Category Archives: News Western Europe

Austria News Western Europe

8th of April in Vienna

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An impressive program in Vienna for the International Roma day and the 30th anniversary of the recognition of Roma in Austria. Podium discussion with Dieter Halwachs, Emmerich Gartner-Horvath, Erika Thurner, Mirjam Karoly, and Ursula Hemetek; Roma Tales and concert, and an after party.

News Western Europe United Kingdom

Poetry

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Jo Clement, a lecturer at Northumbria University, recently published a poetry collection that has been nominated for the prestigious John Pollard Foundation Poetry Prize.

She also was an editor in the ERIAC published book  “Wagtail: The Roma Women’s Poetry Anthology”.

Germany News Western Europe

Never Again

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When Josef Maria Schneck died, he was only 13 years old. The boy was one of the 141 Sinti who were deported from Munich to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp 80 years ago, on March 13, 1943. The city of Munich honours the victims of this genocide with a day of remembrance.

Germany Moldova News Western Europe

Germany and Roma Refugees

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3’200 people from Moldova will be expelled from Germany back into their home country at the end of the month. Most of them are Roma. These Roma protested over the weekend.

“We want to stay here. We don’t want to be deported and come back every three months,” said a young mother. Like most of those who gathered on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Mitte on Saturday afternoon, the Romni comes from the Republic of Moldova. The woman with the microphone looked desperate: “They treat us like dogs.”

France

French Chronicle …

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Truly nothing in the news in France this week. A “Reportage” on the wedings of the various “Gitans” communities on the main French TV – TF1. It caters to all stereotypes, and frankly, amalgamates everything, contributing to the non-understanding of Roma in general in France.

Italy News Western Europe

“Beware of Gypsies” !!!

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In Rome’s subway, an announcement over the loudspeakers said loudly several time:  “attenti agli zingari” [beware of Gypsies]. This is a first. Luckily, the company who runs Rome’s subway, Atac, is taking action.

We have a long way to go …

Germany News Western Europe

Bavaria and Roma

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Bavaria is increasing its financial support for the State Association of German Sinti and Roma. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and head of the state association Erich Schneeberger signed a new version of the contract that had existed since 2018 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Bavarian Sinti and Roma.

This provides for an expansion of cooperation and an increase in financial support from 434,700 euros to 662,300 euros.

Germany News Western Europe

Hanover: Exhibition

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With a special exhibition, the police headquarters and the Hanover region commemorate the deportation of Sinti and Roma by the National Socialists to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In the first weeks of March 1943, more than 700 Sinti and Roma, including many children, were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau from what is now Lower Saxony alone.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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More news this week about Roma in the French press. A movie on the Roma Genocide during the Holocaust, which will be released this year; a book by Philippe Lafitte,, where one of the protagonist is a Rom, but which unfortunately uses quite a few stereotypes; a lenghty article in the Le Monde on racism and on the measures the government is taking to fight it; and then the usual. A fire in a camp, a new squat, and travellers “bothering” a town.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Commemoration

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On March 3rd, 1943, 80 years ago, German police arrested Sinti and Roma and deported them to concentration camps.

Several articles in the German press commemorated this day.

Germany News Western Europe

Hamburg and Racism

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Sinti and Roma organisations as well as other victims associations are asking the members of the Hamburg Parliament to include not only the fight against anti-Semitism but also anti-Gypsyism as a state goal in the state constitution. “With the change in the preamble to the Hamburg Constitution, you will soon have the rare opportunity to take responsibility for the memory of National Socialist terror,” says a letter published on Monday by the Auschwitz Committee, National Association of Sinti in Hamburg, Rome and Cinti Union and the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime – Association of Anti-Fascists to the MPs.

Germany News Western Europe

Willi Kreutz

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The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma, together with the Central Council, mourns the loss of Holocaust survivor Willi Kreutz, who died in Mannheim on February 11, 2023 at the age of 90. He was closely connected to both organizations and accompanied the delegations of the Central Council to the international commemoration ceremonies on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day for Sinti and Roma on August 2 in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

Willi Kreutz was born on July 6, 1932 in Düsseldorf. In the course of the May deportations of thousands of Sinti and Roma to the so-called General Government of Poland, his older sister, who later became a civil rights activist, Hildegard Lagrenne, was deported. A few months later Willi Kreutz and his parents followed her.

May he rest in peace.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany, Sinti and Roma

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While Sinti and Roma would like to conclude a state treaty with the German Federal Government, there is a disagreement within the minority as to which organisation should represent them in the negotiations. Why should there be only one?

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week, which is not surprising: Roma make news only if there are no news …

Nevertheless, a small scandal of a TV journalist who on BFM TV, qualified the French Assembly of being a “Gypsy Camp”. No comments. In Bordeaux, an exhibition about “Gitans, Tsiganes, Roms, Gens du Voyage” showing once again that France is totally confused about names. Finally, a more standard news of an open air illegal garbage dump near Nantes, where not only Roma are dumping things.

Germany News Western Europe

Racism against Roma in Germany

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Attacks against Sinti and Roma have increased in Germany. Last year, the authorities registered a total of 145 crimes against Sinti and Roma – the highest number in six years. This emerges from the response of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a request from the left-wing faction.

Bad.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and the Holocaust

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A new survey in Germany found out that young people know very little about the Nazi period and the Holocaust. For example, less than half of the respondents mentioned the sick and disabled as victims of persecution, and less than a third mentioned Sinti and/or Roma.

For the Memo Youth Study, approximately 3,500 young people aged 16 to 25 were surveyed online by the University of Bielefeld in September/October 2021, and 838 participants were re-tested in September 2022.

Its authors point out that despite insufficient knowledge of the facts, National Socialism and World War II are the main points of reference in the culture of remembrance for teenagers and young adults.

Thus, 63 percent of young adults, but on average only 53 percent across all age groups, reported being interested in events from the National Socialist era. In addition, around three-quarters of those aged 16 to 25 did not question the desirability of dealing with this period in German history.

Germany News Western Europe

Hanau – Three years Ago

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Three years after the racist attack in Hanau, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) spoke of a “shock for all of us” that is still having an effect today. The suffering of the victims and their grieving relatives must be given more attention in our remembrance, she demanded on Sunday – exactly three years after the attack. Other top politicians and the evangelical church also commemorated the victims.

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