Tag Archives: Holocaust

Germany News Western Europe

Philomena Franz

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Many articles in the German press and reactions from politicians to the death of the Holocaust survivor Philomena Franz.

May she rest in peace.

A selection of articles below:

Roth würdigt Auschwitz-Überlebende Philomena Franz. In: WDR. 30.12.2022. https://www1.wdr.de/kultur/kulturnachrichten/philomena-franz-sintezza-auschwitz-tod-claudia-roth-100.html

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Lety Pigsty Gone

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The demolition of the former pigsty on the site of the Lety Roma concentration camp for Roma ended. The company is now statically securing two columns from the former pigsty hall, which will be part of the upcoming exhibition.

The Museum of Roma Culture in Lety wants to open the visitor centre in the second half of 2023, or at the beginning of 2024. There were three bids for the construction of the centre, but the museum has not yet chosen a winner. The museum calculated in the tender a price of 73.5 million crowns without VAT.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Čeněk Růžička

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Another obituary of Čeněk Růžička, a Romano activist who fought his entire life for the closure of the pig farm on the site of the former concentration camp of Lety. He was buried yesterday.

May he rest in peace.

Germany News Western Europe

80 Years

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With the so-called Auschwitz Decree issues 80 years ago, the Nazi regime ordered the deportation of Sinti and Roma from all over Europe to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 80 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma fell victim to the genocide.

Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, commemorated the Sinti and Roma murdered by the National Socialists at the Sachsenhausen Memorial on Thursday.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Poland

Romani Rose and Auschwitz Council

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Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is a new member of the International Auschwitz Council. The Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki appointed him to the committee. The Council advises the Polish government on all matters relating to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. Other members include Yad Vashem Chairman Dayan and World Jewish Congress President Lauder. Rose warned that nationalists and right-wing extremists in many European countries were trying to deny and relativize the crimes of the Holocaust against six million Jews and 500,000 Sinti and Roma. Every form of Holocaust denial and falsification of history must be opposed. Education programs specifically for young people at historical sites of persecution and extermination are important “to counteract anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsyism and racism in our societies,” Rose explained.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and Roma

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Germany Antitziganism representative Mehmet Daimagüler, asks for the creation of a “truth commission” to deal with the persecution of Sinti and Roma during and after the Nazis. He explains why “reconciliation” lags why memorial events are a lie and why the minority cannot feel safe.

Germany News Western Europe

Flight …

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The flight escape of a Sinti family from the Holocaust will be the focus of a book presentation on November 28 in the Neubrandenburg regional library. The opera and operetta singer Mirano Cavaljeti-Richter wrote the book together with the historian Annette Leo. It’s called “Fleeing across the Balkans. The childhood experiences of a Sinto boy during the Nazi era” and was published by Metropol-Verlag in Berlin.

The 89-year-old Cavaljeti-Richter grew up in a traditional extended family of comedians who used caravans to perform their variety programs in small towns and villages in the 1930s. In 1939 the family fled Germany via Italy, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. The singer was six years old at the time and describes how the family gradually lost everything but were able to save their lives.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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 News Western Europe

Austria: Commemoration

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

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

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 …

News Eastern Europe Poland

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

News Western Europe Sweden

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.

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