Online exhibition about the forgotten genocide of Roma and Sinti (often referred to as Gypsies) in the Second World War.
According to the International Business Times, an MP for the ultra-far right Jobbik party in Hungary has said that the Auschwitz concentration camp museum “may not reflect real facts”…
During a discussion in parliament over a proposal to facilitate visits by teenagers to the former Nazi camp in Poland, Tamas Gaudi-Nagy said schools should not be “forced to take up such an expensive venture” for a site whose historical accuracy is, he believes, doubtful.
Jobbik is Hungary’s third largest party and won 17 percent of the vote in the last elections (2010) with an anti-Semitic, anti-EU and anti-Roma agenda. Hungary has one of the largest Jewish populations in the EU.
Gaudi-Nagy’s statements sparked criticism from the country’s ruling Fidesz party. Its leader, Antal Rogan, said: “Nobody has the right to question the Holocaust, the suffering and death of millions of people.”
Registered in 2003, Jobbik has become known for insulting Jews and the country’s 700,000-strong Roma population. It founded the Hungarian Guard, an unarmed vigilante group which reminds many of far-right groups during World War II.
“We have an internal problem that is Gypsy crime and an external threat: the Jewish invasion,” one of the group’s leaders, Jozsef Inancsi, told Channel 4 News.
Hungary’s Jewish watchdog on anti-Semitism, the Action and Protection Foundation (TEV), dubbed the party neo-Nazi.
Earlier in May, Jobbik staged a mass rally in Hungary’s capital Budapest to protest against a meeting of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in the city.
Marton Gyongyosi, an outspoken Jobbik MP, told the rally that Hungary had become “subjugated to Zionism.”
He famously spurred a controversy last year among Jewish organisations in the country after calling for a list of Jews who pose a “national security risk”.
Anti-Semitism is a delicate issue in the country, given that between 500,000 and 600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, according to the Holocaust memorial centre in Budapest. One in three Jews killed in Auschwitz were Hungarian nationals, according to some accounts.
Your Eminence, Dear Guests,
Another year has passed, and once again I have the precious opportunity to welcome you here. We are standing at a site of inexpressible suffering endured by members of the Romani nation. Today all of you are connected with us survivors through your participation in this profound event. You have come here to honor the dead, to commiserate with us, and there is no end to our appreciation. In a few moments we will lay flowers at the resting place of the victims, those whose dreams of a better life never came true.
Can it be that what happened to the Jewish and the Romani nations, here and in the wider European area, was the act of a higher power, or an unfortunate accident of some kind? No, it was the phantasmagoric ideology of racial purity, the vision of privilege for the elect that Hitler forced, without much difficulty, on the German nation. It is sad that the other nations who also wanted to get rid of Jews and Roma willingly seconded his motion.
A comparison with today unwillingly occurs to me.What else can the shouting of the slogans “The nation above all” or “Bohemia for the Czechs” represent, other than that phantasmagoric ideology of racial purity? I recall the following statesmanlike words spoken here last year byCzech Prime Minister Petr Nečas: “We must never allow racist phantoms to dominate our life. We have a bond with the memory of the dead who lie in this burial place. We have a bond with their survivors as well, our Romani fellow citizens with whom we share the same democratic values. This sacred site must always remain a bond and a warning.” All I can add to that is that it is a shame this bond and this warning have not yet resulted in the removal of the structure that desecrates the site where the victims whom we honor today, died.
At last year’s ceremony I emphasized the essential need for more targeted education, especially in this country’s primary and secondary schools, about the genocide of the Jews and Roma. I also mentioned the issue of the inefficient use, and sometimes the abuse, of EU subsidies intended to improve the position of Romani families. I must recall those words once more. In the relations between non-Romani and Romani children I am seeing xenophobic behavior by pupils and students grow and intensify. I am also seeing that educators do not pay sufficient attention to this phenomenon, which is happening in the context of the Education Ministry’s intention to educate Romani children in mainstream schools.
You certainly all recall the petition against that initiative, initiated by educators, that almost 70 000 people have signed. Families are now discussing the pressure to educate Romani children in mainstream classes, and a decisive portion of majority-society parents are commenting on these matters inappropriately in the presence of children, inciting their own children against Romani people. All of the effort and money we expend to improve interpersonal relationships will be useless if yet another generation afflicted with xenophobia is secretly being raised here. I would like to intercede here, to ask all teachers to avail themselves of the information available and to pay attention to this phenomenon in a more targeted way.
In this context I must also draw attention to the public institution here called the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů). This institution should, given the nature of its research activity, dedicate itself to invetigating the genocide of the Roma and Sinti. Unfortunately, that has not happened yet, which I do not understand. It is precisely in that institution that I see a great deficit when it comes to much-needed educational activities and information about that genocide.
