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Interview with Romani composer Roger Moreno Rathgeb

Prague, 26.12.2012 23:31, (Romano vod'i)

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Roger Moreno Rathgeb is, like many Romani musicians, self-taught, but he gradually began to use musical notation and to compose. Several years ago he decided to compose a requiem for the victims of the Auschwitz extermination camp, but his work was interrupted by a visit there which strongly impacted him and blocked his creative capabilities for several years. The impulse to complete the work came in the form of a request from Albert Siebelink, who suggested presenting the "Requiem for Auschwitz" at the International Gipsy Festival in Tilburg and then in other European cities.

A composer and multi-instrumentalist (he plays accordion, violin, double-bass, guitar, piano and drums), Rathgeb came to Prague for the first time ever to present his most extensive work to date, "Requiem for Auschwitz" (for more about this exceptional event, see http://www.romea.cz/cz/kultura/pocatkem-listopadu-predvedou-romsti-umelci-v-rudolfinu-koncert-requiem-za-osvetim). We spoke together in the foyer of the Rudolfinum concert hall during the dress rehearsal, which we could hear underway on the other side of the wall. It was beautiful.

Q: You were born in Switzerland in 1956, which means 11 years after the war. Even though Switzerland was neutral, did you sense any of the aftermath of the war?

A: In reality there was no war in Switzerland, but there were other problems there. For example, at that time a particular Swiss organization was working to take children away from Romani families immediately after they were born and give them to infertile non-Romani married couples. That lasted until 1979. You could say that was a war, too, just a bit of a different one.

Q: Where did your parents come from?

A: My father was not Romani, he was a German Swiss. My mother was Romani - to be precise, she was Sinti - but she also was born in Switzerland. I was not raised in the traditional Romani environment of that time. My sister and I normally attended school. I didn't even know my mother was Romani until I was 12 or 13. Not only did we never speak Romanes at home, we never talked about being Romani. I basically don't even know how my parents met. My grandpa (that is, the father of my mother) passed away when she was six, so she de facto did not know his culture.

Q: You do speak Romanes, however. You learned it later?

A: Yes, sure. In 1980 my band and I were on a tour of Holland and I met several Sinti families of musicians. The band just left me there with them [laughs]. They only spoke the Sinti dialect of Romanes, and I immediately felt at home among them.

Q: Did you already know you were a Sinto by then?

A: Yes. When I was young, children in school would laugh at me and say I was a "gypsy", and I always defended myself against their accusations because I really didn't know anything about my origins. They must have sensed it somehow. Once I came home and complained about it to my mother and she revealed to me that I am Romani. It wasn't easy for her to say, she was a bit ashamed herself. Then, for many years, I had a problem with my identity. After all, I grew up as just a "normal" Swiss person, just like a gadjo.

Q: Do you identify as Romani/Sinti today?

A: I always had the feeling I was not like other Swiss people. I was a rebel. I protested against Swiss laws, against society, basically against everything. Swiss people have a completely different mindset. Inside I suspected I wasn't Swiss, that it couldn't be true. There just had to be something else.

Q: When did you decide to professionally devote yourself to music? What led you to that?

A: When I was 10, I got a guitar for my birthday from my grandmother (on my mother's side). She recognized that I had musical talent, even though I am the only one in the family who has dedicated himself to music. My family is totally unmusical otherwise.

Q: What kind of music do you like most? You're here in Prague for a concert of classical music, but do you also go in for traditional Romani music?

A: Yes, Romani music is definitely what I like the most. The road to classical music was a very long one for me, because for a long time I couldn't even read music.

Q: Where did you learn the music theory that is so necessary to composing a requiem?

A: I first encountered musical notation when I was 35. I was taking violin lessons and my teacher was a Hungarian Rom who played in the Maastricht Symphony Orchestra. It was he who first showed me musical notation, and by doing so he opened up a whole new world to me.

Q: In addition to classical and Romani music, what else speaks to you?

A: I'd say I basically love all music. Once I even played drums in a rock’n’roll band and to this day I have very warm feelings about that musical style, I enjoy it!

Q: You have worked in many different groups - which do you have the best memories of and which contributed the most to your life?

A: I'd say the Sinto family I started to play with after moving to Holland [the band Zigeunerorkest Nello Basily – Editors]. They played the traditional music of Romani people from Hungary, Romania, and Russia. From them, especially from the cimbalom [concert hammered dulcimer] player, I learned how to distinguish the Hungarian harmonies. Those are the best for learning accompaniment because they are constantly changing, and that makes it easier to accompany even songs you don't know. I came to the greatest depth of understanding in that band. 

Q: Why did you decide to emigrate to Holland?

A: In 1980 we traveled with the band on a tour around Holland, and the mentality of people in that country immediately clicked with me. The Dutch are free-thinkers, unlike the Swiss, who are terribly conservative. The truth is, the Swiss don't like Romani people. The Dutch are open and tolerant, and they have a beautiful country. It was a very quick decision.

Q: You have written scripts for several theatrical performances - what were they?

A: We created two theatrical shows with the band. The first is called "The Long Journey", and it tells the story of the migration of Romani people from India to Europe. We called the second one "The Life", and in it we portray the daily life of Romani musicians. These are pastiches of music, poetry, and story-telling. We sat around a fire, played our instruments, and did our best to create the atmosphere of a Romani camp. The gadje don't know much about Romani people and often ask me about our culture and history. We wanted to somehow approximate our "Romani-ness" for them, because discrimination comes from ignorance in particular.

Q: How many people came to the show - was it mostly non-Romani people or Romani people?

A: We performed in theaters in Belgium, Germany and Holland, and most of them were attended mainly by gadje. It's sad - Romani people aren't interested in these things, I don't know why.

Q: You have come to Prague with your wife. Is she also a musician?

