01.02.2015 Bulgaria: Medics claim attack at hands of Rroma

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A doctor in the Bulgarian town of Vrachesh clains having been attacked by Rroma for being late attending a pregnant Rromni. According to the government, there have been 175 such attacks blamed on Rroma in the last year. The Bulgarian Health Minister,  Peter Moscov, went as far as stating that emergency medical help should be restricted in some Rroma areas. He also stated “he who has chosen to behave like a brute will be treated as one”. Many organisations called for Moscov to resign, and he eventually apologised for his statements.

This problem is a social one, with many Rroma not even having basic health insurance, and not one of Rroma vs. Bulgarians. It is a sheer poverty and ghetto issue. Nothing more, nothing less.

01.02.2015 France: Evictions in spite of the Winter

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Normally, Republican France refrains from deporting migrants and from evicting illegal settlement in the Winter. This is no longer the case. Evictions continue, and the problem is being shifted from one community to the next. It is as if, one can argue, that the authorities want to maximise the exposure of the general population to poor migrants, guaranteeing an increased racism. This has to stop. Evictions this week, as an example occurred in Cannes and in Chellois.

01.02.2015 France: A few timid attempts at integration

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In spite of the constant evictions of Rroma that make the headlines in French Newspapers, there are a few attempts at finding longer term solutions. The law requiring evicted people to be relocated is being reluctantly applied, for example in Nimes, in St. Gilles, or in Choisy, while activists are pushing the case further by occupying empty or official buildings as in Noisiel. This is literally a drop of water on a hot stone, and the French state should rather try to definitively integrate these 15’000 migrant Rroma who have now been in France for several years.

01.02.2015 Canada: The Hungarian Rroma Family has to leave

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The Hungarian Rroma family who was fighting the deportation order in Canada have lost their last appeal in Canada’s Federal Court. They now have to leave the country and go back to Hungary where they say they are at risk due to right wing extremists.

01.02.2015 Paul Polanski and the Lety Concentration Camp

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The Lety Concentration Camp in the Czech Republic, a camp on which site there currently still is a pig farm is once again in the actualities. In this article, it is claimed that Paul Polansky, an amateur historian, brought the facts and existence of this camp to the world’s attention. While Paul Polanski effectively wrote two books on the topic, these were by far not the first ones about Lety (See for example Wickipedia.de on this topic). Fact is, this was one of the early Rroma camps where from many Rroma were deported to death camps.

01.02.2015 Remembrance of Auschwitz Liberation

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For the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation on January 27th, the German press published a series of articles on the topic, highlighting the fact that besides Jews, Rroma were also victims of the Holocaust. How many died is still a matter of dispute, with numbers ranging from 250’000 to several millions. Truth will never be known, as, contrary to popular belief, the Germans did not keep accurate track of their deeds. Only people that stayed in camps for forced labour were registered. Those who were gassed upon arrival or simply shot in the woods in numerous places where not registerd. For example, Auschwitz’s registers show only ca. 405’000 registered people, while the estimates of how many were actually killed there range from 1.1 mio to a more probable 2.3 Mio people.

01.02.2015 Remembrance of Auschwitz Liberation

Published by:

For the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation on January 27th, the German press published a series of articles on the topic, highlighting the fact that besides Jews, Rroma were also victims of the Holocaust. How many died is still a matter of dispute, with numbers ranging from 250’000 to several millions. Truth will never be known, as, contrary to popular belief, the Germans did not keep accurate track of their deeds. Only people that stayed in camps for forced labour were registered. Those who were gassed upon arrival or simply shot in the woods in numerous places where not registerd. For example, Auschwitz’s registers show only ca. 405’000 registered people, while the estimates of how many were actually killed there range from 1.1 mio to a more probable 2.3 Mio people.

01.02.2015 Paul Polanski and the Lety Concentration Camp

Published by:

The Lety Concentration Camp in the Czech Republic, a camp on which site there currently still is a pig farm is once again in the actualities. In this article, it is claimed that Paul Polansky, an amateur historian, brought the facts and existence of this camp to the world’s attention. While Paul Polanski effectively wrote two books on the topic, these were by far not the first ones about Lety (See for example Wickipedia.de on this topic). Fact is, this was one of the early Rroma camps where from many Rroma were deported to death camps.