When Mr Daniel Herman, who is here with us today, wanted to devote resources to that problem, he was fired from his position as director of that institute. I therefore have no other choice than to demand of the institute’s new leadership that they pay attention to this issue in a targeted way. It would be brilliant if a project along those lines were to be financially supported by EU institutions.
This brings me to yet another problem, and that is the deteriorating position of Romani people in society, media reports of how much money has been allocated to this by EU institutions notwithstanding. I must say this openly: Romani people do not believe that those finances are being used for their stated purpose. EU subsidies are supposed to help us and we have the right to know how they are being spent. Those of us who care about how Romani people live in this country, and who are involved in assisting them, receive very uncertain information about the volume of those subsidies. We can look for such information online, but it is not specific. Very often it is hidden in clever projects purporting to help Romani people.
If the EU institutions really want to improve the position of Romani people in Europe, it is absolutely essential that the finances needed for that improvement be strictly allocated to a Romani agenda so that the efficiency of the projects can be measured in a comprehensible way. Here I must add that projects outlining how such efforts might target the Romani issue were once sent to the EU from the Czech Republic for support. However, once it was discovered that the institutions wanted to release enormous sums of money, those anointed to address the Romani issue took refuge in addressing the problems of socially vulnerable people in general. It is a shame that we allowed that game to be played. Naturally, I am not saying that cooperation between Europe and this state to address social problems should not be supported – it should, and it’s good that it is.
However, there is a need for the Romani issue to have its own independent agenda in Europe, given the inconsistencies in how these subsidies are used. It seems the European Commission is aware of the complexity of the situation, as is evident from its recent statement that it wants to support Romani social inclusion during the seven-year programming period starting in 2014, when it intends to support initiatives from the Romani nonprofit sector.
The non-Romani people working for pro-Romani organizations generally believe that their work, which can figuratively be called “for Roma without Roma”, will manage to get our people out of their lethargy and give them hope. It won’t. Things can only move forward if Romani people are actually involved in solving their own problems, not just involved “on paper”. Of this I am convinced.
I also very much want to draw attention to an important aspect that shows us the extent of the problem we are addressing, and that is the data included in the materials used to run the Czech Government’s concept for a solution to these problems, and indirectly used by its Agency for Social Inclusion. This data is also used at the European Commission. The official data of the Czech Government says there are between 200 000 and 250 000 Roma in our country. The adopted conceptual documents mention more than 300 Romani ghettos inhabited by 80 000 Roma. Precisely those ghettos are what lie in the field of vision of the Agency and of the organizations pushing forward this argument to a degree that is not healthy.
While the statewide unemployment average is 8 %, almost 80 % of the breadwinners in all Romani families are without a real job. I ask you: What will we do with those who do not yet live in ghettos below the poverty line, especially when we know what negative phenomena poverty entails? Do they not also need help? Do we want people on welfare in this country to live in worse conditions than people in the Third World?
Communication with the Roma takes place through the state administration. The state has selected its own Romani representatives to serve its own needs and, as we can see, its concept isn’t working.
We need to mobilize natural Romani authorities in the regions. They must be chosen by the Roma themselves and be involved in this communication, and the Roma must organize this process on their own. No one else can do it for us. However, we necessarily need support in order to do this. The responsible selection of such individuals is a prerequisite for success, of that I am convinced.
Dear guests, those of you who drove through the woods from the main road to get here cannot have helped noticing the pig farm complex by the road.That is the very place where the victims we are honoring and paying tribute to today perished. I must strongly reiterate the demand we have been making for years: Pig farms should not be built on concentration camp sites.
Friends, some day I would really like to express the sentiment that time heals all wounds. Unfortunately, I cannot view the resuscitation of Nazi theories in some parts of today’s world in such a nostalgic light. Sometimes I feel I don’t really understand what is happening today. Nevertheless, I believe in the cathartic power of the moral values of Christianity. I believe in the cathartic power of the message left for us by the tens of millions of victims of racially motivated rampages and wars.
In conclusion, I would like to let you know that for the first time today, the public has the opportunity here to read the so-called “Residential Code” authored by the sadistic commander of the Lety camp, Josef Janovský, who ran the life of prisoners there. A copy of that code and other information has been posted on one of the replicas of the housing exhibited here.
We thank you for your participation and for your flowers, and we hope we will meet here again next year under more fortunate circumstances. Thank you all.