A: Yes, we perform together, it's how we make our living. It's brilliant that my composition is being played all over Europe, but I have not yet made any money from it, and I have to make a living somehow. We play in concert, we play at festivals and in theaters, at weddings and at various parties.

Q: You are one of the main figures in the film "Musicians for Life", which was created by Bob Entrop. Can you tell us about the film?

A: That film is one of the reasons I am now in Prague. Albert Siebelink, who is the director of the Romani festival in Tilburg, saw it, and there's an interview with me in it where I talk about "Requiem for Auschwitz". After seeing the film, Albert asked me whether I had completed the piece yet, but it wasn't ready. He promised that if I would complete it, he would arrange for it to be performed. I began work on it once more, but it took me another three years all the same.

"Musicians for Life" is not the only film I have collaborated on with Bob Entrop. I also perform in the documentary "A Hole in the Sky", which is about WWII survivors.

Q: When did you start to work on "Requiem"?

A: I first visited Auschwitz in 1998 and I immediately got the idea to write a requiem. I started working on it, but after some time all of my inspiration for it disappeared. I thought that if I returned to Auschwitz I would know how to continue, but that didn't happen - the complete opposite happened. I was just destroyed, it's a very macabre place. I set the work aside and did not return to the "Requiem" until eight years later.

Q: Would you call yourself a Romani (Sinti) activist?

A: Probably not - I'm just a musician. Naturally, if people see a message in my music, then that's brilliant.

Q: For a certain time you collaborated with opera singer Carla Schroyen. What was that project? Did your idea to create a great classical music work (like "Requiem for Auschwitz") start there?

A: Carla Schroyen sang various "gypsy" arias from operas and operettas and I accompanied her on accordion, but that didn't influence my composing. I had already dedicated myself to classical music prior to that.

Q: What was your first classical composition?

A: In 1995 I decided to try to write a ballet for an amateur dance ensemble in Maastricht. In the end, however, it turned into a symphonic-poetic work.

Q: Did you try to incorporate elements of Romani music into "Requiem for Auschwitz"?

A: A little, you can hear them in some places - there are several motifs that turn up repeatedly. "Requiem", however, is not dedicated only to the Romani victims, but to everyone who suffered or perished in Auschwitz. Before writing it I did not listen to any other requiems so I wouldn't be influenced by other works. It's me in "Requiem", not anyone else, which is why some Romani motifs have to be there.

Q: Do you see any difference between the genocide of the Jewish people and that of the Romani people?

A: It's completely the same thing. The numbers differ a bit, but that's not what is essential.

Q: You have played as an opening act for Chuck Berry, you have performed for the Dutch royal family, and "Requiem for Auschwitz" is being played in the most celebrated halls in Europe. What do you consider your greatest success so far? What are your other plans or dreams?

A: I am working on an oratorio about the migration of Romani people from India to Europe. I think it will be a much more extensive work than "Requiem". I also would like to write an opera about the Romani children taken away from their parents and placed with non-Romani families in Switzerland. As you can see, I have enough plans! [laughs]

Inka Jurková, translated by Gwendolyn Albert

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Conspiracy: The Wansee Conference

This isn't a new film, released in 2001, but Conspiracy is an amazing film and I recommend it for any student of the Holocaust. The film stars Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann. 

This film is a brilliant depiction of the Wannsee Conference, a meeting that would have been lost to history had it not been for one conference member who kept the notes he was ordered to burn.

The purpose of the Wannsee Conference was to unify various branches of the Third Reich under Heydrich's leadership in the definition and concept of  The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem and organize the logistics of processing millions of people to their deaths. Fifteen men met at a table over a two hour luncheon and decided the fate six million Jewish men, women, and children.

The astounding method at which these horrific decisions were made keeps the viewer's attention on the screen. These men discuss the annihilation of a people as if they were discussing the transportation of freight or munitions. 

When tensions begin to run high as at least some men in the room are having a small battle with their consciences, preferring sterilizations over gassings, Heydrick makes his makes his intentions clear:

Heydrich: We will not sterilize every Jew and wait for them to die. We will not sterilize every Jew and then exterminate the race. That's farcical. Dead men don't hump, dead women don't get pregnant. Death is the most reliable form of sterilization, put it that way.

With sterilization taken off the table, Heydrich and Eichman explain their proposal for the Final Solution.

Adolf Eichmann: Now, last summer Reichsführer Himmler asked me to visit a camp up in Upper Silesia, called Auschwitz, which is very well isolated, and close to significant rail access. And we are turning that camp into a major center, solid structures (and here's where your Jewish labor comes into play, Herr Neumann, the Jews haul the bricks and they build the buildings themselves). And when the structures are complete, we expect to be able to process 2500... an hour. Not a day, an hour. Heydrich: And those numbers look a lot better. Luther: 2500 an hour? Hofmann: 2500? Adolf Eichmann: At 24 hours a day, that is 60,000. Kritzinger: 60,000 each day... Adolf Eichmann: That's 21,900,000 Jews a year, if ever there were that many. Heydrich: And we are also constructing the means of disposal, which will obviously depend upon the process of combustion. Adolf Eichmann: Yes, it'll be industrial in nature: large commercial gas-fed ovens, no residue to speak of. Müller: 60,000 Jews every day go up in smoke. Heydrich: We can achieve that. Imagine. 

This film helps students of the Holocaust understand the mindset of those in power and explains how Hitler was able to stay away from the blame even though the carnage took place under his direction. This is a must-see for anyone interested in the mechanisms of the Holocaust.

This article comes to us from Romano Vod'i, published on December 27, 2012. O Porrajmos Education Society would like to thank them and Gwendolyn Albert for the use of the article.  

