Saturday, January 28, 2012

Service for the Victims of O Baro Porrajmos

Service for the Victims of O Baro Porrajmos

by Ciuin Ferrin on Sunday, January 29, 2012

Last night The People's Church in Cedar Rapids held a wonderful candle lighting ceremony for Rromani victims of the Holocaust. I wanted to share with you some of the beauty we shared.

Reverend Tom Capo opened with a call to join us. Here is his text.
"Good evening and welcome to People's Church Unitarian Universalist. I an the Reverend Tom Capo, minister here at People's. Last week I heard about the Romani people. I held certain misconceptions and prejudices that I was not even completely aware of. Much of what I knew of the Romani people was based on movies or television shows- broad strokes about a people I really knew little about. Generalizations that painted a picture of a people who stole and cheated anyone they could and put curses on others. But as we all know, prejudices and oppressions are based on these generalizations. I did not know that the United Nations had excluded the Romani people from the annual Holocaust Memorial services. I did not know how many Romani were killed during the Holocaust. I did not know that the Romani people were being oppressed throughout Europe. I did not know that some Romani in the United States were afraid to embrace and express their Romani heritage because they would be oppressed here or their business would lose customers if they expressed their heritage. I did not know, but now I do. I am awakened to this injustice, and I feel a need to support this community and to open this church to a remembrance for this people. I have learned that there are some Romani people believe that when they die, their soul will remain alive so long as they are remembered. As we worship tonight, let us keep the souls of the Romani people who suffered during the Holocaust and who are suffering throughout the world in our thoughts and prayers. Let us remember them."
This statement from Els de Groen, President of the World Artist Initiative Khetanes, was read aloud.
"Imagine a world with plenty of jobs, proper housing, health care, clean water, and proper nutrition for every human being. It would be a world without discrimination; a world where human diversity would be a source of inspiration for arts and education; a world where mankind would appreciate one another for their beauty and uniqueness as we do flora and fauna of the world. Now, take a look around our world: unemployment, homelessness, disease, and hunger. It's a world of booms and slumps, and of wealth and suffering. In this world, human variety is not perceived as richness but as a threat or potential for corruption.
Seventy years ago, Hitler's racial doctrines convinced people that once Jews and Roma were removed from existence, the Third Reich would be a paradise for the Aryan race. Approximately 6 million Jews and 1-3 million Roma perished in the darkest period in Europe's history. Though over seven decades have passed, survivors of the Holocaust must be shocked at how many of today's social attitudes parallel with those of the 1930s. Once again, in the face of many ills plaguing the world, the human race is resorting to populism, calling for scapegoats. Once more, Europe leads the way in this modern day witch hunt, and once more, the Romani people are being victimized. Fingerprinted and registered like common criminals, murdered in arson attacks, collectively deported, and defamed by the social media, the Romani people once again face the crimes they endured in the Holocaust and the situation worsens with each passing day.
Using our imagination and intellect is not a luxury only to be engaged in during times of prosperity, but more so as an absolute necessity in times of recession. We must use our ability to reason to keep racism from spreading. After all, history does not repeat itself. It is us that repeats history. We are once more allowing the senseless deaths of the Nazi victims, and only the sense to be had is in the words "Never Again". "Never Again" should these crimes be endured by the human race. Use your imagination! Imagine that we are capable of creating a world that exposes the fairy tale lies of racial superiority. This one act of mental power won't alone create the ideal, prosperous world, but it will be a far better one and the best memorial for millions murdered in the Porrajmos and the Shoah."
This was the call to meditation and prayer.
"Let us join together in prayer or meditation.
Spirit of love, God of many names, be with us and honor the Romani people.
A human life is sacred.
It is sacred in its living and it is sacred in its dying. We grieve at the loss of so many Romani people; people who lost their lives for no other reason than the culture they were born in and that they cherished in their hearts. We also grieve for those Romani people who are oppressed; oppressed for no other reason than the culture they were born in and that they cherish in their hearts. We will remember those who have passed on, but we know in our hearts there is more that needs to be done for those alive today. We must reach out with our hands to help those in need, we must let them know that they are not alone, and there are those of us who will walk with them, who see them as people who deserve the universal human rights that all people deserve, who see them not as caricatures or as objects, or as the "Other", but as real people, with feelings of love, and hope, and sorrow, just like we have, with the same human frailties and pain that we all carry. They are no different than us, but they need us because there are some people in this world who treat them as the "Other" - to be shunned and banished and oppressed. Let is remember that nothing can take the place of outstretched hands of human sympathy and understanding, the spoken and silent assurance given by friends - let us remember we have all walked the way of sorrow, of pain, of hopelessness in times past and felt loss. Let us assure them that when they find themselves feeling sorrow or loss, pain or oppression, that they do not walk alone."
And Dr. Ian Hancock sent these words to be read as the votive candles, placed on the circle of our flag, were being lit.
"For us in the United States, the horror of the Holocaust resonates so harshly in our memory because of the enormity of the loss of life it caused, because it occurred in the West and because it happened in living memory. Hitler's attempt to create his Master Race and to dominate all the lands around him, involved both military action and genocide. The two populations targeted for annihilation following the directive of the Final Solution were the Jews and the Roma, both people's losing between a half and three-quarters of their respective populations in Nazi-occupied Europe. We commemorate those tragic losses each year in ceremonies such as the one we are attending today. But we must also be fiercely aware that unless we continue to remember and examine such genocides, history can repeat itself. There have been other genocides since 1945. The Romani people have been subjected to the very same treatment in post Holocaust Europe that Hitler imposed upon them in his Third Reich: there have been forced arrests and incarcerations; there have been sterilizations, there have been neo-Nazi murders, all recorded in this the twenty-first century. We must be ever vigilant, ever alert to the early warning signs of another impending genocide. God bless the memories of those lost in the past, and God protect those who are being targeted in the present time."

