 2 to 3 on the Main Square in Bratislava.

Vilnius – Festival

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Next weekend, September 4., Vilnius will be rocked by the most colourful music event – the Roma culture festival “Gypsy fest 2022”. The organizer of the event, a well-known Lithuanian Rom, head of the ensemble “Sare roma”, Ištvans Kvik says that this year’s festival, invites us to forget about the differences between nations and to remember respect for each other.

Rostock – Commemorations

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Commemorations of the 1992 pogrom in the East German city of Rostock have taken place on Thursday.

“Many don’t want to talk about it anymore, don’t want any more events, just want to forget,” says Stephanie Nelles, Rostock’s integration officer. This opinion is widespread in the city, including in the migrant community. “But there are also many, especially younger people, who don’t want to forget that.” They were never properly informed about the 1992 pogrom in Lichtenhagen and are now asking the parents’ generation, the contemporary witnesses, to talk about it. With this, Nelles outlines the division of remembrance in Rostock’s urban society. The integration officer positions herself clearly: “You can only change if you remember.”

Ukrainian Roma Refugees

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Testimonies from Ukrainian Roma refugees in Europe. The article focuses on Moldova and Romania. What is good, is that this is being reported in the Ukrainian press, which usually tends only to report on stealing and begging Roma. Hope this will continue.

Sobibor

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A movie on the archaeological work which allowed to reconstruct the events in the extermination camp of Sobibor in Poland. The camp was destroyed by the Germans in 1943 to cover up for their crimes.

Many of the artefacts discovered during the archaeological work are now on display at the Sobibor museum.

More on the Attacks in Spain

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The National Human Rights Platform, the Faith and Hope Religious Congregation and the Esperanza Gitana Union for Humanity, together with relatives of the alleged murderer of the 19-year-old who died in Íllora (Granada), have filed a letter with the Government Subdelegation to denounce “racist and xenophobic acts” for the assaults against some Roma homes and vehicles following the murder of the 19-year-old.

Sad story.

Attacks in Spain

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The Spanish Ombudsman will study the attacks that occurred against the homes and property of Roma families that occurred in Íllora, in the Poniente region of Granada, in response to a crime allegedly committed by a 23-year-old Rom this past Monday, for which a 19-year-old died.

Representatives of the Spanish Gitana Society met this Friday with members of the Ombudsman’s office to demand protection from the attacks, which occurred this week after a demonstration to demand justice for the murder. After that protest, a group of people went to the houses of relatives of the alleged murderer, who was on the run at that time and who turned himself in the next day, and vandalized them.

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