Tag Archives: Genocide

Sachsenhausen: Exhibition

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Adolescents and younger adults from different countries, among them descendants of former prisoners, dealt with the history of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and with the question of how it can be remembered today and how the victims can be commemorated in artistic workshops. The results can be seen from Saturday.

The focus of the artistic interventions are the perspectives of the participants on today’s memorial and the question of which stories are missing. For example, the commemoration of Sinti and Roma, the memory of Spanish prisoners or also of female prisoners who had to work as forced prostitutes are discussed. The exhibition is interactive. Each work of art poses a question to the viewer and invites them to make their own statement.

Hamburg Commemoration

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The Hamburg Parliament and the Hamburg Senate commemorated the victims of war, Nazi tyranny and terrorism around the world on  the day of national mourning. The President of the Hamburg Parliament, Carola Veit, and Hamburg’s Deputy Mayor, Katharina Fegebank, laid wreaths at the international memorial of the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial site and at the memorial site “Denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof”. A central hour of remembrance then took place in the main church of St. Michaelis.

Austria: Commemoration

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A commemoration of the Roma victims in the former concentration camp of Lackenbach was held this week.

Slovenia: Roma Victims

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As noted by the member of the committee for the excavation and solemn burial of Roma killed during the war, Dr. Miran Komac from the Institute for Ethnic Issues, the Roma minority in Sloveniantry experienced the murder of around 70% of the entire population  during the Second World War – committed both by the occupying side and by partisan units.

Recognising that even partisans killed Roma is an important step. Miran Komac lobbied for the burial of Roma victims in Ljubljana, but Ljubljana’s mayor Zoran Janković persistently rejects this request. It is to be noted that other victims of World War Two got a space in the Ljubljana’s cemetery. So this is definitively racially motivated …

Auschwitz on Roma

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The International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust organised a meeting devoted to the extermination of the Roma for the inhabitants of Oświęcim and its vicinity. It will be held on November 4.

The Centre announced that the meeting is part of the “Around the History of Auschwitz” series. Classes have been conducted since May this year.

Ten Years of Memorial – German President

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Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honoured the memorial for Sinti and Roma in Berlin on its tenth anniversary. The President criticized ongoing discrimination against Roma in Germany and Europe. According to Steinmeier in Berlin, the old anti-Roma prejudices persisted in many parts of society. They could be revived all over Europe by radical right-wing forces. “The everyday discrimination against Roma and Romnja must stop,” he said.

Berlin Memorial

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The ten years old Holocaust Memorial for Sinti and Roma in Berlin is threatened by the construction of a new subway right underneath it. Associations of Sinti and Roma see the function of the memorial where fresh flowers are always placed on the stele, and where there is a violin sound threatened by planned construction work for a new S-Bahn line. The chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, has indicated that he is willing to discuss a modified draft.

Ten Years

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Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Holocaust memorial of Sinti and Roma in Berlin. The German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier will hold a speech there at 11 AM.

Zilli Schmidt

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The Holocaust survivor Zilli Schmidt, a German Sintiza, died in Manheim, Germany at the age of 98.

May she rest in peace.

Stockholm Conference on Roma Genocide

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On October 20th and 21st, an international conference on the Genocide of the Roma and on Combatting Antigypsyism was held in Stockholm. The conference was both in person as well as online with over 100 participants online and ca. 50 in person. There were Roma representatives from Sweden, but also other Roma from Romania, Serbia, France, and other countries as well as researchers International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) members, as well as Swedish representatives.

The conference was held under the auspices of the Swedish presidency of the IHRA for 2022.

There was a very strong consensus among Roma who were present on the terminology: They clearly preferred the name of Roma Holocaust over the one of Genocide, having the feeling that using the latter belittles their sufferings during the period. An interesting intervention by Andrej Kotljarchuk from the Uppsala University explained that “Holocaust” has a subjective value while “Genocide” is extremely well defined. So maybe we should speak about the Roma Genocide during the Holocaust.

On German Trains

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The Deutsche Reichsbahn took an active part in the crimes of the National Socialists in the “Third Reich”. Around three million people were deported to ghettos, concentration and extermination camps on their trains. Without the logistics and resources of the Reichsbahn, the Holocaust would not have been possible. How does Deutsche Bahn deal with the historical heritage today?

Johann Rukeli Trollmann

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The story of the German boxing champion Johann Rukeli Trollmann, who as a Sinto was then deported to a concentration camp, and eventually killed.

Croatian Roma Holocaust

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The martyrdom of the Roma, marginalized by the Yugoslav and Croatian authorities after the Second World War, saw the near-complete annihilation of the Roma community in Croatia. Since 2002, remembrance efforts have been made so that their status as full-fledged genocide victims is recognized, but their story has yet to be truly included in school textbooks. A look back with historian Danijel Vojak on this marginalized history.

Duda and the Litzmannstadt Ghetto

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“The truth about the Holocaust is and will remain a shocking warning against disregarding chauvinism and imperialism in any form,” stressed President Andrzej Duda in a letter read during the celebration of the 78th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto and the 80th anniversary of the so-called Wielka Szpera.

There were also Roma in the Ghetto.

Sobibor

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A movie on the archaeological work which allowed to reconstruct the events in the extermination camp of Sobibor in Poland. The camp was destroyed by the Germans in 1943 to cover up for their crimes.

Many of the artefacts discovered during the archaeological work are now on display at the Sobibor museum.

Partisans

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The movie “How I Became a Partisan” directed by Vera Lacková will be broadcast by RTVS on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising. The film will remind viewers that Roma also joined the uprising. For years, speaking about Nazi persecutions of the Roma minority was taboo. Concentration camps, houses burnt down, murder of families… Communists did not want to have Roma heroes or victims of Nazism. History has forgotten them. “It’s as if we Roma don’t count. At the same time, Roma culture influences and enriches the cultures of the countries where Roma live. A good example is Spain and flamenco dance. Hardly anyone knows that it comes from the Roma,” said the author of the film, Vera Lacková.

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