O Porrajmos Education Society would like to thank the People's Church for their kindness and generosity in this beautiful ceremony, a ceremony the UN was unwilling to give us.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Holocaust Remembrance Day


In 1935, Hitler issued the Nuremburg Laws, declaring both Jew and Gypsy were ineligible citizens in the Reich because of impure bloodlines. Himmler organized the death camps and killing squads and Jews and Gypsies died side by side in the gas chambers.  6 million Jews and 3 to 5 million Gypsies were murdered due to race. The atrocities the Russians discovered at Auschwitz laid the foundation for the definition of genocide adopted by the UN in 1948.

Since then, Holocaust scholars have forgotten about the Rromanies, known as “Gypsies,” allowing history to repeat itself. European politicians blame them for a poor economy and crime. In the Czech Republic, Rromani children aren’t allowed to attend public schools and over 90,000 Rromani women have been sterilized since 1980. Italy fingerprinted and photographed the Rromani in 2008. Neo-Nazis in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Italy murder Rromani with near impunity. Germany, France, and Italy deport the Rromani, and England practices illegal evictions.

In October of 2011, Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Right for the Council of Europe declared “The importance of teaching about Roma history cannot be overemphasized. [r]aising awareness of the Roma genocide and building … memorial sites are the least states could do to honor Roma victims.”

The UN declared January 27 ‘International Holocaust Remembrance Day’ to “[c]ondemn ‘without reserve’ all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur." Yet Rromanies will not be allowed to participate in the UN’s ceremony.

Rromanies aren’t usually allowed inside the gates of Auschwitz for their ceremonies either. The Rromani have been told their participation would “dishonor the memory of the true victims.”

The Holocaust didn’t happen in a bubble. Please remember all victims on January 27 and reject intolerance.

Friday, January 20, 2012

In response to a call to action

We at O Porrajmos Education Society do agree with the principle called upon by activists to create a universal platform assembled by a united leadership of Rromani. We would support such a venture, though the logistics would be a nightmare.

It would require an international conference with delegates from every nation and organization. These delegates would need to determine the issues we face and create an action plan to tackle each one.

Sounds simple. It isn't.

Every country in Europe is dealing with a variety of issues. These issues, ranging from poverty to murder, must be considered with respect to their relevance in each country they exist in, not just as a universal problem. Each country has different laws, different avenues of redress. Yes, there are the courts of the EU, but not every case can/will/should be determined there. Some issues need a more immediate course of action than a law suit and we've seen just how European governments respect their own high court system. Consider the current status of D.H. and Others v the Czech Republic.

Each issue must be recognized and tactically mapped to determine a course of action. What issues are the most important?