On transforming the Czech "practical primary schools"

Prague, 27.12.2012 17:37, (Romano vod'i)

A teaching assistant at the Božena Němcová Primary School in Přerov. (PHOTO: YouTube.com)

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Iveta Němečková is the coordinator of the Together to School coalition and has worked as a special educator, a director, a lecturer in education programs, a coordinator and a specialist in education methods for the Step by Step program. She has implemented a project aimed at integrating Romani pupils into primary education and has participated in designing an international education program focusing on working with prejudices and stereotypes. She has long been an advocate of inclusive education and has worked as the coordinator of early childhood care projects. She is a lecturer in adult education and a coordinator and organizer of educational events. She contributed the following commentary to the latest issue of Romano voďi.

In recent months, a wave of reaction to planned measures that are supposed to help address the situation of Romani pupils (among others) in the education system has spread through communications networks and the media. The measures were adopted by the Government of the Czech Republic last year and were part of its "Strategy for the Fight against Social Exclusion".

The subject of this communications campaign has primarily been measures aiming to transform the so-called "practical primary schools". Under the name of a "Petition against closing the practical schools", it has spread throughout the entire Czech Republic. Many of my fellow citizens, friends and parents of schoolchildren have asked me what is basically at issue here.

First and foremost, the group behind this petition is the Association of Special Educators (Asociace speciálních pedagogů), who argue that there is a need for separate schools for children with light mental retardation and warns against closing them. As one of the authors of the petition, Jana Smetanová, has stated: "...the current situation is convenient - thanks to special care we have one of the lowest levels of illiteracy".

Permit me to add that special education is a very broad concept. It primarily involves support for children with serious medical disabilities (auditory, visual, and physical, as well as medium and severe mental disabilities). The proposed transformation does not concern the network of specialized schools serving this population, but exclusively concerns one type of school only - schools for children with light mental disability.

What is basically at issue here, and what is another way to view the current situation? These primary schools that instruct their pupils according to programs for children with light mental retardation are relatively new institutions in the education system, but only as far as their names are concerned. In reality, these schools are carrying on the long tradition of "special schools" and, just like those schools, they educate children who have been diagnosed with so-called light mental retardation. For the sake of completeness, I must add that in reality these schools are also attended by children who have never been diagnosed as mentally disabled, as a report by the Czech School Inspection Authority showed in 2010.

Another fact is that a disproportionately high share of Romani children attend these schools - a far greater share than corresponds to the probability of their being disabled. It is difficult to believe that more than 25 % of children from Romani families suffer from light mental retardation when the prevalence of this disability in the rest of the population does not exceed 2 %. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg also strongly pointed this out when it brought a judgment against the Czech Republic in 2007 for the "indirect discrimination" of Romani children in education.

We should also look at how, in most countries in Europe (and not only in Europe), children with light mental disability primarily attend mainstream primary schools. In countries where the education system functions at a good level, these students have very good professional support guaranteed to them in mainstream schools. These pupils are accepted by both their teachers and their classmates. They find a broader circle of friends and acquire good social skills.

This is a good investment into their future lives - it is basically good news for everyone. These so-called "integrated" children find it easier to navigate society with a higher degree of independence in their adult lives. The other children in the classroom learn to count on the fact that people with special needs are an ordinary part of society. The "specialized schooling system" exists for pupils for whom such support in a mainstream school is not sufficient, pupils who would not be well-accepted among the other children, pupils in whose actual best interest it is to attend schools outside the mainstream.

I think it is also necessary to stress that transformation is not the same thing as closing the schools. The aim of this transformation is primarily to create better conditions for educating children who need support. Those who will be benefited by such support at a mainstream school should simply be educated with the rest of the population.

As part of this transformation, it is important to bring the educational programs of the so-called "practical primary schools" closer to the programs used by mainstream schools - and primarily to bring them closer to what today's schoolchildren will need once they are adults. After all, don't we want them to succeed in high school, in apprenticeships, and in adult life? It is no secret that it is precisely the graduates of these former "special schools" that have the greatest difficult in finding employment. It is also no secret how often such graduates are to be found among the residents of socially excluded localities.

Yes, if the transformation is successful, a certain number of schools for children with light mental disabilities are definitely certain to close - they will not be needed. Their pupils will attend ordinary primary schools and professional support will be provided to them there. Isn't this also a good aim for special educators, to help these children master education in a mainstream primary school, achieve good results, and find a broader range of options for themselves in adulthood?

In conclusion, I would like to sum up this commentary by reflecting on the question of what the advantage is of educating children together in the same school and what the hidden risks of this approach are. The children now in the "practical primary schools" who will attend mainstream school along with the rest of the population in future will achieve better results, provided they have sufficient support, and will be more motivated to educate themselves. It will be far easier for them to assert themselves in their adult lives and to choose a profession from a broader range of options.

Another big bonus - and this argues against educating these children in "special schools" - is the option provided by the mainstream schools for natural contact with their peers, for the building of relationships, and for the acquisition of the corresponding social skills. It is precisely those skills that are very important for their adult lives and their ability to assert themselves in society - and not only for them. Many years ago, I noticed that children who collaborate with, communicate with, and encounter other children who need a greater degree of support in a natural setting become more mature as human beings. They look at the world with a greater degree of comprehension and understanding of their own needs and those of others. That is a very big bonus for all of us.

I believe that in order to head towards the common education of all children, we primarily need to prepare the conditions for that education in the mainstream primary schools. We need to prepare their teachers and provide a support system of special educators and psychologists - for example, those professionals currently providing support to pupils in the "practical primary schools".

Iveta Němečková, translated by Gwendolyn Albert

Looking back and looking forward

What did O Porrajmos Education Society accomplish in 2012? Where will we go in 2013? What are our long-term goals? It's time to consider the past and look to the future; to learn from our victories as well as from our mistakes. After all, we are historians.

This past year brought the "Gypsy" Wagon Museum Display to new venues in Iowa as well as to visit old friends. The Wagon made its second appearance at the Summer of the Arts Global Village, a children's event held in Iowa City in June. This event holds a special place in our history, as it was the debut for the Wagon in 2011. Over 400 children and their parents had the opportunity to visit and explore the information on the Wagon and offer their support.

