An information article on Sinti and Roma. Not too bad for a change.
- Wie Sinti und Roma in Deutschland und Europa leben. In: MDR. 02.09.2022.https://www.mdr.de/religion/wie-leben-sinti-roma-in-deutschland-europa-102.html
An information article on Sinti and Roma. Not too bad for a change.
How Sinti and Roma fight racism in Germany.
Lawyers are launching a high court challenge against the anti-trespass law that gives the police additional power to tackle “unauthorised encampments”.
The law has been criticised by many but was pushed through by the Johnston Conservative government and its controversial interior minister Priti Patel.
As usual, another racist even in Football. This time, AC Roma has been fined €15,000 for offensive chants by tis supporter against Dusan Vlahovic. The Roma fans were chanting: “Vlahovic, you are a gypsy.”
Roma has been fined €15,000 for offensive chants at Dusan Vlahovic in the 54th and 73rd minutes in yesterday’s #JuveRoma match. The Roma fans were chanting: “Vlahovic, you are a gypsy.” Some Roma fans also threw objects at Juventus fans. (@SerieA_EN) pic.twitter.com/6M5u3YQ0cH
— JuveFC (@juvefcdotcom) August 28, 2022
The Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR) invite to a film screening and discussion about the fight for civil rights on September 5, 8 p.m., in the German Film Institute & Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main a.
Racist discrimination has always been part of the everyday experience of the Sinti and Roma in Germany. Discrimination manifests itself in different facets: from unlawful special registrations by the police to disadvantages on the housing market to verbal hostility and physical assaults.
Roma and Travellers in the UK fear being left out on the help on energy prices. There are thousands of people in park home in the UK for whom the increased energy prices will prove to be dramatic.
Ricardo Quaresma, a Portuguese Rom and a star footballer is strongly engaged in helping the Roma community in Portugal. His fame certainly helps, but as they say right now in Portugal, can one man end 500 years of racism and discrimination. Not an easy task.
Racism against the Roma community is firmly anchored in Portugal, and it is enough that one Rom steals to brand all Roma as thieves, something that alas, is not only the case in that country.
One of the last Czech Sinti – actually known as Kale – passed away. May he rest in peace.
The EU is recognising intercultural cities who actively seek integration and recognition of other cultures. Here, on Barcelona, a city that recently has done a lot about Roma.
Not much news on Roma this last week in France. The usual ones, a camp vacated near Paris in Vaujours; another one that was abandoned in Livry, also near Paris, leaving a lot of garbage; a camp that will be closed near Nice; and finally in Toulouse, an expulsion of a squat of minors.
Commemorations of the 1992 pogrom in the East German city of Rostock have taken place on Thursday.
“Many don’t want to talk about it anymore, don’t want any more events, just want to forget,” says Stephanie Nelles, Rostock’s integration officer. This opinion is widespread in the city, including in the migrant community. “But there are also many, especially younger people, who don’t want to forget that.” They were never properly informed about the 1992 pogrom in Lichtenhagen and are now asking the parents’ generation, the contemporary witnesses, to talk about it. With this, Nelles outlines the division of remembrance in Rostock’s urban society. The integration officer positions herself clearly: “You can only change if you remember.”
The Sevilla Flamenco Biennale will start next week. It had not taken place dur to the covid pandemic for a long while.
Here’s the program and all the information.
German and Ukrainian Sinti and Roma of different generations spoke about the Holocaust and the Russian aggression war at the virtual commemoration of the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma.
The National Human Rights Platform, the Faith and Hope Religious Congregation and the Esperanza Gitana Union for Humanity, together with relatives of the alleged murderer of the 19-year-old who died in Íllora (Granada), have filed a letter with the Government Subdelegation to denounce “racist and xenophobic acts” for the assaults against some Roma homes and vehicles following the murder of the 19-year-old.
Sad story.
The Spanish Ombudsman will study the attacks that occurred against the homes and property of Roma families that occurred in Íllora, in the Poniente region of Granada, in response to a crime allegedly committed by a 23-year-old Rom this past Monday, for which a 19-year-old died.
Representatives of the Spanish Gitana Society met this Friday with members of the Ombudsman’s office to demand protection from the attacks, which occurred this week after a demonstration to demand justice for the murder. After that protest, a group of people went to the houses of relatives of the alleged murderer, who was on the run at that time and who turned himself in the next day, and vandalized them.
Thirty years ago, a massive racist pogrom took place in Rostock Lichtenhagen. It was mostly directed at Vietnamese immigrants but also touched a few Roma.
It highlighted the existent of violent racism in Germany, something that has unfortunately continued. Other lessons, such as how the police should intervene have been learnt.
According to the police, Roma families constitute the bulk of begging with children in the capital. Five years ago, the police identified ten to fifteen active families near the Grand-Place and Rue Neuve. At the beginning of 2022, it counted six times more.
Begging with minors was forbidden, then the law was suspended, and if finally again forbidden, with fines of up to 350 EUR. The discussion whether this interdiction is the right solution are ongoing.
Romeo Tiberiade, a contemporary witness of the anti-foreigner pogrom in Rostock in 1992 speaks for the first time. Tiberiade came to Germany with his family from Romania in 1992. In conversation with his daughter, Izabela Tiberiade, he reports on the flight to Germany, the pogrom and his family’s life after the pogrom.
Romeo Tiberiade is chairman of the Roma party “Pro Europa” in Dolj and adviser to the Mayor of Craiova on Roma issues. He lives with his family in Craiova.
Izabela Tiberiade is a law graduate from Malmö University and active in the Europe-wide network “Dikh He Na Bister” in memory of the Porajmos. She lives in Malmo.
Unfortunately, more news on Roma this week in France. Near Nantes, Romanian Roma families who were expulsed twice in 24 hours on July 6 and 7th have finally found a place where they can stay. The town of Rezé together with the city of Nantes has set a location aside where the Roma can put up their camp. Also In Nantes, Roma lost everything last week in a fire and the commune is appealing for help. Other news are a fire in a garbage dump in a Roma camp in Marseilles; a squat closed near Paris; and finally, two young Roma arrested near Paris for burglary in several houses.
Ursula Heilig, born Hartmann, died at the age of 85. She was born on February 28, 1937, in Frankenstein into a Silesian Sinti family. Her family ran a circus company. From 1940 to 1945, as a small child, she lived in hiding in Upper Silesia with her mother Auguste Sperlich and other relatives under inhumane conditions. She suffered severe damage to her health as a result of escaping and living in hiding. Large parts of her relatives were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
May she rest in peace.