The issues
First issue:
Most human rights organizations see any issue of life and death as a top priority. I know, it's obvious, but you may be surprised who would argue the point. Based on this, the main issue in my mind would be the attacks and lack of attention by law enforcement of these attacks as seen across Eastern Europe.

We know the causes for these crimes. We know that skin heads and neo-Nazis are running amok in their unbridled hatred and frustration, blaming Rromani for their lot in life. These people are usually poor themselves, uneducated as well, with little hope of getting and keeping a job. Rather than face the truth of their situation, they must find a scapegoat. Blame the guy who got the job, who applied for the job, who wants the job, who needs the job.

These people feel that opposition to an issue such as poverty or other social ills is to eliminate the obstacle. Reasonable, rational people understand that this is stupidity unleashed, but we must face the fact that the racists, the skin heads, and the neo-Nazis aren't going anywhere. They will continue to use their rage to encourage others to unite with them. We've seen this in history, very recent history, and we can't ignore it. When the neo-Nazis are involved, we have no choice but to learn from history and stop them now.

How?

A task force. Created through dedication and education, to take every case of violence and death and push the issues through the courts. Other duties of this task force would be to educate Rromani citizens of their rights, both human and civil, and teach them how to act upon them, how to exercise them, and how to use them to defend themselves.

In order to be effective, this task force would need to establish itself with strong NGOs such as Amnesty International as well as local, national, and international governments. Learn their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses so they can work together to create a safer world for our people.

A part of this task force would also need to work with local educators to create a curriculum dedicated to instructing outsiders on the real people called Rromani. They need to understand our ways so they can see that the problems they blame us for will not go away if we do.

Second issue:
Education.

Many would disagree with me here. Yes, poverty is a large problem and is critical, but I state that without education there will be little if any opportunities for advancement for any Rromani. Our children are born into poverty and will continue the cycle if not given the opportunity to advance and the doorway to such advancement is education. We must get our children into schools and given them the tools they need to succeed. A short term solution is jobs for Rromani now, but a long term solution starts with our children.

I believe our young people have lost hope. I believe they are turning to violence because they see no way out and they are frustrated. Drug addiction, alcoholism, and crime will only add to the problem. We have to show these kids that there is a way out and it is education. When our children succeed, so then shall we.

How?
Another task force, this one of educators. We need to create the curriculum that will help our children. A nation cannot move forward if it has no idea where it has been. We need to teach our children our history and allow them to claim their heritage. From there, it is all academic. Mathematics, reading, social studies, civics, and a practicum for finding a job.

Third issue:
Poverty

We need to help our people find a way out, not a hand out. Yeah, cliche, but it is very true. And I wish I had a solution here. I really don't. Funding that has been designated for the Rromani has been pocketed by gadji. Money for schools has gone to giving teachers raises.

It may be possible to create yet another watchdog group to demand an accounting of the money and where it goes and then make those figures public. Perhaps if the public sees where their money is really going, it may force a change in the system and get rid of a few corrupt officials.

Fourth issue:
And this is where I know I am going to be criticized. Persecution, discrimination, and other acts fall below this line. I hate the very idea of clustering the rest together, but I feel it is necessary. The reason being that everything else must be reviewed and categorized.  Often we may discover that a problem may be solved from one of the above mentioned groups.

Finally, we must declare war on the media. The irresponsible 'news' reports that blame 'those dirty Gypsies' for everything. I find it hard to believe that only the 'Gypsies' commit crimes. I read a news story while doing research for this blog that stated a Gypsy robed and raped a woman.

 I am not condoning the criminal act in any way, and if anyone believes I am, then you don't know me. When you know me, you can judge me. But let us take a careful look at the words used just in the title of the article.

The man's race was used to identify him. This often doesn't happen in States with a white man. If a white man commits a crime, he is often just referred to as 'A man'. The press will more likely state his name and age and then describe the crime. But when a black man, a Rom, or any other man of another race commits a crime, his race is usually brought up, if not in the title then in the text.

Also, when it comes to the description of the crimes, most reporters will use active voice rather than passive. Again, when you report a crime in a paper, you must, as a responsible journalist, report all crime as equal. If you are going to use active voice, do so for all crime, and not just the ones that will cause a sensation. Sensational journalism is often little more than racist reporting.