Čeněk Růžička, chair, Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaust)
Čeněk Růžička, translated by Gwendolyn Albert
Via Romea.cz
George Eli is an American Rroma who started 4th Nail Productions; a “grassroots film and production company”. He has been filming the lives & traditions of other Rromani in America & directed the documentary “Searching for the Fourth Nail”.
This is the only established Rromani production company in America & the work of Eli and his team is important in fighting stereotypes & allowing Rromani to be presented accurately in American & international media.
George Eli’s newest project is “The Travelling Gypsy”, in which he wants to document the lives of various Rromani families living in Europe. However, 4th Nail Productions needs to raise money in order to finish the documentary. They currently only have a small fraction of their goal.
Thank you for your support!Please support!
Even if it is only a dollar or two, it will help & if you cannot donate, please re-blog!
This may not seem important to many people, but we have so few ways in which we can be accurately represented in the media. Gaining access to fair media representation & being able to depict ourselves & our own culture will help to fight the stereotypes, and thus, the racism we face.
This is the only Rromani owned & operated production company in the United States & it would be a shame if they could not continue with their projects because of a lack of funding.
There is more information about the company, film & production team on the Kickstarter page. I believe some of George Eli’s early work is on YouTube, as well, if anyone is interested.
I know not everyone is able to donate & I don’t want to make people feel obliged to do so, but I want to let everyone know that any amount of donation and every re-blog will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Non-Roma answering; I can’t speak for them or their culture, but I can be a little general about what I’ve seen and heard myself.
If your intent is honestly to help the children get an education, then I do not personally see the problem with it.
However, it is much more important to ask the Roma community and the families within whom he want to help though. Every community and family works different, and what one may think is a great thing, another may not want or accept it.
I know in Malmö, Sweden, there is a Roma Cultural Centre created by the Roma community and locals themselves, where they set up classes for the young children with both Roma and Swedish teachers. This is a group effort though.
Very vague answer, sorry. Maybe someone else can lend their opinion on this discussion.
-Alisa
Due to media hype and political rhetoric there is a fear brewing that with the uncapping of the immigrant restriction for Bulgaria and Romania at the beginning of next year we will see a full scale 29 million strong migration. We have been lead to believe…
Here is the text that we need translated! THANK YOU!
If there are some words you are unsure of please just use the closest translation that gives the same feeling.
Please message me the translations here or at qristina.cummings@gmail.com
We really need all major EU languages, as well as indigenous US/EU languages.
Please help if you can spare a few minutes.
Latcho Drom en romaní significa buena suerte y buen viaje. Latcho Drom es un proyecto que quiere documentar a traves de la imagen fija, el viaje de la musica gitana desde el Rajastan hasta España . El proyecto finalizá con la publicación de un libro que se distribuirá entre todos sus protagonistas.
English:
Latcho Drom means good luck and good riddance in Romani. Latcho Drom is a project that wants to document the journey of Romani music from Rajastan to Spain through a series of images. The project will end with the publication of a book, which will be distributed among all those involved.
Europe’s Roma are paying a high price amid the spiralling economic crisis, the head of the Council of Europe said Tuesday, warning that many more were likely to head westward as conditions deteriorate in the East.
“Minorities in Europe are coming under a lot more pressure than they have in a long time,” Thorbjoern Jagland said in an interview with AFP ahead of an address at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“The tensions are really growing,” he said, speaking in his native Norwegian.
“Many more Roma will be coming westward because the situation is so dire where they live” in the East, he said, pointing out that “when times are rough, it is the minorities who often suffer the most from economic hardship.”
At the same time, the Roma are often used as scapegoats in countries facing crisis, with other inhabitants blaming them for taking low-wage jobs or receiving benefits.
The situation is worst in countries where the majority of Roma live, such as Romania and Bulgaria, said Jagland, who is also the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that hands out the prestigious peace prize.
Romania has the biggest Roma minority in Europe with 620,000 people, according to the latest official census more than two million, according to NGOs while as many as 700,000 Roma live in Bulgaria.
Most live in poverty and suffer severe discrimination in the employment and health care sectors.
“When you see the conditions Roma are living in here in Western Europe and they say that it is better than where they came from you start getting an idea of what conditions are like back home,” Jagland said.
But tensions are also growing in Western countries, which increasingly are becoming unwilling hosts for impoverished Roma seeking a better life.
And when EU migration rules are relaxed on January 1, 2014, many more are likely to make the trip, Jagland said.
“I think there is reason now to send out a warning to all countries in Europe about what they have in store,” he said, cautioning that “this situation with the Roma can become very uncomfortable in Europe.”
The 47-member state Council of Europe has noted growing tensions in a number of German cities and in France, where nearly 12,000 ethnic Roma were evicted from makeshift camps last year.
