Category Archives: News Western Europe

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

Published by:

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

Published by:

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

Published by:

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

Published by:

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

Published by:

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 …

Published by:

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

Published by:

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

Published by:

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

Published by:

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.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

Published by:

Not much about Roma this week in France. A Roma association lodged a complaint against the mayor of Villeron, near Paris, where the mayor and many of the residents illegally destroyed a Roma camp. Apparently, the mayor was shouting racist comments while this happened. In Lyon, another fire in a Roma camp. In Annecy, the story of a man who had so sell his parent’s house as it was squatted by Roma. Finally, a Rom killed on a highway in Nantes.

Italy News Western Europe

Italy and Roma Integration

Published by:

According to the Council of Europe, Italy is not doing enough on the integration of Roma. Despite various parliamentary initiatives, a national legal framework has still not been adopted. Anti-Gypsyism persists at all levels of society and is insufficiently fought against. A negative portrayal of Roma and Sinti remains widespread, including on social media.

Austria News Western Europe

Austria: Vandalism

Published by:

The monument commemorating the Roma victims of the Holocaust in Salzburg, Austria, was again damaged by vandals over the weekend. This is unfortunately not the first time.

France News Western Europe

“Gypsy Civilisation”

Published by:

A normally quite good radio station organised a discussion on the “Civilisation Tsigane”. It would have been good if they had checked their facts. France still seems totally confused between “Gens du Voyage”, Tsiganes, Roma, etc.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

Published by:

Quite a few news and articles about Roma in France this week. It all starts with the destruction of a Roma camp in Villeron (Val d’Oise) near Paris by local residents. The town’s mayor participated in this de-facto pogrom and is now under investigation. It is sad, and it is also the reflection of a total failure of the French state. These shantytowns lodge less than 20’000 people. They have, for the most part, been in France for 20 years. And the sate failed in their integration.

The other big news is that of a French senator for the centre right stating that the deputies of the LFI (La France Insoumise – Leftist party) are transforming the National Assembly in a “Gypsy camp”. Several associations have requested he excuses himself and have complained about the systemic racism against Roma in France.

A bad week …

France News Western Europe

France and Self Justice

Published by:

An article about a town near Paris that took it up to themselves to chase Roma away from their territory.

About a hundred Roma lived in a shantytown made of wooden huts in this Villeron (Val d’Oise) where Marine Le Pen came first in the presidential election, and which has been headed since 2014 by Dominique Kudla (without label). The mayor is now singled out for having supported and accompanied the rally that led to the eviction and destruction of the slum. “The mayor’s mission is to be the guarantor of the rule of law. We totally and unambiguously disapprove of what happened,” said Prefect Philippe Court. An investigation has been opened to specify, in particular, “whether or not there has been violence against people as well as damage to property”, announces the Pontoise prosecutor’s office.

Bad.

Italy News Western Europe

Casamonica

Published by:

Again. This story comes up every few months, even though the people involved have been in jail for years. It is a story of a mafia clan that was also a Roma family (and not the other way around). They do not do that many articles in the press on other mafiosi.

Bad.

rroma.org
en_GBEN
de_DEDE fr_FRFR en_GBEN