The media needs to be called out for their approaches. We need to establish a rapport with the press with liaisons who can help reporters keep to the facts and steer away from racist language. We need to support those Romani news agencies that exist and help them advance. We also need, though education, to create and support the future Rromani journalists.

In summary, I support a global network of leaders who would step forward and determine the issues and solutions to our problems and who could find a way to implement those solutions. Such leaders must be dedicated and also be supported by our people 100%. If we want the world to take us seriously, we must declare the world to be our country and stand up for our rights.

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Decade of Roma Inclusion

One of my tasks here at OPES is to keep watch on the Decade of Inclusion. I have written in the past that I have not been impressed with the countries that signed on and their lack of progress. The twelve countries currently taking part in the Decade are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Spain. Slovenia has observer status. Each developed a national Decade Action Plan that specifies the goals and indicators in the priority areas.

As we approach January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I will be reviewing the participating countries and you can decide for yourself if real progress, if any, has been achieved.

The following article is from Romedia Foundation and I found it to be very interesting. Please check out their site at http://romediafoundation.wordpress.com/. They are an excellent source for information.

C

Under Surveillance: The Roma in Hungary 2012

Police in Hungary have now been formally instructed by the Chief of National Police to pay specific attention to minorities in their work, referring to what some have called ‘ethnic criminality’. The National Police were issued the instructions on December 30.

The special rules for “working in a multicultural environment” refer to officers handling immigration issues with the advice being issued by National Police Chief, Joseph Hatala.
The developments have received a mixed response from police officers and criminologists. Some believe that the new law will actually help the police to identify criminals while others have criticized the measure, claiming that it will only deepen the already existing prejudice within the force.

The main role of the police’s minority liaison division in dealing with minorities is to forge relationships with different cultural communities, youth organizations, refugee organizations as well as realigning minority leaders of social organizations.

Ultimately, the information gathered in the process is shared with the National Bureau of Investigation, the Alert Police Department, the Airport Police Directorate and regular police officers.
Furthermore, the instructions allow the chief of police to use the minority liaison to investigate any crime in which he thinks a minority group may have been involved. The assumption of innocence is put to one side.

Prejudiced police

Law enforcement and investigative bodies have been under pressure to reduce feelings of prejudice within the National Police. A decade ago, there was great controversy at the national Police Academy where an investigation found that its students were widely anti-Roma.
Research carried out by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in 2007-2008 found that “Roma people are three times more likely to be stopped by police than non-Roma persons”.
Police activity against Roma communities in Hungary has come under international scrutiny

The police and Hungarian state in general, were under serious pressure when in April 2010 Amnesty International issued a report “highlighting the shortcomings of the Hungarian criminal justice system in identifying and addressing hate crimes, in particular racist violence that mostly affects Roma people in Hungary.”

In October 2011, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg expressed concern about police behavior against Roma communities.
The Commissioner stated: “Patterns of discrimination and ill-treatment by police towards Roma are widely reported. Roma have been subjected to police violence in detention facilities and public spaces, such as Roma settlements during police raids. When investigations have been carried out, they frequently appear to have been biased or discriminatory.”
Suspicions of racism among the police intensified further when an internal police internet forum was found to contain officers exchanging derogatory opinions on the Roma. However, similar discoveries have been made across Hungarian society, not only within the police, leading to a growing sense of unease and alienation among Hungarian Roma.
Police protecting a Roma community in Hejoszalonta, Hungary 2010

The head of the police had aimed to address these issues and tried several ways to tackle this widespread prejudice. He announced a record number of Romani officers, and encouraged police officer candidates among Roma children entering secondary schools. In addition to this, cooperation agreements with Roma minority self-governments, and a special rapporteur on the Roma were ready to be launched.

However, such measures were not warmly welcomed within the police force as leaders continually stressed that social issues could not be solved by police alone.

One police officer, wishing to remain anonymous, claimed that as a district agent with a good relationship with local residents, he could not understand the purpose minorities being given special attention and found the new regulations to be vaguely worded.

Results will take time

The new instructions were paved with good intentions according to National Institute of Criminology Fellow, Finszter Geza. The scholar insisted that it was a necessary means to encourage cooperation from minorities and bring them closer to the police.

