Against the backdrop of the commandant’s residence at Camp Westerbork, Theater Group Komyounit performs an impressive rendition of The Voice of a Guitar. Roma were deported from this camp.
Not much this week in France about Roma. An article about the Roma anthem at the inauguration of the new Hungarian prime minister Peter Magyar; two Roma being judged for burglary; and a meeting in Paris to commemorate the genocide of the Roma.
May 16th marks the 82nd anniversary of Romani Resistance Day. In 1944, Roma and Sinti resisted the Nazis in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
What is not quite correct in the ORF Program is their statement that this uprising “saved thoudans of lives”. We simply do not know, and it did not prevent the destruction of the “Zigeunerlager” on August 2nd, 1944.
On May 16, 1940, police officers arrested approximately 1,000 Sinti and Roma in Hamburg and Northern Germany. At the memorial site at Hanoverian Station in Lohsepark in HafenCity, Roma and Sinti will commemorate the fact that their ancestors were deported to concentration camps by the National Socialists 86 years ago on Saturday. A wreath will be laid around 2 p.m. With this annual day of remembrance, they also want to remember the survivors who still have to live with the consequences of this injustice.
What contribution can art and culture make to remembering the genocide of the Roma and Sinti? This question will be addressed in the discussion in the context of the exhibition of the same name.
This collaborative event between the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Goethe-Institut brings together German and Czech stakeholders from civil society and the cultural sector, inviting them to reflect, discuss, and develop new perspectives for an inclusive and future-oriented culture of remembrance. The discussion takes place in conjunction with the photography exhibition of the same name, which will be on display on Kampa Island in Prague from May 27 to June 10.
Sinti and Roma experience brutal discrimination on the housing market, says Thomas Erbel from the Amaro Drom association. Even from neighbors. An Interview.
Less than a month before the beginning of the largest horse fair in the UK in Appleby on June 4th, the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma representative, Billy Welch, appleas to them not to come too early to the fair.
The Austrian Equal Treatment Commission has intervened following a letter from employees of the Neusiedl am See district police command warning the public about Roma and Sinti. Intended as crime prevention information to combat fraud, the now-deleted text of a Facebook post used “a term perceived as discriminatory regarding the Roma ethnic group,” the ministry stated.
Now the interior Ministry is also investigating.
Many articles this week about a very young mayor (23 years old) in Western France who is trying to get rid of a Roma camp on the coimmune, an conflict that boiled over with pro-Roma militiants and with opposistion politicians.
Other than that, near Paris, a new camp on private grounds, and also near Paris, the police is accused of violence against Roma after on policeman shot a young dog in the head during a perquisition in the camp.
Representatives of the Roma community have sharply criticized a letter from the Neusiedl am See district police command. The letter warns of criminal activities by the traveller community. The state police command condemns the wording of the letter and intends to conduct an internal investigation.
The Chairman of the German Central Council of Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, pointed out that the National Socialists called on the population in 1933 not to buy from Jews and had police and SS troops march in front of Jewish businesses. He was criticising a letter by the Austrian police of the Burgenland warning the population about Sinti and Roma.
Rose appealed to Interior Minister Karner of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) to initiate disciplinary proceedings against those responsible within the police force. He emphasized that the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities entered into force in Austria in 1998. This obligates the state to counteract all forms of anti-Gypsyism. The Central Council stated that the Europe-wide rise of nationalist forces, which often base their political program on racism and incitement and have now become the strongest political force in Austria, is alarming.
The Austrian Equal Treatment Commission criticized a letter issued by the Burgenland police authority in Neusiedl on Friday, in which the police warned the population about Roma and Sinti. The letter, the Commissioner argued, perpetuates historical anti-Roma stereotypes. The letter’s instruction not to accept services from members of this ethnic group could constitute an incitement to discrimination, emphasized Sandra Konstatzky, head of the Equal Treatment Commission.
A theater director is commissioned by the Burgtheater Vienna to stage a play by and with Roma actors. He promptly decides to use the real-life biographies of the participants for his piece and has a house from their village dismantled into 3,000 individual pieces in order to rebuild it on the stage of the Akademietheater. Audience and press eagerly anticipate the extraordinary production and hope for maximum authenticity.
The GoShorts program selected six short films that open up space for questions of power and empowerment – of collectives and individuals. Among them was Kismet by Novo Mesto director Žiga Virc, who received the RheinMain Award. It is the sotory of a 11 years old Romni.
A long article in the French Le Monde on the Genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust, and the fact that the French are relatively silent about it. Why are they still using “Tsiganes”?
Other news are more of the usual. An article about the so-called insertion vilalge near Nantes, in Western France; a neighbourhood in Lille is unhappy with a Roma camp; and a fire in Montpellier.
Marcella Herzenberger is the chairwoman of the regional association of German Sinti and Roma in Swabia. In this role, she has been working for years to raise awareness about a very specific form of racism directed against Sinti and Roma. This racism manifests itself in deeply rooted prejudices, discrimination and exclusion, extending to structural disadvantages in education, employment, housing, and everyday life.
Another of those stories of camping sites, mostly illegal, where Roma travellers camped and left in a desolate state.
Bad for all.
An article in El Pais about Roma resistqance and the new generation. Unfortunately, they mix up their history. They say six centuries in Europe. Roma have effectively been for six centuries in Western Europe, but for much longer in the Balkan and in Greece.
This is always the same misreading of history, and from a normally good paper. And in addition they state “Roma people”… Would they say Spanish people? Or just Spaniards?
Annoying.
Sinti and Roma are increasingly subjected to discrimination. In 2025, the documentation center on anti-Gypsyism run by the Amaro Foro association recorded the highest number of incidents since documentation began: a total of 293 cases – an increase of approximately 19 percent compared to the previous year. According to the association, the actual number of cases is likely even higher.
Lolita Cercel, the AI Romani Singer, managed to make it to the French press. So dit the Council of Europe. The rest is unfrotunately the usual, with Roma having been evicted near Nates in Western France, have nowhere to go. And in another place, Roma are being threatened with eviction.
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