In July and August, the Wagon made numerous appearances at the Downtown Farmers Market in Cedar Raids, Iowa, where dozens of people joined the Society on our email list. The Farmers Market draws people in from may surrounding communities, so it is a welcome opportunity to share current events and talk with visitors about the Romani people.

The Wagon was scheduled to appear at Imagination Square in July as part of the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival, but the threat of rain prevented set up. While we did have activities for the youngsters, we hope to return to Imagination Square in 2013 with the Wagon.

The Wagon also returned to the Linn County Fair in Central City this past July, surviving setup during a terrible storm that did some damage to the fair grounds. While it was a limited showing, the Wagon received more visitors this year than its appearance at the fair last year.

Ciuin Ferrin spoke at new venues this year as well as more familiar places. Besides lecturing at schools around Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, she had the opportunity to teach at the Linn County Genealogical Society, Beyond Rubies at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, and at the Midwest Open Air Museums Coordinating Council Conference hosted by Ushers Ferry in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2012 also allowed Ciuin the opportunity to go to the University of Texas in Austin to work on a research project at the Romani Archive and Documentation Center run by Dr. Ian Hancock. Please keep your eyes on the blog as more posts are to come on the results of this trip.

Working with a graduate student at the University of Iowa, we were able to translate one DVD out of a set of 20. These DVDs hold as of yet unheard testimony from O Baro Porrajmos survivors. The rest of the DVDs should arrive soon and we will begin translation work immediately. Our goal is to create a documentary on the testimonies, the interviewer, and publish a book on the process of translation. Again, watch this blog in 2013 for updates.

So what does the New Year bring? More opportunities to share at venues around the Midwest.

We have expanded our outreach to include Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, and Illinois in hopes of taking the Wagon or lectures to new academic venues. We would like to thank Rapids Reproduction of Cedar Rapids Iowa for their assistance in this endeavor.

The translation project is an exciting work that has been in the making for over two years. We hope to have the DVDs soon so work on translation and transcription may begin. This is a momentous project and we are honored to be a part of it.

O Porrajmos Education Society is glad you have taken interest in our work. We thank you for your support. If Ciuin or the Wagon will be in your area, please stop by and say hello. We look forward to meeting you.

May you and yours have a joyous and prosperous New Year!

Why study the Holocaust?

As the "Gypsy" Wagon Museum Display travels around Iowa every summer, the question I am asked most often is "Why does the Holocaust matter now? It's over." I get this same question at lectures as well. Why can't we, the human race, forget about the Holocaust? Why should we continue to look at those terrible pictures? Why remind ourselves of the horrors of the Third Reich when Nazism is a thing of the past? Surely no civilized nation or the UN would stand for a resurgence of the Nazi regime in Germany or any country. Why can't we let the dead rest in peace.

This question both frustrates and amuses me. Amusement because Americans pride ourselves in being a world power, a "Super Power" at that. We are the World's Police Force, ready to fight for right wherever we are needed. And yet most Americans have no idea what is really going on in the world. Our press hardly covers world events unless it involves a scandal with the royal family of England or some celebrity married or divorced.

We, as Americans, are obsessed with the Kardashians, the Hiltons, and "Real" Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Snookie. We love a good train wreck. We enjoy watching the rich and famous makes fools of themselves on national television. But who is laughing? We watch the shows, shake our heads at the drama those people call their lives, yet those people are the ones cashing the checks, scoring big at the bank.

What is really going on in the world? Do we, as Americans, really know? Do the citizens of the country claiming to be the World's Police have any idea what happens outside our borders?

No.

I can say this with conviction because everywhere I've lectured this year, people are stunned at the data I present.

"Sterilizations? This is 2012! How can that be going on now?"
Answer: "Its been going on since the early 1970's."

"Fingerprinting and photographing? Hitler did that. This is the Twenty-first century! It isn't done anymore!"
Answer: "It began in Italy in the Twenty-first century. While the practice has been condemned by the EU, no one in the U.S. knew about it until the program ended."

"Romani kids not allowed in the schools in the Czech Republic? It's a civilized country!"
Answer: "That civilized country was ordered by the Court of Human Rights to allow Romani children in schools...over five years ago and has failed to follow through with that order. PS: The Czech Republic writes human rights policy for the United Nations and holds this charter until 2014."

The list goes on and on and people everywhere are always surprised.

When the question arises of Holocaust remembrance, I always ask what the students already know of Nazi experience. What were the steps of dehumanization? How did the Nazis prepare German citizens for the destruction of the "lesser" races? Most students answer this question correctly.

Answer: It began slowly. The public was treated to a mass propaganda effort that compared the Jews and other lives unworthy of life to vermin that must be destroyed; rats in the sewers. Then they lost their rights, their jobs, their possessions, their homes. It was a gradual process that few Germans protested. It allowed the citizens of Germany to claim ignorance years later.

Why is this important? Can we learn anything from history?
Answer: Yes. We can see the process of how the Nazis came to power so we can recognize evil.

And yet, Americans do not see the very same process happening in Europe right now, in countries we would considered civilized. The leaders of France, Italy, the Czech Republic, England, Germany; are all very  educated. They are not running their countries based on fear and intimidation. Or are they?

Now that the United States has observer status in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, the American press must take notice of world events, events that are indeed relevant to life and human rights. We, as citizens and as customers of the American press, must demand of our news sources to report the news and leave the Kardashians to Entertainment Weekly.

  

Seasons Greetings

We would like to say "Baxtali Karachonja" to everyone this holiday season. Nais tuke, thank you, for your support over the year and may the New Year bring true peace and happiness to you and yours and to our brothers and sisters around the world.

Please watch us grow this coming year!