“This type of instruction in Hungary has not yet been undertaken, even though in almost all European countries with multi-cultural societies, there are such solutions” – said Finszter.

He cited Holland as an example where, he explained, there are lots of immigrants from a variety of cultures, so each police officer is obliged to partake in an educational program in which the officer becomes acquainted with an ethnic group’s traditions and habits.

Finszter continued, and outlined that the solution to the problem was clearly handed down to every police service by the Declaration of Human Rights.

“Every police organization will answer to a centralized bureaucratic element, so the problem is more complicated. A professional attitude and cultural change is required, these things do not happen immediately, but over many years.” stressed Finszter, who hopes that the chief provision will have a positive impact on the police.

However the criminologist also found it important to note that the instructions had an introductory section, attempting to explain the need for the new measures. “Thus the statement is a bit of a self-criticism as well. For example, the prejudice reported among the police must exist for this to be made clear. “

Nothing new

Further anonymous officers claimed that the instructions do not say anything new. ”It would be nice to know why the command was issued. Last spring we were already provided instructions on how to be a police officer and to keep in touch with the minorities’ – he said. They said the objective is not new, because the police’s role was still to prevent crime above anything else.

The impact of the latest police guidelines will be seen in the coming months. However, from the outset, in a country which is no stranger to ethnic or racial tension, paying specific attention to minorities may be sending the wrong message to the Hungarian people.

Many will take this as an assumption of criminality within Roma communities, and particularly volatile sections of society may take this as justification for persecution. It certainly won’t discourage the extremist right wing groups and their paramilitary wings in their anti-Roma activities.
Having said that, in an article of January 10, the extreme right media portal kuruc.info has actually criticized the instructions for which the title read “Pintér (Minister of Interior) protects Gypsy criminals again: “special attention” has to be paid to them from now on”.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Roma integration:Only 15 states have submitted national strategies

This article comes to us via the Roma Virtual Network and is printed with permission by Europolitics and was written by Sophie Petitjean. We wish to thank Europolitics for allowing us to use this article. Roma integration is an important issue and we are glad for the coverage it has been receiving. For other interesting news of Europe, please go to http://www.europolitics.info/

EUROPOLITICS

Roma integration

Only 15 states have submitted national strategies

By Sophie Petitjean | Tuesday 10 January 2012

Only 15 of the 27 member states submitted their Roma integration strategies to the European Commission by the deadline of 31 December 2011. France, Romania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Slovakia, Poland and Malta are the only states that kept their commitment of 23-24 June 2011, when the European Council approved the EU framework for national Roma integration strategies.

Proposed in April 2011, the framework is meant to improve Roma integration through a specific agenda and clear guidelines. It calls on member states to facilitate Roma access to education, employment, health care, housing and basic related services, and also insists on better use of EU funds. More concretely, it asks member states, taking into account their respective differences, to develop a global strategy for Roma integration (either a completely new strategy or an improved existing strategy) before 31 December 2011.

As of 9 January 2012, 12 member states had not yet submitted their contribution. "The Commission hopes to receive the missing national strategies as soon as possible. It is essential that all states respect their commitment. Only by working together will we make progress on Roma integration," said the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding. The Commission, which plans to continue its calls for action, has no way of putting pressure on member states.

Copyright © 2008 Europolitics. Tous droits réservés

Friday, January 6, 2012

Museum explores Nazi persecution of Gypsies during Holocaust

This article is used with permission from Stars and Stripes © 2012 Stars and Stripes. If you wish to reuse this article please contact Stars and Stripes at permission@stripes.osd.mil before doing so. To read the entire article written by Stars and Stripes writer Nancy Montgomery and to read other interesting pieces, please follow the link http://www.stripes.com/news/heidelberg-germany-museum-explores-nazi-persecution-of-gypsies-during-holocaust-1.164975

Heidelberg, Germany: Museum explores Nazi persecution of Gypsies during Holocaust


Anneliese Franz smiles for the camera as she stands on Heidelberg’s Philosopher’s Way, the castle ruins visible behind her. She’s a young woman with dark hair wearing a pretty dress, and although it’s 1944, she has somehow not been rounded up by the Nazis and murdered.

Franz was a Sinti — a Zigeuner, or Gypsy, according to the Germans. That made her, like the Roma Gypsies of eastern Europe — and 6 million Jews — part of the “alien strain” the Nazis rooted out, dispossessed, deported and killed during the Third Reich.

