Category Archives: News Western Europe

Germany News Western Europe

Holocaust, Genocide, and AI

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Holocaust, Genocide, and AI

Germany and Holocaust memorial Institutions are warning social media platform about the dangers of AI use in the context of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma and are asking them to stop it.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much in France this week about Roma. Only several articles about 4 Roma families who will be expulsed from their camp near Antibes in Southern France.

Austria Germany News Western Europe

Study on Deportations

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Study on Deportations

The European University of Flensburg presented the results of a two-year study on the history of Sinti and Roma in Schleswig-Holstein to the state parliament, thus filling a previously under-researched historical gap. They focused on Deportations of Sinti and Roma in Schleswig-Holstein during the Nazi Era.

Germany News Western Europe

Exhibition

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Exhibition

The exhibition “Murdered, Marginalized, and Stigmatized: Sinti and Roma in Rhineland-Palatinate” will be on display at the Center for Social Responsibility of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau in Mainz starting January 21. Students from the Department of History at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz explored the history of Sinti and Roma in Rhineland-Palatinate during the summer semester of 2025. The results of the project, funded by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science and Health, will be presented for one week, the university announced on Monday.

News Western Europe Sweden

Pamphlet and Distortion

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Pamphlet and Distortion

A pamphlet by a Swede on ICE in the USA. One issue lies in his statement that “Between 1935 and 1945, Nazi Germany systematically killed an estimated 130,500 Roma and Sinti people and between 1938 and 1945 more than 6 million Jews.”

This is Genocide distortion. There are effectively around 130’000 registered Roma victims. But, many more were simply executed without being registered. The same applies to jews, so here, the author applies two different measures for the same crime.

Bad.

Italy News Western Europe

Roma Resistance

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Roma Resistance

The Historical Institute of the Resistance and the Contemporary Age of Forlì-Cesena, in collaboration with the Municipality of Forlì, is organizing the presentation of the book “Vittoriosi al fin liberi siam. Roma e Sinti nella Resistenza italiana” by Chiara Nencioni, on Tuesday, January 13, in the Sala Randi, Forlì Municipality. Ines Briganti will be present at the event, alongside the author.

Germany News Western Europe

Opera Yes, Documentation Centre No

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Opera Yes, Documentation Centre No

Those arriving in Hamburg by ICE train from the south pass directly by the former “Hanoverian Station,” from whose tracks 8,000 Jews, Sinti, and Roma were deported to Nazi extermination camps in the east starting in 1940. A memorial with desk-like concrete tables lists all the names from the transport lists of that time.

Just a few hundred meters away, directly in line of sight to the deportation site, a new opera house is to be built on Hamburg’s Baakenhöft. It is being sponsored with 340 million euros by Klaus-Michael Kühne, 88 years old. The same man who, to this day, refuses to allow his company’s Nazi past to be publicly investigated. His opera house, his gift to the city, therefore carries a deeply troubling connotation.

Meanwhile, a planned documentation centre on the deprotations is still in planning, without any date of completion.

Italy News Western Europe

Burial

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Burial

More than two hundred members of the Padua Sinti community gathered on Saturday, January 10, in the center of Noventa Padovana to participate in the burial ceremony of one of their relatives. Giamaica Rajar, a 53-year-old woman from the Via Serenissima community, passed away on January 8. The ceremony had a particularly folkloric character: from the pink coffin, to the lighting of smoke bombs, to the presence of a large crucifix made entirely of balloons. A well-attended ceremony, which drew numerous community members and onlookers to the streets of the town.

Germany News Western Europe

Conference “Antigypsyism/Racism against Roma and Sinti”

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Conference “Antigypsyism/Racism against Roma and Sinti”

This conference aims to raise awareness of antigypsyism/racism against Roma and Sinti. In particular, it seeks to sharpen the understanding of how to recognize antigypsyist discrimination and to consider it as a cross-cutting issue in administrative work.

Another focus will be on presenting existing measures implemented by the State of Berlin to combat and prevent antigypsyism. These measures will not only be presented but also discussed and considered together with regard to their further development.

Finally, the conference aims to encourage self-reflection – with the goal of critically examining how antigypsyism/racism against Roma and Sinti is addressed within the administrative context and initiating processes of change.

News Western Europe Spain

Roma in Spain

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Roma in Spain

The book “Pueblo Gitano. 600 años de historia y cultura en España” [The Gitanos People: 600 Years of History and Culture in Spain] coordinated by Gonzalo Montaño, Joan M. Oleaque, and Arnau Vilaró, dismantles six centuries of silence, prejudice, and official narratives about Roma history.

Too bad they used the Gitanos name and not the endonym, “Cale”.

Bulgaria France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Almost nothing about Roma this week in the French press. Just an article about a camp near Paris that was left, but with tons of garbage in its place, and an article in Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper about Bulgaria, unfortunately with lots of French based clichés on Roma.

Germany News Western Europe

A Birth, and Police

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A Birth, and Police

A large family wanted to celebrate the birth of a child in the foyer of the University Hospital of Cologne. Those present felt disturbed, and the hospital asked the family to leave. The police then had to be called.

The result: A complaint against the university hospital from the Rom association, which advocates for the rights of Sinti and Roma, as well as a criminal complaint and a formal complaint against the police at the Cologne Police Headquarters.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Spain

Sally Cortes

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Sally Cortes

“The first step must be taken by oneself – to believe that one can achieve everything one dreams of,” says Romani writer and activist Sally Cortés in an interview.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much in terms of news in France this week about Roma. A camp was vacated near Paris; a judge rejected the appeal against an “insertion” village near Nantes; and the story of a Rom, his wife and children forced to live in their car.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

There was very little news in the French press about Roma this week. Charlie Hebdo, one satirical French paper published an article about Stolipinovo, the Roma Mahala in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. As usual in France, unfortunately not well informed. Other  than that, In Nantes, a collective is trying to help Roma.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany, Police, and Roma

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Germany, Police, and Roma

Sinti and Roma are frequently subjected to prejudice and discrimination by the police, according to a report. The Reporting and Information Center on Antigypsyism (MIA) analyzed 215 cases reported by victims between 2020 and 2024 for the report presented in Berlin on Thursday.

According to the report, Sinti and Roma often report that their complaints are not recorded by the police, and that incidents are downplayed or denied. Investigations against police officers following complaints are reportedly dropped. In some cases, victims who file a complaint themselves become the target of investigations. The study evaluates hundreds of allegations of discrimination against Roma and Sinti by the police. The spectrum ranges from reports not being recorded to violence – even at a children’s birthday party. Experts are calling for recognition of institutional problems within police departments.

News Western Europe Sweden

Minority Policies in Sweden

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Minority Policies in Sweden

Minority policy has now existed in Sweden for 25 years. A seminar was held in the Riksdag that both looked back on the development and pointed out what is needed going forward. Lars Lindgren, a Swedish Rom “Reisende” from DO tells how he views these 25 years and what challenges still remain.

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