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?
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.
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.
A portrait of Angela Kapler, a successful Sintiza and on the discrimination and prejudices she faced.
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.
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.
An exhibition of the works of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas in Ferrara, Italy.
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.
One of the great voices of Flamenco died: José Cortes “Pansequito”.
May he rest in peace!
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.
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.
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.
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 …
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.
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.
Munich Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx wants to conduct a review of the historical responsibility of the Catholic Church for the persecution of the Sinti and Rom during the Nazi. Marx visited the documentation and cultural centre of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.
The visit also dealt in particular with the role of the then Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Michael Faulhaber (1869-1952) and his attitude towards Sinti and Roma.
The three sisters Snezana (Simonida Selimović), Tanja (Jasmin Behnawa) and Melisa (Zeynep Alan) travel to their mother’s Serbian home village and thus begin to confront their own identity. Jelena, the mother of the siblings, who could hardly be more different, went to Boljevac to celebrate Bibijako Dive (“Aunt’s Day”) and died shortly afterwards. The festival is celebrated every year on January 31st, the same day on which the play in WERK X was first performed in Vienna.
In “Bibi Sara Kali” the confrontation with the alienated Roma culture and its customs is brought to the stage in a self-deprecating, humorous and authentic way.
“It’s always wonderful to see the audience so enthusiastic. Being able to tell our stories is of course something special,” says director Simonida Selimović in an interview with KURIER. She herself was born in Serbia, but came to Vienna at the age of seven. Growing up in two cultures, I can identify with my siblings’ struggle for identity.
Austrian TV Station ORF Burgenland will start a new series on Sunday, February 12, 2023 as part of the TV folk group program “Romano Dikipe”. “In the footsteps of vanished Roma settlements” is the title of the series that investigates the situation of the Roma in Burgenland today. In each program, a different location is visited in order to talk to Burgenland Roma and Romnja about their lives, but also about the past. The reports are in Burgenland Romani, the language of the Roma in Burgenland, and have German subtitles throughout. The new series is based on the comprehensive historical work of the two Burgenland historians Herbert Brettl and Gerhard Baumgartner. The latter is also a studio guest on “Burgenland heute” on Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
For centuries, Sinti and Roma were excluded and persecuted in Germany. To this day, the fight for recognition is tough. This also includes a student association that wants to give Sinti/Roma and diversity at universities a voice.
Survivors of the Nazi genocide of Sinti and Roma are worse off than other groups when it comes to compensation. A commission set up by former Interior Minister Seehofer (CSU) is calling for compensation for this disadvantage. But the traffic light coalition does not want to implement it.
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