"Tired" by Qristina Zavackova Cummings

Today's post comes from a blog written by O Porrajmos Education Society board member Qristina Zavackova Cummings. Qristina is a valuable asset to our board and we offer our condolences on her loss. We also feel her anger and frustration at the situation of our brothers and sisters in Europe. Please follow the link to her blog and read her other posts.

Monument for Sinti and Roma victims of Nazis highlights German government hypocrisy

This article comes to us from the RINA network and was written in the World Socialist Website at WSWS.org

Monument for Sinti and Roma victims of Nazis highlights German government hypocrisy

By Bernd Reinhardt 
29 October 2012

On October 24, a central memorial for the 500,000 Sinti and Roma murdered by the Nazis was unveiled in Berlin. The monument is sited immediately next to the Bundestag (parliament) building. It is also close to the Holocaust memorial for the Jews murdered during Nazi rule.

The ceremony to unveil the monument was attended by representatives of the Sinti and Roma communities, a representative of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and the vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee. Top representatives of the German political establishment were present, including Federal President Joachim Gauck, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Culture Minister Bernd Neumann and Bundestag President Nobert Lammert.

Also in attendance were various party representatives such as Gregor Gysi and Petra Pau (Left Party), Renate Künast (Greens), Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit (Social Democratic Party), and former federal president Richard von Weizsäcker. The ceremony was transmitted live on television.

Israeli artist Dani Karavan created the monument in accordance with guidelines provided by the Sinti and Roma communities designed to point to their common history of persecution. The monument consists of a circular black basin filled with water, twelve metres in diameter, with a triangle-shaped column at its centre representing the piece of fabric that Sinti and Roma were forced to wear in the concentration camps.

Every evening, the column will retract, appearing again the following day bearing a fresh flower. This stands for recurring sorrow, recurring life and a constant reminder to keep alive the memory of the crimes committed against the Sinti and Roma.

The poem “Auschwitz” by the Italian Roma musician and poet Santino Spinelli is worked into the edge of the basin. A glass wall near the basin provides information about the history of the Nazi persecution of the Sinti and Roma in Europe.

The chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, and the Dutch Sinto Zoni Weisz delivered moving speeches. Last year, Weisz was the first Sinto to address the German Bundestag, where he called upon deputies to make public the “forgotten Holocaust”. As a child he escaped deportation to the camps but lost his entire family.

Romani Rose, who lost 13 family members in the camps, has long been active in the Sinti and Roma civil rights movement in Germany. He held a hunger strike at the Dachau concentration camp in 1980 to draw attention to the genocide against the Sinti and Roma.

Both speakers visibly struggled with their emotions. Many of the Sinti and Roma present cried when Weisz recounted the history of his family. Practically every family has lost members. The memory of the nightmare of the Third Reich and the fear of its repetition remain tangible today.

In the background but very present at the ceremony was a sense of the hypocrisy of unveiling a memorial over half a century after the crimes were committed, compounded by the escalating persecution of Sinti and Roma today in Germany and throughout Europe.

Following the speech by Chancellor Merkel, one angry audience member demanded to know what was happening to the Sinti currently being deported from Germany to Eastern Europe. A speaker on the platform simply talked over the objection, declaring, “That is not the issue here today.”

This arrogant response underscores the fact that the German government has no interest in documenting and exposing the crimes of the Nazis against the Sinti and Roma, providing restitution for these crimes, or looking honestly and objectively at Germany’s postwar history.

Following the Second World War, old Nazis were able to continue their careers. Practically the entire judicial and civil service apparatus of the Third Reich was taken over by the “democratic” Federal Republic of Germany.

The size of the pensions received after the war by such officials and judges included their service under the Nazis, while their victims were often treated as outcasts. The documentary film Django’s Song by Tom Franke and Kuno Richter depicts a Sinto from Oldenburg, who describes how Sinti visiting the doctor’s surgery after the war were often confronted with the very medics who had sent them to the concentration camp.

In 1956, just seven years after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Supreme Court rejected a compensation case benefiting Sinti and Roma, declaring that they had not been persecuted in the Third Reich on racist grounds, but because they displayed criminal tendencies. “They often lack the moral instinct to respect the property of others, and like primitives are driven by an unbridled cupidity”, the verdict read.

The Sinti and Roma fought up to the 1980s without success for moral and financial compensation for the crimes committed against them by the Nazis.

There are many hair-raising stories. The above-mentioned hunger strike in 1980 was directed against the Bavarian state Interior Ministry, which refused to allow Sinti to view the files of the “Landfahrerzentrale” (Central Agency for Vagrants), the immediate successor to the fascist “Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung des Zigeunerunwesens” (Reich Headquarters to Combat the Gypsy Pest). The Landfahrerzentrale had relied on files created by the Nazis. Some of those working in the agency had been so-called “Gypsy specialists” in the Third Reich.

In the 1920s, the crisis-ridden Weimar Republic, with its many unemployed and homeless, had already set up “Zigeunerzentralen” (Police Gypsy Bureaus), which gathered intelligence on Sinti, Roma and “other Gypsy-like itinerant persons”. Bavaria was the pioneer with its 1926 law to “combat Gypsies, vagrants and the work-shy”. In Hesse, following the Bavarian model, the Social Democratic state interior minister and trade union leader Wilhelm Leuschner introduced the “law to combat the Gypsy menace”, which was passed in 1929.

It was only in 1982, more than thirty years after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, that Sinti and Roma were recognised to have been persecuted by the Nazi regime on racist grounds, and their mass elimination recognized as genocide. But this was not made public.

The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) also condescended merely to erect an unobtrusive monument at the Marzahn Cemetery on the outskirts of East Berlin. Sinti and Roma were never recognised as national minorities in either of the postwar German states.

It took another ten years, at the behest of the Sinti and Roma communities, before the Bundestag relented and agreed to erect a central memorial. It then took a further twenty years before it was actually unveiled. During this entire time, Sinti and Roma have been confronted with the claim that their persecution could not be compared to the Holocaust of the Jews. In the meantime, many victims have died.