01.02.2015 France: Evictions in spite of the Winter

Published by:

Normally, Republican France refrains from deporting migrants and from evicting illegal settlement in the Winter. This is no longer the case. Evictions continue, and the problem is being shifted from one community to the next. It is as if, one can argue, that the authorities want to maximise the exposure of the general population to poor migrants, guaranteeing an increased racism. This has to stop. Evictions this week, as an example occurred in Cannes and in Chellois.

01.02.2015 France: A few timid attempts at integration

Published by:

In spite of the constant evictions of Rroma that make the headlines in French Newspapers, there are a few attempts at finding longer term solutions. The law requiring evicted people to be relocated is being reluctantly applied, for example in Nimes, in St. Gilles, or in Choisy, while activists are pushing the case further by occupying empty or official buildings as in Noisiel. This is literally a drop of water on a hot stone, and the French state should rather try to definitively integrate these 15’000 migrant Rroma who have now been in France for several years.

01.02.2015 Daily Racism: A dire view on the Austrian situation

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An Article in the “Standard” in Austria analyses the daily racism against Rroma that still exist 20 years after the attacks against this minority in Oberwarth. They explicitly state that as soon as an “invisible” Rroma, that is a Rroma who is integrated and does not says he is one, outs himself, he or she is immediately confronted to racism. The old stereotypes, stereotypes that have never really been accurate are difficult to eradicate.

01.02.2015 Canada: The Hungarian Rroma Family has to leave

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The Hungarian Rroma family who was fighting the deportation order in Canada have lost their last appeal in Canada’s Federal Court. They now have to leave the country and go back to Hungary where they say they are at risk due to right wing extremists.

25.01.2015 Exhibition in Trier on the Nazi persecutions of Rroma and Sinti

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For the remembrance day of the victims of the Nazis on January 27th, a series of NGOs in Trier organises an exhibition and series of conference on the topics of the persecutions of Rroma and Sinti under the Nazis.

25.01.2015 Visionary leads a Rroma philharmonic Orchestra

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Ricardo Sahiti, born in 1961 in Kosovo dreamt of founding and directing a Rroma philharmonic orchestra. Arte just showed a movie about him and about the orchestra he managed to create and direct.

Visionär macht seinen Traum wahr. In Op.Online.de, 24.01.2015. http://www.op-online.de/lokales/nachrichten/rodgau/riccardo-sahiti-leitet-weltweit-einzige-roma-sinti-philharmonie-4667487.html

25.01.2015 Visionary leads a Rroma philharmonic Orchestra

Published by:

Ricardo Sahiti, born in 1961 in Kosovo dreamt of founding and directing a Rroma philharmonic orchestra. Arte just showed a movie about him and about the orchestra he managed to create and direct.

Visionär macht seinen Traum wahr. In Op.Online.de, 24.01.2015. http://www.op-online.de/lokales/nachrichten/rodgau/riccardo-sahiti-leitet-weltweit-einzige-roma-sinti-philharmonie-4667487.html

25.01.2015 UK Commissioner Eric Pickle looses a case against Rroma in the UK

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London Green Belt Commissioner Eric Pickle lost a landmark case against two Rroma. The judge stated that Pickle’s department breached both human rights and equality laws in denying Rroma to pitch in the green belt. This case highlight the current policies in England but also in France of evicting Rroma settlements, even, if in this case, these existed for generations.

25.01.2015 The Dutch King will read the names of all Dutch Holocaust Victims

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Wilheml Alexander, King of the Netherlands, will read the names of victims of the Holocaust as part of a remembrace that will read out the name of 102’000 Jews, Rroma, and Sinti that were deported to concentration camps during the war. He will be part of 700 people reading these names on the 27th of January.

Niederländischer König verliest Namen von Holocaust-Opfern. Handelsblatt, 23.01.2015. http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/willem-alexander-niederlaendischer-koenig-verliest-namen-von-holocaust-opfern/11275470.html

25.01.2015 The case of the dead Rroma baby in France:

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In a further development in the case of the dead Rroma baby in France, Jacques Toubon, in charge of the defence of the rights, stated that the order of the mayor denying the burial of the baby was illegal. He added that this constituted a discrimination. That Toubon, a rightist politician not know for his love of minorities in France says such things is a sign of progress, albeit a slow one!

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