Category Archives: News Western Europe

News Western Europe Spain

More on the Attacks in Spain

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The National Human Rights Platform, the Faith and Hope Religious Congregation and the Esperanza Gitana Union for Humanity, together with relatives of the alleged murderer of the 19-year-old who died in Íllora (Granada), have filed a letter with the Government Subdelegation to denounce “racist and xenophobic acts” for the assaults against some Roma homes and vehicles following the murder of the 19-year-old.

Sad story.

News Western Europe Spain

Attacks in Spain

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The Spanish Ombudsman will study the attacks that occurred against the homes and property of Roma families that occurred in Íllora, in the Poniente region of Granada, in response to a crime allegedly committed by a 23-year-old Rom this past Monday, for which a 19-year-old died.

Representatives of the Spanish Gitana Society met this Friday with members of the Ombudsman’s office to demand protection from the attacks, which occurred this week after a demonstration to demand justice for the murder. After that protest, a group of people went to the houses of relatives of the alleged murderer, who was on the run at that time and who turned himself in the next day, and vandalized them.

Germany News Western Europe

Rostock, 30 years ago

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Thirty years ago, a massive racist pogrom took place in Rostock Lichtenhagen. It was mostly directed at Vietnamese immigrants but also touched a few Roma.

It highlighted the existent of violent racism in Germany, something that has unfortunately continued. Other lessons, such as how the police should intervene have been learnt.

Belgium News Western Europe

Brussels: Begging or not?

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According to the police, Roma families constitute the bulk of begging with children in the capital. Five years ago, the police identified ten to fifteen active families near the Grand-Place and Rue Neuve. At the beginning of 2022, it counted six times more.

Begging with minors was forbidden, then the law was suspended, and if finally again forbidden, with fines of up to 350 EUR. The discussion whether this interdiction is the right solution are ongoing.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Testimony

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Romeo Tiberiade, a contemporary witness of the anti-foreigner pogrom in Rostock  in 1992 speaks for the first time. Tiberiade came to Germany with his family from Romania in 1992. In conversation with his daughter, Izabela Tiberiade, he reports on the flight to Germany, the pogrom and his family’s life after the pogrom.

Romeo Tiberiade is chairman of the Roma party “Pro Europa” in Dolj and adviser to the Mayor of Craiova on Roma issues. He lives with his family in Craiova.

Izabela Tiberiade is a law graduate from Malmö University and active in the Europe-wide network “Dikh He Na Bister” in memory of the Porajmos. She lives in Malmo.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Unfortunately, more news on Roma this week in France. Near Nantes, Romanian Roma families who were expulsed twice in 24 hours on July 6 and 7th have finally found a place where they can stay. The town of Rezé together with the city of Nantes has set a location aside where the Roma can put up their camp. Also In Nantes, Roma lost everything last week in a fire and the commune is appealing for help. Other news are a fire in a garbage dump in a Roma camp in Marseilles; a squat closed near Paris; and finally, two young Roma arrested near Paris for burglary in several houses.

Germany News Western Europe

Ursula Heilig

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Ursula Heilig, born Hartmann, died at the age of 85. She was born on February 28, 1937, in Frankenstein into a Silesian Sinti family. Her family ran a circus company. From 1940 to 1945, as a small child, she lived in hiding in Upper Silesia with her mother Auguste Sperlich and other relatives under inhumane conditions. She suffered severe damage to her health as a result of escaping and living in hiding. Large parts of her relatives were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

May she rest in peace.

News Western Europe Spain

Spain, Attacks, and Roma

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The Spanish Gitana Society and the Federation of Gitana Women have filed a complaint against the mayor of Íllora (Granada), Antonio Salazar, for alleged incitement to hatred after the violent death of a 19-year-old boy at the town festivals. The incitement concerns acts by citizen who have detained a 23-year-old Gitano, and for the damage to Roma homes the municipality of Poniente de Granada.