Despite their expressions of gratitude to Chancellor Merkel, the bitter tone of the two Sinti speakers could not be missed. The oft-used word “hope” could only partially hide their disappointment.

In his speech, Rose warned of the growth of racism in Europe and Germany, which was not restricted to far-right groups, but was increasingly found in the midst of society. According to Rose, the political and judicial response to the right-wing ideology of violence is a touchstone as to whether lessons are drawn from the war and the Holocaust.

Rose mentioned the victims of the neo-Nazi terrorist group from Zwickau, which for all those present brought to mind recent press reports on the involvement of the secret service in the far-right scene. He greeted from the podium the representatives of Berlin’s Muslim community, who are also increasingly confronted with racist attacks.

In her long-winded speech, Chancellor Merkel did not have much to say other than to repeat a few platitudes about human dignity and civil courage. She spoke of the “incomprehensible” that had knocked Germany off its course and from which one had to learn. How one can learn from something that is incomprehensible, she did not say. Merkel then promised that Germany would continue to pursue the rights of the Sinti and Roma in the European Union.

The opposite is the case. Immediately following the unveiling, Merkel’s interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich (Christian Social Union—CSU), gave out with a tirade in the media against refugees from Serbia and Macedonia, whence come the majority of Roma, who are fleeing from unbearable living conditions and racist persecution. One day following the unveiling, he proposed that benefits paid to these refugees be cut. The human rights organisation Pro Asyl accused him of launching a “populist campaign against Roma from the Balkan states.”

Sinti and Roma are also systematically persecuted in Italy and France. The French government has dispersed them from their camps and deported them en masse to Romania and Bulgaria.

In Eastern Europe, the terror faced by Roma and Sinti recalls the Nazi era. In the Czech Republic and Hungary, uniformed fascist gangs organise regular marches in Roma neighbourhoods, encouraged and tolerated by the authorities. Attending school and getting access to medical care have become increasingly difficult.

The Merkel government, which is mercilessly driving forward austerity measures throughout Europe, bears the main responsibility. German calls for financially drained governments to protect the “human rights” of the Roma are hypocritical to the core.

Friedrich’s predecessor as interior minister had also proceeded against Sinti and Roma. In 2002, Otto Schily (Social Democratic Party—SPD) negotiated a so-called readmission treaty with Albania and Yugoslavia, which included “combating illegal migration from the Balkan region.”

Many of those affected had fled to Germany in the 1990s as a result of the civil war in Yugoslavia. In April 2010, Thomas de Maiziere (Christian Democratic Union—CDU) signed an agreement that obliged Kosovo to take back 14,000 refugees. Some 10,000 were Roma who had fled the terror being carried out by the German-supported Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Recently, if one listened carefully, the long plaintiff sounds of a violin could be heard coming from a small park near the Brandenburg Gate. Refugees had set up a camp and begun a hunger strike protesting their persecution and demanding the right to stay and work in Germany. On the eve of the unveiling of the monument, police forcibly dismantled and closed down the camp.

Czech Republic and “gypsies” - 1938 vs. 2012

Romea

October 16^th 2012

Czech Republic and “gypsies” - 1938 vs. 2012

By František Kostlán

1 December 1938 - District Governor in Poděbrady, speaking to the governing body of the provincial authority in Prague: “Every day I am continually challenged, at work, in society and by various individuals, with getting the Government to correct this evil, and the most reliable way to do this is unequivocally the establishment of concentration camps for gypsies and vagrants. The incoming new Government would immediately gain the general sympathy and thanks of all classes of society were it to introduce such measures.”

24 August 2011 - Czech Senator Jaroslav Doubrava (Severočeši.cz - “North Bohemians.cz”): “In my opinion, the Army should be prepared in any event, because what is starting to happen here exceeds all tolerable limits... The Government and the responsible bodies of the state administration are overlooking the racism coming from the side of the Gypsies… Recent events are proof of what I am saying. There is an unequivocal need for tougher punishments, to not be afraid to give these thugs the maximum possible sentences. We should make the law more strict and increase the maximum sentences possible. The fun has to stop here now. The situation is very serious. Do we want the Gypsies to burn down our towns like they do in England? … I am getting ready to ask the appropriate bodies to thoroughly address this situation and I will try to submit bills in the Senate to make our legislation more strict. In any event, I will speak with my colleagues and do my best to get us to stop closing our eyes to this aggression and terror. It’s time to take action.”

19 April 2012 Czech Senator Vladimír Dryml (a member of the Czech Social Democratic Party when he made this statement, today a member of the Zeman Supporters’ Citizens’ Rights Party - SPOZ): “The high criminality of Romani people and the feeling that they enjoy impunity because of the implementation of positive racism by the Czech justice system and the empty, false opinions of the weird human rights defenders in the EU and in our country are now bearing fruit... Laws should apply the same to everyone and the law must be enforced rapidly and, in the case of racism, also harshly, and that applies to everyone, in particular Romani people.”

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5 February 1939 - The village council in Svatobořice, writing to the Prime Minister of the Czech-Slovak Government, Rudolf Beran: “If until now a bad policy of humanism has been in place, it is time to take another path. We should not be criticized for wanting to cleanse the tribe of our small nation of parasites like the gypsies.”

17 January 2012 - Czech MP Poslanec Otto Chaloupka (Public Affairs -Věci veřejné): “Romani leaders should first and foremost start making their livings decently. They are just as much parasites on the Romani community as the Romani community is a parasite on the majority society... Today they don’t have to work, they just constantly complain. A wave of physical violence is rising against the majority society and we just keep backing down... I understand this effort to do something about it and to do our best to include them, to re-educate a generation of these inadaptables and give them all the conditions in which to become decent people who won’t bother anyone and who won’t be despised, but how many years have we been doing our best to somehow include them - without any effect?”

