Category Archives: News Western Europe

Germany

RomnoPower

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RomnoPower

As part of the RomnoPower Culture Week 2025, Cinema Quadrat and the Baden-Württemberg Association of German Sinti and Roma will present

director Adrian Oeser’s two documentaries in person. In addition, protagonist Wesley Höllenreiner will provide insights into his family history. Both films address the long periods of disenfranchisement of Sinti and Roma.

Belgium News Western Europe

Belgium: Trial

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Belgium: Trial

Dries Van Langenhove appears before the Leuven Criminal Court on Tuesday. The far-right activist is due to answer for comments made during a controversial lecture he gave last year in a lecture hall at KU Leuven.

The conference was organized on February 28, 2024, at the initiative of the Nationalist Student Association (NSV). The founder of the Schild & Vrienden movement was supposed to give a lecture on regenerative agriculture, but instead preferred to present his political vision, making numerous controversial statements. He stated, in particular, that “it is logical that fewer Black Africans obtain engineering degrees, but that they are better long-distance runners because there are differences between ethnic groups.” He also called Roma women “thieves.”

Germany News Western Europe

Leni Riefenstahl

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Leni Riefenstahl

Andres Veiel’s rich investigative documentary “Riefenstahl” states the obvious: The infamous German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was an outright Nazi. But as with any good film, the key isn’t what it’s about but how it’s about it. Given full access to the personal archive of the director who made “Olympia” and “Triumph of the Will,” Veiel builds an overwhelming, indisputable case that not only was Riefenstahl a Nazi, but you also can’t separate the art from this artist’s politics.

Netherlands News Western Europe

Romanistan

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Romanistan

On Sunday, October 19 in Nijmegen the performance Romanistan, accompanied by a fringe program featuring a photo exhibition and podcast series will be held.

“Fear turns people who could also be your friends into enemies,” says Carla Hardy, the project’s director. “I want to make tangible the consequences of stigmatization and polarization. How long will we perpetuate stereotypes instead of truly delving into this history?”

In the performance Romanistan, three young artists explore what it means to be Roma. At the same time, it is a plea to view history not simply as a past, but as a living and contemporary story, residing in the bodies of the new generation who are searching for a right to exist and recognition without having to hide or deny their identity.

Germany News Western Europe

Reimar Gilsenbach

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Reimar Gilsenbach

One of the earliest activists who fought for the recognition of the Genocide of the Roma was born 100 years ago.

In early 1965, the popular Eastern German (GDR) newspaper Wochenpost published a letter from a Sintiza from Leipzig. In it, she described the persecution during the Nazi era, but also the discrimination in the GDR. “They see us as idlers, call us scumbags […] But no one considers that we too suffered bitter hardship, that the earth at Auschwitz and other camps was stained red with our blood. […] I would be grateful for an article.”

The editor who received these letters was Reimar Gilsenbach. He researched, found other Sinti, and wrote an article – which, however, was never published. In it, he mentioned the Marzahn forced labour camp for the first time. In connection with the preparations for the 1936 Olympic Games, police units interned Sinti and Roma there.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece, Crime, and Roma

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Greece, Crime, and Roma

“70%-75% of crime comes from the Roma,” he said in a recent interview (Action 24, July 24, 2025) the Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis. “I am not saying this for racist or prejudice reasons. Quite the opposite, I love their children and these people, but the profession they do must be changed: thefts, burglaries, frauds, electricity thefts, etc.,” he added.

In recent months, the Hellenic Police have been intensifying unannounced operations in camps throughout the country. Since the beginning of September, at least seven such operations have been carried out in Attica, Thessaloniki, Trikala, Karditsa and Larissa.

Roma don’t deny that criminality is present in their communities, but  say that causes are deeper: they are linked to the long-standing marginalization of the Roma in Greece, their frequent exclusion from access to housing and work, but also to the poor design of any policies that are implemented. “It is not a question of race or ethnicity, but the result of social and economic conditions that concern the whole of society,” emphasizes George Nikolaou.