Specifically, the Federation of Gitana Women considers the alderman “promoter and instigator” of the assaults registered in the town against several Gitana families and has even requested his arrest.

According to the Spanish Gitana Society, these are “serious crimes”, which “have been generated against Gitana families”, for which they ask that the mayor be “immediately arrested”.

These attacks are becoming more frequent is Spain.

Italy News Americas News Western Europe

International Romnja Congress

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The University of Southern Patagonia of Argentina – UNPA which has been involved for years in spreading the Romani culture and above all it deals with the condition of women Romani women is organising an International Congress of Romani Women from the 17th to the 19th of August.

In addition to Argentina, Romani women from Brazil, the USA, Spain, Romania, Ukraine, Italy will attend. For Italy, Giulia Di Rocco has been called for the second time to take part and will talk about the situation of Romani women between discrimination and struggles for gender equality.

Greece News Western Europe

Interview with Paul Hagouel

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Dr. Paul Isaac Hagouel, president of the Roma Genocide Committee at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) spoke to APE-MPE on the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day on August 2nd. Himself the son of an Auschwitz survivor, explained that “the oblivion of the Roma and Sinti Genocide perpetuated prejudices and stereotypes about the Roma which, in turn, fostered discrimination and unfounded and at the same time harmful hatred of the ‘other’ – Anti-Gypsyism”.

Thus, the IHRA, a transnational organization, constituted by a combination of experts and top diplomats from the member states, recommended the creation of the Commission on the Genocide of the Roma in 2007. This interdisciplinary IHRA Committee aims to raise awareness of prejudice against Roma and Sinti and highlight the link between the history of persecution and the current situation in Roma communities which, continue to experience the manifestations of stereotypes, prejudices and, quite often, (racial) hatred.

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Spain Ukraine

Spain and Ukraine

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An editorial by Juan de Dios Ramirez Heredia, a lawyer, former EU MP, and a Rom activist on the unbearable situation of Roma in the Ukraine. He states: “It is dramatic to know that the situation of the Roma people in Ukraine is unbearable and that the war has greatly increased their exclusion. Conditions in the settlements are unacceptable and Roma are being discriminated against during aid distribution in the context of war.”

News Western Europe Spain

Spain and Racism

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The little Catalan town of la Seu d’Urgell was the scene of racist incident between a group of local residents who wanted to dance a Sardana on a square and a group of Roma evangelical Christians. The municipality apparently had made an error and scheduled both events on the same square on the same day. The result was that Roma were insulted and confronted with racist shouts and were asked to leave.

The municipality excused itself and deplored the racist overtones of its residents.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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After a week without news on Roma in France, they are back in the news. An interview and overview of the travels of a French Gitan in Europe to preserve the memory of those who were killed during the Holocaust. A book and a movie will apparently follow. Other than that, a major fire started in Nantes, in Western France,  in the vicinity of a Roma camp. Apparently, several caravans were burnt, and the Roma were evacuated. Finally, a new camp in the South East will be closed, as it is situated in a forest that could easily burn.

Germany News Western Europe

Fact Check

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A video has been circulating on social media since July 31. It is shared with the claim: “150 extended Roma families from Ukraine are given apartments in Sömmerda, Thuringia and the shops have been informed not to call the police for every crime.”

Well, nothing is true here. The only truth is that this is racist propaganda.

Germany News Western Europe

Roma Literature

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Their literature is almost unknown: Only in 2019 for the first time were Sinti and Roma represented with their own stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time. A look at literary alternatives to a world of intolerance and ignorance. This give a nice overview of Roma literature.

Austria News Western Europe

Roma Holocaust Remembrance: Austria

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The Austrian President Van der Bellen commemorated the Roma Holocaust on August 2nd.

Germany News Western Europe

Roma Holocaust Remembrance: German Press

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Some extracts of the numerous articles in the German Press on the August 2nd commemorations and on the speech of Bodo Ramelow, the president of the German Parliament in Auschwitz.

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