The photo of Franz is one of many portraits at a unique Heidelberg museum: the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma.

“It’s the only exhibition about the Sinti and the Roma and the Holocaust in Europe and the whole world,” said Joschi Rose, a center employee.

The center opened in 1997, 15 years after the German government formally acknowledged the genocide against the Sinti and Roma, the preferred name of the ethnic group that originated in India, came to Europe about 1,000 years ago, and is still subject to discrimination and derogatory stereotypes.

The Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti is less well-known than the Holocaust, in part because the Roma and Sinti were more marginalized than Jews before the Nazis came to power because of greater levels of poverty and illiteracy and less organization by Roma and Sinti communities, historians say. In fact, because of the number of Sinti and Roma living before the Holocaust isn’t clear — many of them were nomadic — neither is their death toll.

Both had been stigmatized and persecuted for centuries.

“But there were many ways they lived together normally (with Germans),” Rose said. “Before 1933, Sinti and Roma were more integrated into the community.”

Historians estimate 500,000 were exterminated as part of the Nazis’ attempted annihilation of entire peoples they deemed subhuman. The center describes how it happened, through documents and photographs from the Nazis juxtaposed with family photographs of the murdered and some of their personal histories.

Visitors to the center can see an image of Johann Trollmann, a young Sinti boxer who was stripped of his light-heavyweight title by the Nazis in 1933 after winning a fight. Trollmann avoided earlier deportations by being sterilized — the same way that Franz escaped death. She was sterilized at the University of Heidelberg.

Trollmann, though, was eventually sent to a concentration camp, where he was beaten to death.
Roma and Sinti were all identified, measured and recorded with the help of the doctors at the Research Center for Racial Hygiene, established in 1936. According to the center, “24 details on the head alone” were measured in the pseudoscientific pursuit of classifying people.
One of the most haunting images is of four young Roma girls, starved into near skeletons, who were part of Joseph Mengele’s unspeakable twin experiments at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps.
In fact, historians say, Roma and Sinti suffered disproportionately in the experiments carried out by Nazi doctors and anthropologists.

“Mengele once had a family of eight murdered so that their different colored eyes could be sent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology in Berlin-Dahlem,” says the voice on the tour headset.

DIRECTIONS
The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma is located in Heidelberg’s old town at Bremeneckgasse 2, Heidelberg 69117. The closest parking is a multistory parking garage P12, Kornmarkt/Schloss.

TIMES
The center is open 9:30 a.m.- 7:45 p.m. Tuesday; 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; and 11 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. weekends. Closed Mondays.

COSTS
Admission is free.

FOOD
There are plenty of restaurants with a variety of price ranges just a couple of blocks away on the city’s main pedestrian street.

INFORMATION
Call 06221-981102 or visit sintiundroma.de. Interpretive headsets in English are available at no charge. If planned in advance, a tour guided by a historian is also available at no charge.

 

           

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day. A time to act.

We are fast approaching January 27, which is the day the General Assembly of the United Nations declared to be International Day of Commemoration to honour the victims of the Holocaust. They also urged their member states to develop educational programs to "instill the memory of the tragedy in future generations to prevent genocide from occurring again." January 27 was selected as the date since it is the date the Russians liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the death camps, where they found only one survivor of Romani descent. The Assembly stated
"Rejecting any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, the 191-member Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution condemning “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur."


So the question must be asked, why has the United Nations refused the Romani nation to participate in the ceremonies this year? Last year we were included, but, as of this writing, this year we are not. If the UN found it a worthy effort to spend two days in 2005 debating the issue of establishing a memorial date and went so far as to ask every member state to commemorate the day, then why include a minority who has the most to lose from being excluded from the services? Is it because there is a question as to the murder of the Romani people in the Holocaust?

Even the expert scholars, survivors themselves, state that the Romani people were indeed victims of the Holocaust. In a letter written to Elie Wiesel and dated December 14th, 1984, Simon Wiesenthal stated

“The Gypsies had been murdered in a proportion similar to the Jews: about 80% of them in the area of the countries which were occupied by the Nazis.”

