Bavaria is going ahead with a controversial plan to set up camps for refugees from the Balkan. These camps, especially in view of the past – Dachau was one of the first camps to be set up in Germany – and since Rroma make about a third of all Balkan refugees, leave a bitter taste.
There has to be better solutions…
More articles on the August 2nd commemorations of the Rroma Holocaust. In Maribor, Slovenia; in Leipzig; in Vienna; in Ireland; in Slovakia, where the government proxy for Rroma questions gave a message; and in the EU, with a message from the commission.
Yesterday’s Rroma Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed in several countries and also in Auschwitz.
Yesterday saw the first ever commemoration of the Rroma and Sinti Holocaust Remembrance day in Vienna. Better late than never!
The Romanian Prime Minister Ponta for the first time ever also noted the Romanian contribution to the murder of Rroma in Transnisrtria and in the Bug. How many died there is still debated, but the Romanians did it by themselves.
On the Rroma and Sinti Holocaust Remembrance Day, Europe’s top human right official emphasised the plight faced by many Rroma in Europe to this day with continuing discrimination. This needs to change!
The 2nd of August is the official international day of remembrance of the Holocaust on Rroma and Sinti. Several organisations (here just as a sample) are planning commemorations in Germany and Austria.
Another interview with Romani Rose, president of the German central council of Sinti and Roma in the context of the celebrations of the 2nd of August on the Rroma and Sinti Holocaust.
Romania has signed a legislation making it illegal to deny the Holocaust and forbids the promotion of the fascist legionnaire’s movement. Around 280’000 Jews, and officially 11’000 Rroma (there were more) were killed in Romania during the fascist regime of Antonescu. Recently, as in other neighbouring countries, there have been voices to rewrite this chapter of history.
LET US NEVER FORGET!
A mix between a theatre performance and a walk through a neighbourhood of Munich aims at showing the general public the Rroma and Sinti from their city and help reduce the existing stereotypes and prejudice.
Interesting!
A chilling review of the annexation of Austria with the support of the overwhelming part of the population, and the history of Austria under the Nazis. Besides the Austrian soldier deaths (ca. 270’000) in Eastern Europe and Russia, Austrian minorities got decimated: From around 190’000 Austrian Jews, 65’459 were killed in the Holocaust, while from the roughly 11’000 Rroma (Burgenland and Sinti), at least 7’000 perished. These latter numbers are to be taken with caution, as no one really knew how many Rroma there were, and the German did not keep tabs on field executions or gas chambers.
A further article on the Dachau Theatre project, a project fighting stereotypes and played by Rroma and Sinti children. That this play is staged in Dachau, the site of one of the earliest concentration camps in Germany is really symbolically important.
US Holocaust educators from Florida visited Lithuania to share and develop strategies on some of the controversial aspects (i.e. local participation) of the Holocaust; to better understand what happened in Lithuania; to learn international law; to understand prejudices and to fight against them. On prejudice, they will also discuss the one against Rroma. Let’s see!
Auschwitz’s accountant, Oskar Grönning, was condemned to 4 years of prison as an accessory to murder to 300’000 people. These are the documented victims of Auschwitz, with roughly 21’000 Rroma and Sinti. One should never forget though that people who were sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered and the overall number of victims was much higher in Auschwitz.
– Auschwitz-Prozess: Vier Jahre Haft für SS-Mann Gröning. In: Osnabrücker Zeitung. 15.07.2015. http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/niedersachsen/artikel/596012/auschwitz-prozess-vier-jahre-haft-fur-ss-mann-groning-1
A theatre representation in the Munich suburbs of Dachau aims at building down stereotypes towards Rroma and Sinti. The place, Dachau, is more than symbolic, as during the Nazi times, there was a notorious concentration camp there were many German Rroma and Sinti were interned.
To watch!
Zoltan Balogh, the Hungarian Human Resource Minister, gave a speech on the Rroma Resistance Day (the day commemorating the uprising of Rroma in Auschwitz on May 16, 1944), and had to apologise for his remarks last August where he actually stated that no Rroma had been deported from Hungary – a lie. At least now it is somewhat official.
Holocaust in Hungary is still not widely acknowledged, especially the fact that most Jews in the countryside were deported as early as 1941 to extermination camps, and this on Hungarian initiative. Rroma were also constantly deported to Auschwitz and other camps.
Throughout the German press, there have been articles commemorating the 75th anniversary of the first deportations of Rroma and Sinti on May 16th, 1940, to concentration camps. Writers, politicians, clerics, all reflected on this dark chapter of German history. Even darker when one considers that the persecution of Rroma and Sinti was not recognised as an ethnic one by the German state until 1982 (Date at which the German Government under Helmut Schmid recognised the racial nature of the perecution). Until then, Rroma and Sinti had been persecuted officially solely for being “asocial” Needless to say, reparations were also not really forthcoming, even after that date.
Viorel Costache, Rrom and president of the association PRALES (Brothers) and Gabriela Munteanu, a Romanian translator have denounced the inacceptable situation of Rroma Migrants in Strasbourg. In their press conference, they have compared the measures of the city of Strasbourg to a “modern concentration camp” for having established an enclosed camps for Rroma and are accusing the police and the authorities of a true hunt against Rroma.
We do agree with them. Please support them and join their action!
In the context of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, Martin Schulz visited Auschwitz and paid tribute to the victims of the camp, among which were many Rroma.
A novel, “Jacob’s Colour” speaks about the Rroma holocaust. A long reviews on the book has been written in the Guardian. Unfortunately, the use the “Porrajmos” terms, which is not used by Rroma generally but was introduced by scholars. This choice of word, which denotes rape in Vlax dialects is a misnomer for the Holocaust.
US President Barack Obama mourned the victims of the Dachau concentration camp on the 70th anniversary of its liberation by Allied troops. He stated that: “Dachau is a lesson in the evolution of darkness, how unchecked intolerance and hatred spiral out of control.” and he cited Rroma and Sinti victims. He vowed that such a thing should never happen again.
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