Category Archives: News Western Europe

Germany News Western Europe

Don Vasyl

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Don Vasyl, one of the best known Roma musicians in Poland, is being accused of plagiarism by two Polish artists who claim he stole some of their music and works. The conflict is apparently not new, dating back 16 years (!). One of the pieces is the song Dželem Dželem where Don Vasyl is accused of having used the Polish words written by the artists. A first court ruling dismissed the case, but the lawyers of the Polish artists decided to appeal this decision.

Germany News Western Europe

Flight …

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The flight escape of a Sinti family from the Holocaust will be the focus of a book presentation on November 28 in the Neubrandenburg regional library. The opera and operetta singer Mirano Cavaljeti-Richter wrote the book together with the historian Annette Leo. It’s called “Fleeing across the Balkans. The childhood experiences of a Sinto boy during the Nazi era” and was published by Metropol-Verlag in Berlin.

The 89-year-old Cavaljeti-Richter grew up in a traditional extended family of comedians who used caravans to perform their variety programs in small towns and villages in the 1930s. In 1939 the family fled Germany via Italy, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. The singer was six years old at the time and describes how the family gradually lost everything but were able to save their lives.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week, which is always good. An extended family in Uzès, in the South is looking for a new place to stay after nearly 9 years in the same camp; a new camp being set up near Nantes and resulting protests; near Geneva, a mayor tries to find lodging for Roma; and finally, France being pointed out for racism by the UNO.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Condemned

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The district court of Neumünster sentenced the operator of a fitness studio to a one thousand Euros fine and thus agreed with Kelly Laubinger, a Sintica from Neumünster. She had suspected that she was denied membership of the fitness studio because of her last name – Laubinger which is a name that many Sinti bear. She hopes that her recent court victory will encourage others to take action against inequality.

News Western Europe Spain

Cadix: The Day of the Andalusian Gitanos

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The Delegation of Ethnic Minorities presented a program for the Day of the Andalusian Gypsies. The Andalusian Roma Day, is celebrated on November 22.

Germany News Western Europe

The Press and Roma

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The German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – short FAZ – was forced to remove a picture on one of its articles after critique from the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.

In FAZ’ November 1st issue, a photo showing a mountain of rubbish on Gutleutstrasse in Frankfurt am Main was used to illustrate the report “Fighting environmental crime more effectively”. In the caption, the focus was set on the Roma minority, although this had no relation to the text next to it. Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma commented: “Here a global crime is highligheted and the selection of images conveys that the Roma minority is involved in these environmental crimes through street garbage.” On Tuesday, the FAZ exchanged the picture for a photograph of EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius. Below the text, the addition was added: “This article appeared at times with an image that was not appropriate to the topic. We changed the illustration.”

This highlights how choices of pictures in articles in the press convey and further existing stereotypes regarding Roma.

Germany News Western Europe

Sachsenhausen: Exhibition

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Adolescents and younger adults from different countries, among them descendants of former prisoners, dealt with the history of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and with the question of how it can be remembered today and how the victims can be commemorated in artistic workshops. The results can be seen from Saturday.

The focus of the artistic interventions are the perspectives of the participants on today’s memorial and the question of which stories are missing. For example, the commemoration of Sinti and Roma, the memory of Spanish prisoners or also of female prisoners who had to work as forced prostitutes are discussed. The exhibition is interactive. Each work of art poses a question to the viewer and invites them to make their own statement.

Germany News Western Europe

Hamburg Commemoration

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The Hamburg Parliament and the Hamburg Senate commemorated the victims of war, Nazi tyranny and terrorism around the world on  the day of national mourning. The President of the Hamburg Parliament, Carola Veit, and Hamburg’s Deputy Mayor, Katharina Fegebank, laid wreaths at the international memorial of the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial site and at the memorial site “Denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof”. A central hour of remembrance then took place in the main church of St. Michaelis.

Germany News Western Europe

Sinto Settlement in Kiel, Germany

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A reportage in the Sinto Settlement “Maro Temm” in Kiel. Well, with some stereotypes from the journalists too. Large families, feasts, etc.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Documentary

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The movie “Injustice and Resistance” (Germany/Austria 2022, 113 minutes) by Peter Nestler received the 3sat Documentary Film Award, endowed with 6000 euros, for the best German-language documentary at the 46th Duisburg Film Week.

