A statement of the EU delegation in the council of Europe on the 27th of January, the 80th anniversary of the liberation if Auschwitz about the genocide of the Roma.
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.
A great documentary about the genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust.
Not good for Roma. A video surfaced of two Roma attacking and beating a student at a bus stop in Novo Mesto.
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.
A Roma activist created a project to support people who need it most. In the village of Valaská in Horehronie, close to Banská Bystrica Ivan Mako created a project that is unique in Slovakia. With a vision to help those who need it most – not only Roma, but all the socially disadvantaged, poor or disabled, regardless of race, nationality or religion, his project has been going on for years and is a flourishing business. Ten years from now, a Roma can be president, he believes.
An article about the Roma writer Michal Šamko. His parents and siblings came from Svidník, but he was born in Jičín, Czech Republic, where he did not have an easy childhood. “Gypsy filth,” they shouted at him in elementary school, where there were 23 children in their class, but he was the only Roma. The biggest punishment for his classmates was not the remarks, but being seated next to him. Michal Šamko was determined to achieve something in life and in the end he succeeded.
Sejnur Veshall of the United Roma Party said that in the future Kosovo government, the emphasis should be on the spiritual heritage of the Roma, which he said is deep and deserves a more adequate presentation to the people of Kosovo.
Wishful thinking, unfortunately …
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.
A sad story of a young blond Slovak who attacked classmates with a knife. Apparently everybody, teachers, students, ignored the aggressivity of this boy, and the fact that he hated “Gyspies”, boasting having beaten some of them up.
Sad, and bad.
In the Northern Slovakian Town of Varin, there was still a street named after Dr. Josef Tiso. A catholic priest, he served as president of the Nazi client state of Slovakia and was executed in 1947. Under his presidency, Jews but also Roma were deported and executed.
Now that the street is being renamed, locals object. Maybe some history lesson would be appropriate here?
Another article about the survey of discrimination of Roma in restaurants in Slovakia. The survey came out last year, with a flurry of articles, but it is still “news” in Slovakia. Here, more on the fact that this could happen nowadays.
Well, it does.
The Roma settlement, located on the former 23 Lutego Family Allotment Gardens at Umultowska and Lechicka streets in Poznań lies on private land. Currently, court proceedings are underway regarding the city’s adverse possession of this land from 1 September 1990.
This story has been going on for years now…
The results and conclusions of the monitoring process of the Action Plans for 2023 at the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities, which are part of the Strategy for Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma until 2030, were discussed by more than sixty representatives of various departments and civil society, including representatives of the ZMOS.
We wonder what the conclusions are … The situation has definitively deteriorated lately.
An article in the Slovene press about German historian Karola Fings from Heidelberg University mwho is working on the first encyclopedia on the genocide of the Roma during World War II. In an interview with the French news agency AFP, she said that in many countries the full extent of the persecution of the Roma during World War II is still unknown.
However, Fings cited the example of Estonia, where the Roma community was virtually wiped out, so that its dialect does not even exist. She added that some countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia, were particularly affected.
The Roma Association of Slovenia, in cooperation with the Embassy of India, organized a unique event, where they explored the connections between the Hindi and Romani languages.
The Slovak Act on the Use of Languages of National Minorities permits the use of the minority language in official relations and at council meetings. In practise, this is not the case.
One example is the meeting of the city council in Veľké Kapušany, a town which, according to the 2021 census, has 8,799 inhabitants, of which 32.9% of Slovaks, 53% of Hungarians, and 4.4% of Roma. There are probably more Roma, but they often declare themselves as Hungarians.
Last December the council decided to increase kindergarten fees. The debate was partly in Slovak, and partly in Hungarian. No translations provided…
Residents of tenement houses on Sienkiewicza Street in Zabrze, Poland, are building a wall to separate themselves from their Roma neighbours.
The Polish Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, has initiated the procedure for the dismissal of Adam Kanafek from the position of president of the District Court in Bielsko-Biała.
Adam Kanafek, signed letters of support for the neo-KRS, and attacked the Roma community in Poland. Years ago, he dismissed a case involving a racist post on the Internet about them. In the justification for the dismissal, he wrote, among other things, “It is no secret that the way of life of the Roma is controversial and often meets with social disapproval. The accused criticized inappropriate behaviour, in particular concerning evading the accepted rules of earning a living.”
Another one of these stereotypical portraits of Roma in the UK tabloid press.
Bad.
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