11.04.2014 Foundation for the compensation of forced labourers excludes Rroma

Rroma representatives from Germany were and are until now excluded from the participation in the foundation “remembrance, responsibility and future”. This is criticised in particular by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. The issue is a statute of the foundation, which demands that the German Rroma groups provide one single common representative. The three largest Rroma associations of the country, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Sinti-Alliance and the International Roma Union, could not agree on the selection of a common representative: “the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma demands that finally a representative of these ethnic groups should be appointed into the board of the foundation “remembrance, responsibility and future”, for the compensation of forced labourers. One has again contacted the chairmen of all parliamentary factions with the request to end this “illegal and disparaging condition of a minority”, said the chairman of the Central Council, Romani Rose, on Wednesday in Berlin. […] The legal advisor of the Central Council, Arnold Rossberg, stressed that his association has no intention to claim for itself the exclusive representation for all Sinti and Roma in Germany. However, it is not acceptable that the representatives of these groups are not only refused from the board, but also from the participation in the meetings – without voting rights – or the access to minutes of the meetings. What is more, the board frequently addressed issues of both individual compensation for Sinti and Roma, as well as to cultural and social promotion projects. Hopefully, it is uncontested that concerning these questions “no one has more expertise than the victims themselves”, said Rose” (Balcerowiak 2014). The dispute about the foundation and a common Rroma representative has a multiple, symbolic character. On one hand, the dispute is symptomatic of the continuing exclusion of the minority in the definition of decisions it concerns. Rroma representatives have criticized repeatedly that until today, most of time one talks about them and not with them, what often is a patronizing act. On the other hand, the argument shows that the demands and views of the individual representatives of the minority, despite common claims, are heterogeneous: the Sinto-Alliance rejects the generic term “Roma” for the minority (Balcerowiak 2014 Südwestpresse 2014).