In Peter Nestler’s film, civil rights activist Romani Rose talks about his family history and his experiences. As early as 1970 Nestler shot “Att vara zigenare” (“To be a gypsy”) for Swedish television. Back then it was the first film that didn’t talk about the minority, but rather let the people themselves have their say. 52 years later, Nestler shows how stubbornly prejudices and enemy stereotypes have persisted.

Austria News Western Europe

Austria: Commemoration

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A commemoration of the Roma victims in the former concentration camp of Lackenbach was held this week.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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This week is more usual. An article about the effectiveness of the “transition village” that was set up in Montpellier, with more people finding jobs and housing, showing this is the better way to do things. In Nantes, a conference will be held on Roma and precarity. And the rest is the usual: A fire in a Roma camp near Paris; a closure of a camp in Villeurbane near Lyon and another one that neighbours would like to see closed in the same town.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and Germans

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For the last few weeks, the NDR has been touring the north of Germany with the series “The North Reads”. The series has made a stop at the Kultur Palast in Hamburg-Billstedt and was practically a guest – at the ARD theme week “We wanted! What holds us together?”. Bestselling author Ildiko von Kürthy and the two authors Daniel Schreiber and Gianni Jovanovic described what they mean by “we”.

As a Rom, Gianni Jovanovic has already thought a lot about what this “we” means, which is talked about so much. Of course he sees himself as a German, he says, despite the crimes committed under National Socialism on Sinti and Roma:

“It’s true that we have one country. Half a million people were exterminated. Nevertheless, we feel that we belong to this country,” says Jovanovic. “I have a problem with the word Heimat, but Germany is my home and my safe haven. I’ve noticed that a lot of Sinti and Roma don’t say they are Sinti and Roma because they’re afraid of being discriminated against – and that is a big problem.”

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and Extremism

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A new study in Germany, the Leipziger Sudie zürich Extremismus shows improvement since the last one tow years ago. However, racism isn’t sill a problem, against Jews, Moslems, and of course Roma. In Eastern Germany, more than 50% of respondent would have a problem if Roma would move into their neighbourhood, while in the Western part of the country, it is still around 30%.

Bad.

News Western Europe Spain

Spain: Discrimination Report

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Spain: Discrimination Report

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) presented its 18th Annual Report “Discrimination and the Roma Community” today in Seville. The focus of the report is the Discriminatory bias in the use of artificial intelligence and its impact on the Roma community.

The report presents 554 cases of discrimination and antigypsyism reported and assisted by the FSG in 2021, in its capacity as coordinator of the Service of Assistance and Guidance to Victims of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination and the Calí programme for the Equality of Roma Women. In addition, the report includes the most recent advances, good practices, jurisprudence and strategic litigation in the field of discrimination led by the FSG.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Brawl

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In a mass brawl in a parking lot in Düsseldorf, a man drove his car into a group of people and injured several people. Five men were so badly injured in the incident early Saturday morning that they had to be taken to hospital for treatment, police and prosecutors said. After outpatient treatment, the men were released.

Witnesses estimated that up to 50 to 60 participants took part in the brawl, as reported by the “Neue Ruhr Zeitung”, citing a police spokeswoman. The participants apparently came from the Sinti and Roma milieu.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Interesting week about Roma in the French press. First, an article about a “reportage” on Travellers in France that simply panders to the worst common stereotypes. This is definitively not journalism, but rather disinformation, unfortunately watcher by 2.9 Mio French. In Mulhouse, in Eastern France, there will be an information day on Roma and Travellers. In Grenoble, in the Southeast, young Roma can do sports. Then, an article about the rumour about a traffic of human organs and abduction, all involving Roma. The article investigates where the rumour started and how it spread through social media. Finally, a more common news in Toulouse, where Roma camping near the river have been told to leave.

News Western Europe Spain

Roma Genetics

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A genetic study among the Cale population of Spain, with clear results and an interesting diversity of matrilineal material hinting at an original greater diversity of the proto-Roma population than previously thought.

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