Category Archives: News Western Europe

Philomena Franz

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Philomena Franz

The Nazis would never have imagined that she would outlive them. The almost centenarian Philomena Franz, who escaped certain death several times, in an extermination camp and four concentration camps, delivers these words to the director, producer and film actor Detlev Buck, who meets her in her Berlin home to arrange an interview. It was 2020, Buck had decided to shoot a documentary on the Holocaust for the Arte TV network. Until then he had never dared to make a film about the Nazi persecutions. It was the survivors who encouraged him. They feared that future generations would forget what happened. Among them Philomena Franz, a Sinti, born in 1922 and died a hundred years later, on December 28, 2022.

Slovenia, Fascists, and Roma

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Slovenia, Fascists, and Roma

In Lonjer, a then entirely Slovenian village on the outskirts of Trieste, the fascist authorities interned six Roma and Sinti between September 1940 and September 1943. The fascists confined them there after the Italian Ministry of the Interior ordered all prefects on September 11, 1940, to register Roma who were citizens of Italy and to confine those without permanent residence.

This fact as well as others were presented by Paola Trevisan in the Gopčević Palace. The historian and anthropologist dedicated her first scientific monograph to the persecution of Roma and Sinti in fascist Italy, which she presented in Trieste as part of the events marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. The author was interviewed by historian Michele Sarfatti.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much on Roma nowadays in the French press. One teacher who helps young Roma in their education in Nantes, and a fire in a camp in the Southeast of France.

Greece: Trump and Roma

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Greece: Trump and Roma

What does Trump have to do with Roma? Well, according to this Greek article, American Presidential Inaugurations are very much like Roma weddings. Actually not like Roma weddings, but what the journalist thinks Roma wedding are like.

Bad, as it perpetuates stereotypes.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Very little this week. Only three articles, all on the same topic, terh genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust. At least they speak about it. This is new.

Muharem Serbezovski

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Muharem Serbezovski

in Skopje, Muharem is deeply attached to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially Sarajevo, which he often calls his “soulmate”.

His name is well-known in the former Yugoslavia, where he gained the status of one of the most famous singers, whose music, inspired by Roma and oriental styles, left an indelible mark on the art scene. He released his first album at the age of only 12. He is also an author and he published a translation of the Bible in Romanes.

Bari, Italy: Integration

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Bari, Italy: Integration

The Municipality of Bari has published the call for proposals to implement an Inclusion and integration project for Roma, Sinti and Caminanti children and adolescents, funded under the National Inclusion and Fight against Poverty Program 2021-2027 with over 457 thousand euros. The specific objective is the.

Inclusion of Roma children and young people at school in Bari.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much this week. A really bad news about a 23-year-old Rom who was arrested for reaping his 13 years old cousin that had been promised to him in marriage. The girl, from Romania, managed to escape and is now under protection. This is really bad as it enforces the stereotypes. Other than that, the extreme rightist Alain Soral who is being investigated for antisemitism is now also under investigations for rabid statements about Roma.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Almost no news in the French press about Roma this week. A French researcher, Lise Foisneau, who has been sharing the daily life with travellers in France for the last ten years, has created an online resource that lists all the known victims of the community during World War Two. Unfortunately, as most French, they still do not understand the differences between groups and the fact that these are mostly Roma.

Reimar Lust Award

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Reimar Lust Award

The historian Kateřina Čapková is a leading expert on modern Jewish history in Central and Eastern Europe, the history of the Sinti and Roma, and on flight and migration in the 20th century. She teaches at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The central focus of her research is on the experiences of Jewish communities in what was then Czechoslovakia during and after World War II. Čapková opens up new perspectives on the interactions between nationalism, minority policy, and transnational networks in Europe. The Reimar Lüst Prize will enable her to conduct research at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig.

UK: Apologies

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UK: Apologies

Greater Manchester Police has apologised ‘for any humiliation and distress caused’ after groups of kids were ordered to leave the city, a leading Travellers’ charity has said.

Well, they took time. And it was definitively racist.

Leni Riefenstahl

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Leni Riefenstahl

A documentary about Hitler’s favourite director Leni Riefenstahl only sparingly illuminates how Riefenstahl took legal action against critics of her Nazi involvement.

She produced “The Beautiful Appearance of the Third Reich” and was a dancer, actress and director. With three NSDAP party congress films and her films about the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany, she was the award-winning cinematic figurehead of the National Socialist dictatorship. Director legends such as George Lucas and Quentin Tarantino are among her admirers. Alice Schwarzer defended the artist against the accusation of being a Nazi propagandist.

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