Even Germany finally admitted to the world that the Romani nation was selected as a race for extermination, as evidenced by former German president Roman Herzog stated in 1997,

"The genocide of the Sinti and Roma was carried out from the same motive of racial mania, with the same premeditation, with the same wish for the systematic and total extermination as the genocide of the Jews."
One would think that such statements, made years in advance of the creation of the day of remembrance would be admission enough, but it seems it isn't.

So we look to the statement made by the Assembly itself, piece by piece. The first section reads:


"Rejecting any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part..."
Is not silence just as deafening as the cries of millions? By their silence and by their unwillingness to to include the Romani nation in their ceremony and allowing a Romani to speak, they add to the misguided belief that the Romani people were not victims of the Holocaust. Rejection by omission is just as bad as flat denial, which the UN rejects.



"...the 191-member Assembly adopted by consensus ..."
191 members of the Assembly agreed to this, and yet, who among them is asking for full inclusion of the Romani people, people who were affected in many of these countries? These members must look to the histories of their own countries and see what side they were on, what actions their government took, and, in the glaring light of the present, act accordingly.



"...a resolution condemning “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief..."

Read it again. "Without reserve" all manifestations of  religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief (emphasis mine). This section here means we are included. Or should be included, by their own admission!

And finally,



"...whenever they occur."
They already have occurred and they are currently occurring while the UN does what? Remains silent.


So in our fight for human rights and our dealings with the UN, who do go to? There is a United Nations Human Rights Council. What nation has been designated with such an honor? The Czech Republic.
"[T]he Czech Republic was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2011 -2014. The Czech Republic thus has the honor to become one of the 47 member states of the main UN body responsible for creating and implementing UN policies in the field of protection and promotion of human rights in various part of the world." (emphasis mine)
Seriously? According to the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights for the Council of Europe, over 90,000 Romani women were sterilized in the Czech Republic since 1980. Romani children are still be segregated from the public school system even after the Court of Human Rights ordered the Czech Republic to de-segregate in 2007.

I bring this up because there is a direct link to the Holocaust and our fight for justice in Europe. When the Third Reich fell to the Allies and the atrocities committed by the German State were revealed to the world, the anti-Semitic laws were immediately abolished. Not so in the case of the anti-Gypsy laws. It was still illegal to be a Gypsy until 1953. No one was educated about the murders of the Romani people because few survivors wanted to talk about what they experienced and the deaths of loved ones and family members. Now, the world is blissfully ignorant of the Romani inclusion in the Holocaust and the hate and persecution that resulted in O Baro Porrajmos continues to this day and we face a genocide once again.

We must demand the UN include us and, if they refuse, we must make it clear in cities around the world that we, as a nation, were set for extermination and that we can see it happening again and that we will not allow it.

Organize something within your community. A meal with a candle lighting ceremony, a wreath presentation to a river, or volunteer to speak at a school. The point is, do something. Record that event through pictures or video. Let  people see what we stand for because if we don't speak for ourselves, who will?















Monday, January 2, 2012

Europe’s Squandered Minority

This article comes to us with permission from Project Syndicate. Please follow the link below for the rest of this article.

Europe’s Squandered Minority

By Zeljko Jovanovic

2011-12-30

Europe’s Squandered Minority
BUDAPEST – Today, millions of Europeans are afraid and frustrated as they face unemployment, loss of savings and pensions, radically reduced social benefits, and other economic hardships. Their fears are warranted, because the current financial crisis is undermining the very union that was established to heal Europe’s wounds at the end of World War II.

But, in the midst of the general suffering, one group – the Roma – has been ignored. Europe’s largest and most disadvantaged ethnic minority, with a population equal to that of Greece, millions of Roma are trapped in extreme poverty and ignorance, compounded by widespread discrimination. Indeed, the 2009 European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey found that Roma experience more severe discrimination than any other ethnic-minority group in Europe.

Hard times provoke aggressive, vindictive, and intolerant attitudes, and Roma have become scapegoats in this economic crisis. In fact, Roma-bashing is helping far-right political parties to mobilize and nationalist leaders to win votes. Even some mainstream political parties have resorted to using anti-Roma rhetoric that would have been inconceivable a decade ago. But the Roma have refrained from reciprocating the sometimes lethal violence inflicted on them.

For the rest of the article, please go to http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/jovanovic1/English