Author Archives: Roma Foundation

Europe

Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust Remembrance Day 

Today makers the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz which has become the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jews and Roma were singled out for racial reasons, while many others, Poles, Russian prisoners of war, homosexuals, Jehova witnesses, etc. were also victims of this madness.

A short first sample of the press releases on this day. A very honourable mention for the Canadian Prime minister who also included Sinti and Roma.

Germany News Western Europe

Hamburg and Memorial

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Hamburg and Memorial

For 15 years, the Hamburg Senate has been planning to build a documentation center in Lohsepark in HafenCity to depict the deportation of Jews, Sinti, and Roma during the Nazi era. Because the project is stalled, an open letter has now been published.

It is addressed to First Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) and private sponsor Harm Müller-Spreer. The realization of the documentation center at the former Hanoverian Railway Station is in jeopardy, and the Senate’s credibility is therefore at stake. This is the message from representatives of the Auschwitz Committee in Hamburg.

Italy News Western Europe

Fascists and Nazis

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Fascists and Nazis

Twenty-four hours before the Holocaust Remembrance Day celebrations on January 27, 2026, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and all those persecuted and deported by the Nazi and Fascist regimes, Mayor Roberto Gualtieri lashed out: “I read, and I hope it’s not true, that there’s a fiction that’s supposed to air tomorrow about the roundup of the Jews of Rome, where the fascists aren’t even seen. They’re not there; only the Nazis are.” And then he added: “But as witnesses know, the fascists actively collaborated in Hitler’s criminal decision to completely exterminate all Jews.”

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

This week, some more news about Roma in France. A reportage about Roma who gather old metal and many other items that French discard near Paris; in Antibes, in the South of France, 4 families are without lodging after the closure of their camp; in Angers, in Western France, a camp with more than hunderd people will be closed.

Germany News Western Europe

Racism in Schools

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Racism in Schools

Another article about racism against Roma in German schools. This time, the story of Melissa who felt excluded as the only Roma child in her class. Changing schools to a special school in Frankfurt enabled her to graduate.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

János Lázár

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János Lázár

A blunt (and Slovak) summary about the cotroversy on János Lázár, the Hungarian minister who said that if there is no migrant workforce, then Roma in Hungary will have to fill jobs such as cleaning toilets on InterCity trains.

Germany News Western Europe

Discrimination in Schools

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Discrimination in Schools

The Reporting Center for Antigypsyism (MIA) in Hesse has registered significantly more cases of discrimination against Sinti and Roma than in the previous year. Students are particularly affected – on the school grounds, but also during lessons.

Bad.

News Switzerland

Z-Salad

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Z-Salad

A bakery from the Canton Zurich sells a saussage and cheese salad as “AZ’-Salad. They were asked by the young socialists from the region to drop the name, as this is insulting.

Well, in Switzerland, it is still acceptable, it seems …

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Cleaning Toilets?

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Cleaning Toilets?

According to AFP and Hungarian news, the news made it to Malaysia, Janos Lazar, stated on Thursday:

“So if there are no migrants, and someone has to clean the toilet on the Intercity, because otherwise Hungarian voters don’t show up there with such enthusiasm to clean someone else’s shitty toilet, then the internal reserves have to be revealed, and the internal reserve means the Gypsies in Hungary.”

He then also backtracked. Spineless in addition.

He then spent time defending himself sayin he has worked on the integration of Roma. Just go in the Hungarian countryside to see what BS this is…

According to AFP and Hungarian news, the news made it to Malaysia, Janos Lazar, stated on Thursday:

“So if there are no migrants, and someone has to clean the toilet on the Intercity, because otherwise Hungarian voters don’t show up there with such enthusiasm to clean someone else’s shitty toilet, then the internal reserves have to be revealed, and the internal reserve means the Gypsies in Hungary.”

He then also backtracked. Spineless in addition.

