Category Archives: News Western Europe

Housing and Roma in Germany

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Two cases of houses in Berlin which are mostly rented by Roma, where the residents have been expelled and need to go, making space for newer constructions.

Barvalo

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Several articles are devoted to the new exhibition in Marseilles in the museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisation entitled “Barvalo”

Brandenburg and Roma

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The chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani, praised Brandenburg as exemplary with regard to its minority policy. “By making the fight against antiziganism a state goal, the state government is showing its responsibility to history and outlawing antiziganism as well as antisemitism,” said Rose on Tuesday after a conversation with Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD). “It sets an exemplary signal for our democratic constitutional state.”

French Chronicle …

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Not much about Roma in France this week. Two articles on the judicial system: One  where two Roma who were accused of stealing copper were freed for lack of proof; the other, the case of a child removed from her mother based on a wrong testimony. The usual story about the closure of camps in Bordeaux – they simply pop up again somewhere else. And finally, an intervention in the French senate about the lack of social care for Roma children, and the fact that the Roma population living in camps does not decrease. There are roughly 15’000 of them. Since at least 20 years.

Westerbork

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The camp of Westerbork in the Netherlands, a camp from which many Jews and Roma were transferred to death camps, wants to put more emphasis on the victims of the Holocaust. The military tattoo will no longer be blown at the 4 May commemoration in Camp Westerbork this year, instead the bell of camp will be rung before the two minutes of silence.

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week in the press about Roma in France. In Lyon, Roma are being housed in bungalows. Definitively better than the camps. Ear Paris, Roma left a camp. In Western France, a camp was closed. And in the South two Roma from Bosnia were arrested while attempting to steal bicycles.

Diane Abbott

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The statements of the Labour MP about racism continue to draw criticism.

Diane Abott

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The British Labour MP Diane Abott had to resign following an outcry after a letter she wrote to a newspaper in which she suggested that “prejudice” experienced by “white-seeming people” is distinct from racism against black people.

This when one in three Roma and Travellers have experienced racism in the UK.

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week. Ab amusing (and inaccurate) article on the French slang expression “nachave pelo” meaning in slang “get away”, “run”. It comes from the verb našav, to flee or to escape, and pelo, a testicle (and not a man as they say). Near Paris, an abandoned camp is an ecological problem, and near Bordeaux, the future closure of a camp means many inhabitants will loose their lodgings, and no replacement solutions have been organised.

Germany: Grimme Prize

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The German Grimme Prize is considered the most important prize for German TV. The winners have been known for a while, but they only now received their prizes. In the “Information & Culture” category, Peter Nestler was honoured for his documentary film about the injustice against German Sinti and Roma families. He tells of Romani Rose’s family, their resistance and their insistence on justice (ZDF/3sat, 112 minutes).

Commemoration in Mittelbau-Dora

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In a speech during the commemoration last Sunday, the chairwoman of the State Association of German Sinti and Roma Berlin-Brandenburg, Petra Rosenberg, recalled her father. He survived the concentration camp, but always struggled with what he experienced there and with the memories of it. Rosenberg also criticized the fact that Sinti and Roma still experience discrimination and stigmatization today.

Buchenwald: Commemorations

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Commemorations were held yesterday in Buchenwald and Bergen Belsen on the 78th anniversary of the liberation of those camps. These commemorations focused this year on Sinti and Roma and the current increase in racism towards them.

 

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