Category Archives: News Western Europe

Germany News Western Europe

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Based on the historical naval battle in Lepanto, in which forcibly recruited Roma were involved as rowing slaves in 1571, seven artists who are Sinti or Roma are exhibiting contemporary art positions. They confront this history with themselves and at the same time enter into a multi-voiced dialogue with each other. They confidently demand visibility and equality in European culture. The exhibition was shown on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 2024 and was seen by 135,000 visitors.

An interview of Luna De Rosa und Moritz Pankok on the Exhibition.

Germany News Western Europe

Stuttgart: Note the date

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Stuttgart: Note the date

The Gypsy Jazz Project Guttenberger promises a special performance, full of verve and drive, joy of playing and shimmering guitar solos. It is a musical journey back in time to the first half of the 20th century, with the unmistakable, energetic, handmade Gypsy Swing Jazz & Rhythm.

Will take place on the 28th of March.

Austria News Western Europe

Vienna: Desecration

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Vienna: Desecration

The desecration of graves in Vienna continues. The graves of Lovara as well as Sinti in several cemeteries are particularly affected. Investigations are ongoing. So far there are no concrete clues as to the group of perpetrators. The relatives hope that the crimes will be solved quickly.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

The mayor and several residents of Villeron, near Paris, will be judged in June for their attack and destruction of a Roma camp in their commune. The League for Human Rights (LHR) wrote an open letter to a mayor near Paris who has expulsed Roma from his commune in spite of the “obstruction” of the LHR.  Near Paris, a camp has been closed, and finally, near Nantes in Western France, the authorities and NGO are looking on how to closed another.

Italy News Western Europe

Sardinia: Students on the Genocide

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Sardinia: Students on the Genocide

A group of students from class 5I of the De Sanctis Deledda High School of Human Sciences (Martina Camplani, Martina Vacca, Martina Stefani, Benedetta Garau, Serena Sailis, Alessandro Spanu and Edoardo Fa), coordinated by teacher Franca Rita Porcu (teacher of Philosophy and Human Sciences), created an educational project, based precisely on the podcast tool, to reflect and reason on some of the genocides of history.

Besides the Shoah, the Tutsi, and the Native Americans, one of the episodes is devoted to Roma.

Greece News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

Roma Misrepresentation

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Roma Misrepresentation

An article about the representation of Romain Greece and Romania schoolbooks.

Good intentions, but stating that Roma arrived in the 14th century in Europe is also a misrepresentation …

They would never have had the opportunity to learn Greek …

So good intentions, and total lack of knowledge.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Social Innovation

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Germany: Social Innovation

For the first time, projects in the “Social Innovation” funding line are being supported in Baden-Württemberg through the European Social Fund (ESF) Plus. “Almost half of all 77 applications received in 22 urban and rural districts can be funded with European Union (EU) funds. This means that ‘Social Innovation’ is already a great success,” said Social Affairs Minister Manne Lucha in Stuttgart. In addition, due to the large number of applications, the funding has been increased from the original 1.5 million euros to over two million euros.

Austria News Western Europe

Austria: Oberwart Commemoration

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Austria: Oberwart Commemoration

The commemoration of the Oberwart attack which killed 4 Roma in that town exactly 30 years ago was held on Tuesday evening in this town.

On the night of February 5, 1995, a pipe bomb killed four Roma in Oberwart: Josef Simon, Peter Sarközi and Karl and Erwin Horvath. The men wanted to remove a sign with the inscription “Roma back to India”

May they rest in peace.

Germany News Western Europe

Racism in the Church

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Racism in the Church

A Protestant pastor in Hamburg who was suspended for racist statements against Sinti and Roma (he used the Z-word) has been back on duty since the beginning of January. The man had filed a lawsuit against his suspension before the church court, the disciplinary chamber of the Evangelical Churches in Germany (EKD) and was successful at the end of last year on labour law grounds.

Shame …

Germany News Western Europe

Hamburg: Graves Desecrated

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Hamburg: Graves Desecrated

Unknown perpetrators have desecrated graves of Sinti and Roma in a cemetery in the Altona district of Hamburg. Graves were damaged and materials such as copper were stolen. According to the Sinti Association of Hamburg, a gravestone was even sawn into pieces. In a joint statement, all parties in Altona City Hall, except for the AfD, (surprise?) condemned the acts. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Quite a few articles this week in France about Roma. First, the mayor and five inhabitants from Volleron, near Paris, had to appear in front of a judge, being accused of destruction of property and racist violence. They had violently dispersed a Roma camp two years ago. We have omitted another article on the subject, as this was clearly biased.

Several articles about the evacuation of a Roma camp in Verneuil, and of another one in Persan, both near Paris. An upcoming debate on the movie “A bras Ouverts”, a movie that panders to racist stereotypes about Roma. Finally, in Nantes in Western France, the arrestation of 6 Roma teenagers who apparently are behind the burglaries of  around 15 pharmacies in the region.

Germany News Western Europe

Alice Weidel

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Alice Weidel

At first glance, there is nothing to suggest that Alice Weidel, the official AfD candidate once wrote an email in which she said, among other things: “These pigs [the German government under Angela Merkel] are nothing more than puppets of the victorious powers of World War II and their job is to keep the German people down (…).” Or that she described Sinti, Roma and Arabs as “culturally alien peoples” who “are inundating us”.

Well, we knew where we stand.

Europe Germany News Western Europe

Philomena Franz

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Philomena Franz

The Nazis would never have imagined that she would outlive them. The almost centenarian Philomena Franz, who escaped certain death several times, in an extermination camp and four concentration camps, delivers these words to the director, producer and film actor Detlev Buck, who meets her in her Berlin home to arrange an interview. It was 2020, Buck had decided to shoot a documentary on the Holocaust for the Arte TV network. Until then he had never dared to make a film about the Nazi persecutions. It was the survivors who encouraged him. They feared that future generations would forget what happened. Among them Philomena Franz, a Sinti, born in 1922 and died a hundred years later, on December 28, 2022.

Italy News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Fascists, and Roma

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Slovenia, Fascists, and Roma

In Lonjer, a then entirely Slovenian village on the outskirts of Trieste, the fascist authorities interned six Roma and Sinti between September 1940 and September 1943. The fascists confined them there after the Italian Ministry of the Interior ordered all prefects on September 11, 1940, to register Roma who were citizens of Italy and to confine those without permanent residence.

This fact as well as others were presented by Paola Trevisan in the Gopčević Palace. The historian and anthropologist dedicated her first scientific monograph to the persecution of Roma and Sinti in fascist Italy, which she presented in Trieste as part of the events marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. The author was interviewed by historian Michele Sarfatti.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much on Roma nowadays in the French press. One teacher who helps young Roma in their education in Nantes, and a fire in a camp in the Southeast of France.

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