Jagland stressed the need for Western countries to prepare for an influx of Roma and to improve conditions for those already in those countries, but lamented that many seem reluctant to do so.
He said despite the glaring needs of Roma both in eastern and western Europe, governments were barely tapping into the funds the European Commission makes available to help such populations.
“This should be a political priority, but countries are not using the funds available. I don’t know why. Probably because it is not very popular to do things for the Roma,” he said.
Not all is bleak however. Jagland emphasised that Spain was a good example of how a country can successfully integrate Roma.
“The Roma there are accepted as regular citizens. The children go to school. They are involved in cultural life,” he said, pointing out that Roma did not seem to be disproportionately affected by Spain’s deep economic crisis.
That is not the case in many other countries, he said, cautioning that Europe seems to be headed towards a new period “of inherited prejudices that come to the surface in a hateful way when social conditions deteriorate.”
The New Age Online
The Russian Federation’s government in 2013 intends to begin improving the image of Roma and their process to socio-economic integration. The cabinet has already approved a comprehensive plan that will incorporate the ethnic group in a number of cultural, educational and business projects. The newspaper “Известия” (Proceedings) writes on 20 February.
According to a government source, this is the only “comprehensive ethnic-oriented programme” in Russia. “There is not such a programme for other ethnicities. Roma, especially, are adrift and in need of care in the nation-state”, said the newspaper.
The document provides the establishment of television films and programmes, which will tell the history of the Russian Roma and the “problems of integrating into a modern society”. In addition, the government will organise a press conference with Roma leaders from the autonomies.
The ministry of regional development and the regional governors have mandated to help the Roma that would like to do business. Potential entrepreneurs will be trained and advised. In addition, Roma businessmen will receive benefits on the receipt of communication channels and the purchase of office equipment. Free legal advice centres will be open for them; however, for those without documents, there will be a simplified process organised to issue passports.
A separate unit of government will be designed to address the problem of neglect and lack of education of Roma children. A special alphabet-learning-book will be developed to help teach them the Russian language. Younger students will receive textbooks on the Romani language. In placed where Roma live, youth clubs will be opened, which will teach traditional crafts, such as the blacksmith business, horse breeding, sewing, embroidery and weaving.
The documentation notes that under the members of the Roma community, there will be tightened control to help stop the spread of drugs.
According to the national census of 2010, there are more than 200 thousand Roma living in Russia.
A workshop on reducing stereotypes and prejudices between Roma and non Roma in Razgrad region was organized by Integro Association and regional administration of Razgrad on 29 and 30 of January 2013. Members of 6 municipality administrations, local councilors, servants of public services and Roma NGO activists came together to discuss the situation and indentify the main problems of Roma population from the region.
The workshop gave opportunity for identifying and debating the main stereotypes existing of each other among the Roma and non-Roma population as well. Prof. Ilona Tomova from Bulgarian Science Academy’s Institute for population and human studies presented the findings from in-depth interviews and opinion survey, held in 2012 in Razgrad region, on interethnic relationships and attitude towards Roma. One of the main findings of the research was that social distances between ethnic groups in Razgrad are shorter than in the other part of the country. This appears to be an opportunity for reaching real effectiveness in realization of the Roma integration policy in the region.
The event gave opportunity also the participants together to look for possible measures and steps that should be taken by municipalities, NGOs and regional administration in order to tackle the problems faced by Roma community. All this finally contributed for the efficiency of regional strategy planning that is going currently in Razgrad region.
The workshop was one of the three workshops planned in the frame of the project “Identifying and Reducing Prejudices as a Source of Conflict between Roma and Non-Roma Population - Cases of Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, and Slovenia Compared – REDUPRE”, co-finance by the EU fundamental rights and citizenship program.
Roma gypsy children in France are being educated in a police station - because schools refuse to let the children learn in regular classes.
France 24 reported that the 20 children, aged between six and 12, are being taught on the second-floor of a police station in Saint-Fons, Lyon, by one teacher.
Roma people in the central French city of Lyon
The children do not receive school meals, and walk 1.5km home to their encampment by the city’s bypass, according to the report.
France anti-racism charity MRAP called the situation a “ghetto” and said it denounced the move by authorities.
It said in a statement: “We condemn the refusal of the municipality to admit children in a school canteen, which forces them to return home by foot.”
The makeshift school has “poor hygiene and safety,” the charity said. “School should be a place where children integrate, but some officials have sought to make it a divider.”
The temporary Roma camp in the city is controversial with Mayor Christiane Demontès attempting to have its inhabitants forcibly removed. Approximately 15,000 ethnic Roma, mostly originating from Bulgaria and Romania, live across France.
