Tag Archives: Genocide

Italy News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Fascists, and Roma

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Slovenia, Fascists, and Roma

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.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Tiso, and Holocaust

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Slovakia, Tiso, and Holocaust

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?

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia on the Genocide

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Slovenia on the Genocide

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.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Very little this week. Only three articles, all on the same topic, terh genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust. At least they speak about it. This is new.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Łodź – Litzmannstadt Ghetto

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Łodź – Litzmannstadt Ghetto

Another article on the liquidation of the Roma camp in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto on January 12th, 1942.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Klenovec, Slovakia

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Klenovec, Slovakia

A small town in the centre of Slovakia has a few prominent Roma. Ian Cibula, a doctor, was born there and then moved to Switzerland, where he was instrumental in the creation of the International Romani Union.

Ján Déme is a successful eye surgeon today, but the path to his dream as a Roma boy was not always easy. Some people still don’t want to believe that their top surgeon is a Roma man.

Other famous native from this town are for example the “Klenovský Oskar Schindler” Karol Paje who joined the French resistance during World War Two. He built a centre for the rescue of women and children from several countries with Czech professor Josef Fischer in the town of Vence. Helping rescue over five hundred children, and finally tragically died at the age of 25 in the fight against the fascists.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Memorial

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Poland: Memorial

In 1944, the Germans murdered a group of escaping Roma in the forest between Zasów, Dąbrówka Wisłocka and Nagoszyn. Today, the place where the Roma died is commemorated by a memorial stone and a cross. It is still unknown how many people are buried in this grave. Photo.

This tragic story took place in the winter of 1943 in Dębica. A group of Roma who had been living in the town for several years were informed in March 1943 by an unknown resistance group that the Germans were planning to murder them. They were advised to leave Dębice for their own safety and move to the Mielec district. Unfortunately, that year the winter was very frosty and the Gypsies postponed their departure. In the first days of April, a sudden warming came, the snow began to melt quickly and the roads began to become impassable. Despite these unfavourable conditions, the Gypsies, fearing for their own lives, decided not to wait any longer. They prepared their camps, carriages and horses for the journey. Entire families set off – men, women, the elderly and small children. Everyone left the city with the hope of saving their lives. They were unfortunately caught and slaughtered.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Litzmannstadt Ghetto: 83rd Anniversary

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Litzmannstadt Ghetto: 83rd Anniversary

On Thursday (9 January) a commemoration for the 83rd  anniversary of the liquidation of the Roma camp in 1942, ceremonies were held in front of the so-called Roma Forge on Wojska Polskiego Street in Łódź. 5,000 Roma and Sinti from Austria were sent to the camp established in November 1941 in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. They all died.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

UNESCO and Ukraine

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UNESCO and Ukraine

The UNESCO has granted “temporary enhanced protection” to two significant cultural sites in Ukraine: the Literary Museum in Odessa and the Babyn Yar Memorial in Kiev. The move comes as the third anniversary of the Russian war in Ukraine approaches, which caused extensive damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage.

Babyn Yar commemorates the victims of the Nazi massacre of 1941, in which more than 33,000 Jews, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war died. In 2022, the monument was threatened when a Russian missile hit nearby, killing five people. The Holocaust memorial itself was unharmed, but the building intended for the new museum was damaged.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Lety Exhibition

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Lety Exhibition

The Museum of Romani Culture opened the long-awaited Holocaust Memorial of the Roma and Sinti in Lety u Písku in 2024. The exhibition tells many powerful stories of families and young children who went through the local concentration camp or died in it. The fate of the Roma also significantly affected the life of the curator of the exhibition, who was working on the exhibition at the time her child was born. An interview with Anna Míšková, curator of the exhibition of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Lety u Písku.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Commemoration

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Poland: Commemoration

A commemoration for Roma murdered by the German gendarmerie in November 1942 in the town of Nur. The unveiled memorial brings back the memory of about fifty Roma – men, women and children, from the camp that was then in the forest near Kunin.

Europe

UNESCO Exhibition

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UNESCO Exhibition

The exhibition called “Ma Bistras” [let’s not forget] is based on the work of Luigi Toscano, who photographed and interviewed the last survivors of the Roma and Sinti genocide and their descendants to record their history, character and strength, and to draw attention to what happened to them.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Almost no news in the French press about Roma this week. A French researcher, Lise Foisneau, who has been sharing the daily life with travellers in France for the last ten years, has created an online resource that lists all the known victims of the community during World War Two. Unfortunately, as most French, they still do not understand the differences between groups and the fact that these are mostly Roma.

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Slovakia: Commemoration

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Slovakia: Commemoration

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the In Minorita civic association (OZ) has prepared commemorative events as part of the Ma bisteren! project commemorating the Roma Holocaust on Tuesday, which will be held in Zvolen and Čierny Balog.

As the organizers recalled, this year we are commemorating the 80th anniversary of several tragic events. “After the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising in the autumn of 1944, there were reprisals against the civilian population, persecutions also affected the Roma population. Helping the partisans, but also suspicion of such help, was punishable by death,” they said.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and the Holocaust

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Czechia and the Holocaust

The Czechs’ awareness of the genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust remains low, although the situation has been improving in recent years thanks to media coverage. But teaching about the history of the Roma in schools is still insufficient. In an interview with ČTK, historian and director of the Museum of Roma Culture Jana Horváthová said this. She believes that the topic needs to be included in the curriculum.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

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