19 April 2012 - Czech Senator Miroslav Krejča (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD): “The public’s view of Romani people is completely justified and we are too tolerant toward this inadaptable, parasitical minority.”

19 April 2012 - Czech Senator Pavel Lebeda (ČSSD): “Because most Romani people are criminals and loiterers living parasitically on the majority population and refusing to work, the public’s position on them is understandable and is amplified by the unacceptable positive discrimination of Romani people, not only in the social welfare area, but even in the justice system. The feeling that they are being defended, that they can commit crime with impunity, means Romani people are committing brutal crimes more and more frequently in addition to their traditional crimes against property. When we add to that the problems with civil coexistence and the widespread drug addiction among Romani people, no one should by surprised by the majority population’s aversion toward them.”

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6 July 1939 - District commander of the gendarmerie in Litomyšl, speaking to the District Authority there: “It must first be clear that the opinions of the ‘humanists’ who only know the gypsies from poetry or melancholy little songs,... are irrelevant..., and their opinions must not be taken notice of in the least in our future work to subdue the gypsies if we are to achieve our purpose and rid humanity of an evil worse than cancer.”

19 April 2012 - Czech Senator Zdeněk Schwarz (Civic Democratic Party - ODS): “The concept of racism in the context of the problems of Romani people is being intentionally abused by those same troubled Romani people and by some politicians who are themselves parasites on this problem and don’t know how to solve it. Unfortunately, the media is complicating the situation even further by reporting to the public in a way that is insufficient, not objective, or is unequivocally pro-Romani. A typical example of this is the recent case of the severely injured 15-year-old boy from Břeclav who has become an invalid for life. Why aren’t the media following this case with the same intensity and to the same extent as they followed the case of the Romani burn victim Natálka?”

(Editor’s note: The case in Břeclav was covered just as profusely by the Czech media as was the case of young Natálka. Moreover, it was later proven that the 15-year-old boy in the Břeclav case had completely fabricated the allegations that his injuries were caused by “Romani” assailants and that no attack ever took place. The number of such fabricated cases alleging that Romani people have perpetrated violence is rising sharply here.)

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30 November 1939 - Circular released by the Interior Ministry of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to the provincial authorities in Brno and Prague: “The bodies and offices under your direction shall be tasked with calling on all gypsies to settle permanently by the end of January 1940 and to cease their itinerant ways. Their nomad documents will also be confiscated. Whoever does not obey will be assigned to the disciplinary labor camps.”

19 April 2012 - Czech Senator Petr Pakosta (BEZPP): “The Gypsies themselves are to blame for the Czech public’s negative attitudes towards them. Their avoidance of work, their growing aggression, their lifestyle at the expense of the majority population is entirely the result of their own decisions.”

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17 January 1940 - Police directorate in Brno, speaking to the Provincial Authority there: “Because of the nature of the gypsies’ race and their Semitic origins, their strong clannish instinct and inborn tendency to wander the world must be subjected to the strictest legal measures ever to be issued for the control of gypsy malfeasance.”

24 August 2011 - Czech Senator Jaroslav Doubrava (Severočeši.cz - “North Bohemians.cz”): “I heard a gypsy teenager say to his friend: ‘I don’t want to fuck my mother anymore, man, I would rather fuck my sister, but only Dad gets to fuck her and he would beat me up.’ I felt like fainting... Unfortunately, it is still the case that most gypsies consider work to be the worst possible way to make a living... We don’t want to watch them destroy our region, and we’re going to do something about it irrespective of all this disingenuous bullshit about human rights and tolerance - before it’s too late. That community is illiterate. Who is preventing their access to education? Only they themselves, because they explicitly do not want to learn.”

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9 March 1942 - Government Edict No. 89 on the preventive control of crime: “For the purpose of protecting society from wrongdoers, police preventive custody is enacted. This police preventive custody is being performed in special internment camps. The length of such police preventive custody is not subject to restriction.”

22 September 2011 - Ivana Řápková, Czech MP for ODS, when she was still Mayor of Chomutov, speaking after a demonstration by human rights defenders and Romani people in her town was attacked by ultra-rightists while municipal officials and police stood by: “We want calm in Chomutov. That is why we will not permit any more such demonstrations, whether they are convened by Romani people or by left or right-wing extremists.”

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5 February 1943 - General Commander of the undercover Protectorate Police in Bohemia, speaking to government counsel Dr Schneider (in German): “It has been established that the quarantine of the gypsies in Hodonín could be cancelled before the end of this month because we have not yet discovered any cases of spotted typhus, so the gypsies can be transported to Auschwitz after thorough delousing and disinfecting of their clothing... The transport of the gypsies will be accomplished on the basis of the SS Reichskommandant’s order of 16 December 1942.”

15 August 2006 - Liana Janáčková, (then and now) Mayor of the Municipal Department of Mariánské Hory and Hulváky of the town of Ostrava, speaking at a public meeting of the housing department: “I understand it’s unfair to you all, but I really don’t have anywhere else to put these gypsies unless I take some dynamite and blow them to bits... Unfortunately, I am a racist, I disagree with integrating the gypsies so that they will live all over the municipality. We chose the Bedřiška area, so that’s where they will be, with a high fence, an electrified one, it’s all the same to me... and I’ll shout that to the whole world.

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24 August 1943 - Criminal Police Directorate of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Brno, to the General Commander of the undercover Criminal Police in Prague (in German): “... on 21 August and 22 August 1943 a transport of 767 gypsies to Auschwitz was performed. ...on 22 August 1943 at 5:30 the transport was handed over to the German gendarmerie in Moravská Ostrava for further transport to Auschwitz. The transport and handover of the gypsies took place without a single flaw. After the gypsies were transported away, there remain 32 persons at this time in gypsy camp II in Hodonín by Kunštát... .”

