- rroma.org

The Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung (2014) spoke with Rainer Wendt, the German federal president of the German police union. Wendt was invited by Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma to talk about the possibilities of intercultural training of police personnel and the dismantling of prejudices. In the interview, Wendt points out that it is important to develop and professionalise policemen, so they develope an understanding of the social contexts of minorities: “Prejudices are all around us in society. Police officers are, of course, not free of them. We use the professionalisation of police work against it. This requires that policemen know accurately the social context in which they work, in order to not give rise to prejudices and on the other side to be able to handle prejudices that exist in society. […] Not only among the police, but in our society as a whole, one must communicated that Rroma do not come from somewhere to Germany to establish themselves as a foreign body, but that they have been part of our country for centuries. They are not Sinti and Roma, who just come like that to Germany. They are German Sinti and Roma, or European citizens, who have a right to come, and we as Germans have the duty to integrate them. Of course they themselves have the obligation to contribute.” Wendt’s reference to the European history of the Rroma is important. Only through the understanding that Rroma are resident and integrated in Europe for centuries, and form a transnational ethnic minority, one can reduce prejudice against them. Them anti-social behaviour sometimes attributed to them than is rather the result of their exclusion than the outcome of a lacking will to integrate. Rroma belong to all professional groups and social classes. In Germany, there are an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma today. Before the genocide by the Nazis, there were many more.