Italy News Western Europe

Italy and Roma

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Italy and Roma

Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, Archbishop of Naples, last Saturday morning in a lecture to workers engaged in pastoral care for Roma, Sinti, and Caminanti, gathered in the Campania capital for their annual meeting said that Pastoral care for Roma and Sinti requires “recognizing the dignity of those who live with pauses and restarts, dismantling the prejudice that confuses mobility and suspicion, moving from a ‘integration’ that unifies to an alliance that values ​​languages, crafts, music, and extended family.”

Well, the catholic church doesn’t have a good track record of caring for Roma …

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

As usual, when French news are full of news, there are no news about Roma… Only one article this week, about a camp in Angers that will be closed in December.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much in the French press this week about Roma. Well, they are all wondering whether the government will fall, so Roma stories are not needed to fill gaps…

The news is mostly out of Angers, in the Loire region. First, a camp being displaced raises fears among residents of the new location. Second, a new administrative procedure for managing the arrival of Roma and travellers. Probably swell for the administrations, not necessarily efficient. Third, a series of burglaries; and a young 16 years old raped by 6 Roma, one of which was her lover for whom she agreed to prostitute herself.

Sad.

Italy News Western Europe

Italy, Roma, and the Genocide

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Italy, Roma, and the Genocide

In Naples, Chi Roma e… chi non guided young Roma and non-Roma people on a journey of education and testimony, culminating in a trip to Auschwitz. There they discovered the story of the Sinti boxer Johann Trollmann, known as Rukeli, a symbol of resistance and identity. The story of Rukeli (which means “tree” in the Sinti language), persecuted by the Nazis, became for the young people involved in the project a symbol of resistance against all forms of discrimination. After their trip to Auschwitz, their daily experiences of anti-Gypsyism intertwined with that of Rukeli, who died in a camp in 1944. The association Chi Rom e… chi no chose to tell his story in an ensemble film, directed by Alessandro Rak. The film, born from artistic workshops with young Roma and Neapolitan students from the Galileo Ferraris Technical Institute in Scampia, denounces marginalization and affirms dignity and memory.

Greece News Western Europe

Really???

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Really???

A 17 year old Greek was arrested after having stealing at least two Romane children and abandoning them in various places. He confessed to the acts, saying he did it because he “can’t stomach gypsies” and because he wanted to “show how useless they are.”

News Western Europe United Kingdom

Birmingham and Travellers

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Birmingham and Travellers

Birmingham Council wants to recruit someone with experience in “dealing with difficult conversations” as it looks to reset its relationship with the travelling community.

Well, the description is not promising…

Germany News Western Europe

German Archive

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German Archive

Archive material on the persecution of Roma, Sinti, Yenish and other people defined as “Gypsies” under National Socialism has been released.

https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-entdecken/online-entdecken/geschichtsgalerien/archivgut-zur-verfolgung-von-roma-sinti-jenischen-und-anderen-im-nationalsozialismus-als-zigeuner-definierten-menschen/

Germany News Western Europe

Koblenz: Demo

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Koblenz: Demo

The Grandmas Against the Right in Koblenz and the surrounding area, in coordination with the associations “Culture and Integration Rhineland-Palatinate” and “State Council of German Sinti & Roma Rhineland-Palatinate,” are calling for a vigil in solidarity with Sinti and Roma.

Once again, abhorrent, right-wing extremist, and extremely dehumanizing propaganda against Sinti and Roma has been graffiti-covered on the streets of Koblenz. We will not tolerate this, we cannot remain silent, and we are taking a stand against it.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Lots of articles this week in the French press. Many of them about a Roma camp in Nantes, where the city had to abandon the relocation into another place. But amongst those articles, the one about a family whose children integrated well in the region. Against that, the case of a young Rom who stole since age 12… Also a truck providing health care to children in the camps in Nantes.

Finally in Lyon, the expulsion of two Roma camps.

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