15 August 2006 - Jiří Jezerský (running for TOP 09), (then and now) Vice-Mayor of the Municipal Department of Mariánské Hory and Hulváky of the town of Ostrava, speaking at a public meeting of the housing department, during the debate over the Romani residents of the Bedřiška settlement: “Give me a gun license and permission to shoot my weapon and I’ll go do it.”

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1 February 1944 - Criminal Police Directorate of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Brno to the Criminal Police there: “With respect to the final solution of the gypsy question, i.e., the expatriation of gypsies from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, this was fulfilled and thereby the following decrees are no longer necessary: Interior Ministry Decrees from 13 February and 30 May 1941… .”

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Sources:

The quotes from the dignitaries of the Second Republic era and from the time of the Nazi occupation (1938 - 1944) were taken from a speech made by historian Michal Schuster at the commemorative ceremony at Hodonín by Kunštát on 19 August 2012. In that speech, Schuster also said:

“The Nazi genocide of Romani people concurred with the prevailing prejudices against this minority in Europe prior to the Nazis’ rise to power. Measures taken by the authorities in those days grew out of the xenophobic position of society back then. For people living in Europe during the 1930s, it was not necessarily curious or disturbing - and in most cases it was not curious or disturbing - for there to be a gradually radicalizing tendency heading toward suppressing the rights of various groups and eventually leading to the so-called ‘Final Solution’.”

The quotes from present-day politicians dated 19 April 2012 are from an article published on news server euportál.cz, part of the group of websites run by Parlamentní listy, an online periodical known for its anti-Romani tendencies. The headline for that article also influenced this one.

Czech MP Ivana Řápková (ODS) is fighting a remorseless battle in this regard and we will soon be reviewing it. Racist Czech Senator Doubrava is green with envy over her ongoing legislative anti-Romani crusade.

Translated by Gwendolyn Albert

Songs of Gypsies Past

We Romanies lead a frustrating existence.  Rarely are we allowed to mark our own identity; instead it is marked for us by society, the same society who labeled us incorrectly as Egyptians. Who are we? We are con artists, thieves, even murderers and sexual predators according to shows like Criminal Minds, The Riches, The Finder, and Law and Order:SVU and NCIS:LA.  We are violent and aggressive according to the latest batch of reprehensible shows like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding, and American Gypsies.  Our music is wild and uncultured and our female performers are exotic and sexual according to bands like Fishtank and Caravan of Thieves, just to name a few. 

How can a Romani be a Romani and celebrate his real heritage and culture and be accepted within society? By taking the initiative and putting something real before the eyes of the public. Nais tuke, Nick Wildwood. Brava.

Mr Wildwood has collected recordings from the past, performed by real Romanies who remained true to their heritage. This collection has been beautifully remastered in Pennsylvania for release with Volume 1 of Songs of Gypsies Past. This CD contains traditional music performed in the Romani language.

When speaking to Mr. Wildwood over the phone about this ambitious project, I was touched to the point of tears by his enthusiasm and love for the music of his people."Most of the artists are no longer with us; recordings that were handed down from my grandfather to my father and then to me. Many of these musicians had no formal training. They learned by ear and are beyond our imagination." 

 "You'll find six baso songs (traditional Romani dancing) that you might see at a party or a wedding. One of the "basos," labeled The Happy Dance, is performed by an accordion player known throughout the United States, Meeska, and that recording is at least 100 years old," he continues. "And there are 15 tracks of a "taw-cheve" performances with one special track called Autumn Leaves and in this track, the woman sings half in English and half in Romani. My grandmother used to sing this song when she was a 'boryee', or a young bride."

Even the cover art, shown above, was painstaking selected. "Two of the photographs are from the Romani Archive and Documentation Center and the other two are of an authentic bow top Gypsy wagon. The gorgeous horse on the back cover is a Gypsy vanner, bred by Romani in Europe. When the horse would run, they (the Romanies) would say the horse "whorrall" which means the horse could fly. The reason is that the fluffiness of the hair of the hooves, tail, and the mane would be blowing in the wind, giving the horse the appearance of lifting off the ground. That's our horse!" he says with great pride in his voice. "They wanted a strong horse like a Clydsdale but they didn't want the burden of feeding a horse as big a Clydesdale or the difficulty of caring for a horse as big as a Clydesdale, so they bred a smaller version."

Even the CD inside bears the stamp of Romani pride. "The CD itself is encrypted with the cover art," states Mr. Wildwood. "So this is indeed a collector's piece, a thing of beauty for the eyes as well as the ears." 

This CD collection has an even greater significance to the Romani people than just music, however. Mr Wildwood has formed a unique and special agreement with Europe's Children, the children's ministry branch of the Assembly of God Church. This agreement means Romani children will benefit from the sale of this CD. 

"We are working with the Assembly of God Church, and they represent the European people as far as children are concerned. But because of our people, the Romani people, they have made an exclusion that the funds will go to support Romani children in orphanages throughout Europe," explained Mr. Wildwood, and his voice cracked in his emotion while speaking of the children. "They (Europe's Children) also help Romani girls to get off the streets and into a home.They have missionaries in each of these countries that actually deliver food, clothes, medicine, and the most very important thing that they are teaching them is the word of God."

One way to support our brothers and sisters in Europe is to purchase Songs of Gypsies Past. It is available on Amazon.com for 14.95 and you may purchase it by following the link above. 

Another way to support our children in Europe is to donate to Europe's Children. It doesn't take much to help these children. Simply click on the link above and when you send in your donation, note that you would like your donation to assist Romani children. Help our Romani families overseas and purchase the CD or donate today. If you are Romani, claim your heritage and purchase the CD. If you are not Romani and want to experience the real deal, purchase the CD and help make a difference. 

And a closing message from Mr. Wildwood: 

"Paw-cheave-po-menga - to your happiness!"