Category Archives: Germany

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Alice Weidel

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Alice Weidel

At first glance, there is nothing to suggest that Alice Weidel, the official AfD candidate once wrote an email in which she said, among other things: “These pigs [the German government under Angela Merkel] are nothing more than puppets of the victorious powers of World War II and their job is to keep the German people down (…).” Or that she described Sinti, Roma and Arabs as “culturally alien peoples” who “are inundating us”.

Well, we knew where we stand.

Europe Deutschland News Westeuropa

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.

Tschechische Republik Deutschland News Osteuropa News Westeuropa

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.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

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.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany: Prosecution

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Germany: Prosecution

 A hundred years old former guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp will finally have to face prosecution for his crimes after a court overturned the decision of a lower court that he is unfit for trial.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Berlin and the Memorial

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Berlin and the Memorial

Deutsche Bahn is planning to expand a S-Bahn tunnel in Berlin. But there is opposition from representatives of the Roma and Sinti: They believe that the construction will endanger the memorial of the Sinti and Roma victims of the Nazi regime.

Deutschland News Osteuropa News Westeuropa Slowakei

Berlin Ake Dikhea Festival

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The successful Slovak series Iveta was among the selected film productions at the well-known international Roma festival Ake Dikhea?, which takes place every year in Berlin. This festival, which has been appealing to a wide international community for several years with its uniqueness and cultural significance, focuses on the presentation of Roma films that reflect the diverse stories, lives and perspectives of Roma around the world.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Berlin Memorial

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The Berlin Memorial of the Sinti and Roma victims of National Socialsim is being threatened by work for a new subway line. It could potentially be closed for quite a while.

On Saturday evening, more than 100 demonstrators gathered on Potsdamer Platz to protest against planned construction work for the new S-Bahn line 21 that will not just force the extended closure of this memorial to victims of Nazi genocide, but will also cause a permanent impact due to the felling of nearby trees and other long-term changes to the surroundings.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Even in Death

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The general secretary of the Federal Association of Sinti and Roma, Romeo Franz, is said to have been severely discriminated against by an undertaker in Homburg. Franz reported to the taz that the owner of the funeral home refused to sell him a coffin and funeral service. He said that he did not do business with Sinti and Roma. Franz described the incident as “dismaying” in an interview with the taz.

Bulgarien Deutschland News Osteuropa News Westeuropa

Germany: Eviction

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Dozens of Bulgarian Roma families in Duisburg have received letters from the German municipal authorities informing them that they must vacate their apartments by mid-September 2024, according to the organisation “Stolipinovo in Europe”.

The local authorities also specify that the affected tenants are all tenants of Gertrudenstraße, Diesterwegstraße, Pestalozzistraße, Wilfriedstraße, Halskestraße and Wiesenstraße, who are in fact tenants of the company Ivere Property Management. It turns out that the company that owns the buildings, about fifty in total, has not paid electricity and water bills to the municipal property management company for months. It now intends to cut off the drinking water supply, which, according to the municipal authorities, makes the apartments unfit for consumption and leads to a mass eviction.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Sachsenhausen Camp

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The district court in Hanau, Hesse, has refused to open a trial against a 99-year-old alleged former guard at the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp for health reasons.

Too bad.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany and Racism

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The current German ruling coalition proposed the creation of a commission on racism. The SPD parliamentary group and its chairman Raed Saleh in particular have been a strong advocate for the project. “The Enquete Commission will be tasked with drawing up recommendations on how to strengthen social cohesion and counter anti-Semitism, racism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination.”

Racism against Sinti and Roma will also be included.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany and Racism

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Two articles in Polish about anti-Roma racism incidents in Germany. In 2023, 1,233 anti-Gypsy incidents were recorded in Germany, almost twice as many as the year before, when there were 621 such cases. The latest data was published on Monday (June 17, 2024) by the Antigypsyism Information and Reporting Center (MIA) in its latest report.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

German Social Worker

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Sami Džemailovski is the founder and president of the Association Roma Carmen e.V. from Dusseldorf. He is a social worker by profession and speaks six languages. DW reporter Danko Rabrenović interviewed him.

Sami is originally from Tito’s Veles (Veles), and he came to Germany for the first time in 1973 with his parents, who were temporarily working in Düsseldorf. At home they spoke Romani, Turkish and Macedonian. Along the way, he also learned Serbian, German and English.

Deutschland News Osteuropa News Westeuropa Ukraine

Germany and Roma Refugees

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An article on Roma Refugees from the Ukraine in Germany. They are fleeing war, but instead of help, in Germany they often experience racism. The Center for Reporting and Information on Antigypsyism demands action.

More than 1.1 million people fled to Germany from the war in Ukraine, including, it is estimated, several thousand Roma, members of Europe’s largest ethnic minority. While other Ukrainian refugees received unbureaucratic and warm care, most arriving Roma experienced a very different Germany: overly formalized, unhelpful, suspicious, derogatory and racist.

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