79 years after the Holocaust and Genocide, the German Catholic Church indicated they want wants to deal with its failure in the Genocide of the Sinti and Roma.
Better late than never …
The municipalities with registered Roma settlements signed an agreement in Trebnje, with which they undertook to use the funds they receive from the state as municipalities where Roma live. It is a total of around eight million euros. At the same time, the mayors expressed their disappointment that the state has not yet prepared the promised measures to solve Roma issues.
These mayors had proposed coercive measures that were openly directed at Roma and were dismissed at national level. Let’s see what comes out of this, but, if the title is any indication, this will not go well. The title says: “Many Roma children do not go to school and indulge in crime on the street”.
The European Union is putting pressure on member states to improve the integration of Roma into society. For several decades, Slovakia has been struggling with its inability to significantly improve the lives of the Roma, who represent about nine percent of its population.
President Zuzana Čaputová awarded a state award to Eva Gašparová, who is dedicated to teaching Romanes. The ceremony took place on January 14th in the building of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava.
On January 13th, the European Roma Ball was held in the “Alexandar Palace” hotel in Skopje, organized by the Roma United from Macedonia (ROM) party, headed by Erdzhan Selimi. He thanked the many people present, and mentioned the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, who was among the guests, calling him the future prime minister of Macedonia.
The SDS parliamentary group submitted a request to the National Assembly for an urgent meeting of the commission for petitions, human rights and equal opportunities, at which the Roma issue would be discussed in Dolenjsko and Kočevsko, in Bela Krajina and in Posavje. They warn that it is getting worse. They also warn that the government has not prepared the solutions to solve the mentioned problem, which it promised when rejecting the legislative proposals of the Dolenj municipalities. These had proposed measures to cut social help specifically aimed at Roma.
Two features in the French TV that actually reinforce stereotypes. One documentary about Roma who lie in the shantytown, and a feature film on a young woman who refuses to marry the family’s candidate. And of course always the French fact that Roma are the foreigners.
An exhibition on the expulsion of Roma in Montreuil is being shown in the South West by Emmaüs, an exhibition that had been refused in another place earlier.
The rest of the news is more usual: A fire in a caravan near Angers, and two burglaries, one with a ram car and another one with pitchforks.
“Blic TV” peeked into the homes of several Roma families in Niš, Serbia.
Roma immigrants of Romanian origin live in former allotment gardens at Lechicka Street in Poznań. The city has had problems with the encampment for years. Now, the city hall has an application for an environmental decision for a new investment – multi-family buildings on that site.
Question is what will happen with the Roma?
The Slovenian Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs, Public Administration and Local Self-Government today took note of the tenth report on the situation of the Roma community in Slovenia for the year 2022. A resolution was unanimously adopted proposing to the Education Committee and the government that in solving the challenges of the issue, special emphasis is placed on the upbringing and education of Roma children.
Well, up till now it did not quite work …
Laura Kovač from Dolga vasi is the recipient of Miklošič’s award from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor in the field of sociology. She was awarded for her master’s thesis Roma settlements in Slovenia.
Her research was based on the observation that Roma settlements Slovenia are often called ghettoes, which carries a negative connotation and is often associated with adjectives such as black, immigrant or Roma. “I think that such labeling of areas where Roma live affects the formation of (additional) negative ideas of the wider society about life in Roma settlements, that these can be dangerous places that should be avoided,” she said, adding that the motivation for the analysis also came from the fact that she grew up in the Roma settlement Dolga vas.
An article on minorities in the Czech Republic. Thy by now make up 10% of the Czech population. The article highlights the continuing difficulties encountered by Roma, and also stats that the state created a register of Roma as early as 1927 which was then used to deport them to concentration camps. In the Czech lands, almost none survived.
On January 12, 1942, the Germans completed the liquidation of the Roma camp located in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Łódź. The Germans took 5,000 people to Łódź. Mostly Roma from the border of Austria and Hungary. Many of them died in the camp, the rest were murdered in the gas chambers.
The AfD (or at least several of its members and allied groups) is reported to have drafted a relocation plan for citizen of non-German origins. Olaf Scholtz, the German Chancellor has slammed this plan that reminds of the Nazis’ racial laws. The definition of non-German raises questions for Roma and Jews alike.
On the occasion of the Vasilitsa holiday, celebrated by Roma as the beginning of the New Year, children from the secondary school “Traiko Simeonov” in Shumen visited Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in the Council of Ministers. According to the article, they were “dressed in traditional costumes for the ethnic group” which is utter nonsense.
A young Rom was stabbed to death in Hradec Králové. It was apparently not a racist act, but a stabbing prompted by the refusal to give a cigarette. A vigil was held in the town for the victim. And there was some criticism that no official representative of the government, i.e. people meant to represent Roma there, were present.
Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková apologized for her absence at the memorial meeting that took place on Sunday at the main station in Hradec Králové.
A traveling exhibition showcass the many faces of successful Roma women. It shows successful Romnja – entrepreneur, social worker, mother, singer, small business owner, hairdresser, student, pharmacist.
An ecoduct in Svrčinovec did not manage to be built by the end of 2023. This means that Slovakia lost millions from European funds – apparently threatening the entire funding of a highway. The problem was the Roma settlement which existed on the site of the planned work. The state did not find any suitable alternative housing for the Roma, and communes nearby squabbled as to whom would have to take these Roma.
Bad, but foreseeable …
On Tuesday, January 9, Łódź commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the liquidation of the Roma and Sinti camp established in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.
The Lety memorial to the victims of the Genocide of the Roma will open with a delay in April of this year.
The reason being delays and issues discovered while building the site.
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