He then spent time defending himself sayin he has worked on the integration of Roma. Just go in the Hungarian countryside to see what BS this is…

News Western Europe United Kingdom

Talks on the Genocide of the Roma

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Talks on the Genocide of the Roma

Essex University will be hosting an event to explore the Romani experience in the Holocaust to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day. The free event will take place on 29th January from 6-7pm at the Colchester campus of Essex University and will also be available for people to attend online.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Brawl

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Bulgaria: Brawl

Always bad when the Bulgarian press reports a brawl among Roma. This time in the Sdofia Roma neighbourhood of Fakulteta were a melee between several Roma occurred in front of a local store. According to eyewitnesses, the cause of the conflict was a runaway bride, which led to tension and physical altercations between the groups.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Racism and Football

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Racism and Football

Last November, young footballers from Jihlava, Czechia, had to listen to racist insults on a train from Děčín. The event also angered President Petr Pavel at the time. The Jihlava club Mongaguá is now reporting another unpleasant experience, this time directly from the Jihlava square.

Bosnia News Eastern Europe

Bosnia: Women Project

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Bosnia: Women Project

The Women’s Roma Centre for the Affirmation of Roma and Other National Minorities (ŽRC Roma), a newly established association that works to protect and promote the rights of Roma women and women from other national minorities, has successfully completed the implementation of its first project.

This is a project entitled “Promotion and marking of important international dates with the aim of drawing attention to the position of Roma women from the city of Zenica and other cities of the Zenica-Doboj Canton”, which was implemented with the support of the Ministry of Labor, Social Policy and Refugees of the Zenica-Doboj Canton.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Šutar Act

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Slovenia: Šutar Act

Several articles about the recent impact of the so-called Šutar Act on Roma in Slovenia. Here, the Financial Administration (Furs) explained that in recent days, based on the Act on Urgent Measures to Ensure Public Safety (the so-called Šutar Act), they have issued 1,275 enforcement orders to debtors who had at least three unpaid obligations from misdemeanor claims in the last two years. Enforcement is also permissible for cash social assistance.

Roma representatives have warned about enforcement of social assistance. Several dozen Roma at the bank have not been able to collect part or all of their social assistance because Furs seized it, the president of the Roma Community Council, Jožef Horvat Muc, told the Slovenian Press Agency.

Italy News Americas News Western Europe

Santo Spinelli in NYC

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Santo Spinelli in NYC

On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Concert for the Day of Remembrance / Samudaripen, promoted and organized by the Union of Romani Communities in Italy (UCRI), will be held on February 2 at 8:00 p.m. at Carnegie Hall in New York. The event, organized with the patronage and support of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, UNAR at Palazzo Chigi, and the major European Roma and Sinti organizations—ERGO Network, ERIAC, and IRU—is intended to contribute to the recognition of Samudaripen, the genocide of the Roma people during World War II, alongside the Holocaust, through the universal language of music. The concert features two internationally renowned artists, Gennaro Spinelli, violin soloist, and Santino Spinelli, accordion soloist, accompanied by members of the European Peace Orchestra. This ethno-symphonic project combines revisited classical repertoire and traditional Romani music, along with several original compositions, offering a musical journey of strong symbolic and cultural value.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Social Benefits

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Slovakia and Social Benefits

“They live on benefits.” A statement that has been repeated in Slovakia for years. Most people associate it with poor people and especially Roma communities. Almost always, when the living standards of the majority population deteriorate, this sentence becomes a shorthand description of the social system in political debates and on social networks.

This is a myth. “When people talk about the social system, they usually mean benefits for the unemployed. However, they forget that the largest part of it is pensions and healthcare,” pointed out Viliam Páleník, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and president of the Employment Institute.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and Unemployment

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Slovenia, Roma, and Unemployment

The Municipality of Kočevje in Slovenia is investing extensive and long-term efforts in Roma integration, especially in the field of preschool education, but Mayor Gregor Košir warns that without changes at the state level there will be no real breakthrough. He says “As long as it is not worth it for people to work, we can forget about Roma integration”.

He is putting the carriage in front of the ox. As long as there is no prospect of work, there is no integration …

News Western Europe United Kingdom

Roma, Travellers, and Universities

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Roma, Travellers, and Universities

According to recently published numbers, the number of “Gypsy or Travellers” enrolled in univeristies in the UK increased from 105 in 2019/2020 to 2’535 in 2023/2024. Apparently, the increase is mostly due to Roma students.

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