Neue Ausschreibung 2020:
GEMEINSAM HANDELN – BÜNDNISSE GEGEN ANTISEMITISMUS UND FÜR DIE SICHTBARKEIT JÜDISCHEN LEBENS IN DEUTSCHLAND STÄRKEN

Die Stiftung „Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft“ (EVZ) ermutigt mit dieser Ausschreibung die Zivilgesellschaft in Deutschland, Antisemitismus durch Bündnisse für eine vielfältige und solidarische Gesellschaft und für die Stärkung jüdischen Lebens mit konkreten Aktivitäten entgegenzutreten.

Quelle: EVZ

Stand: 29.04.2020

Source: Georg Eckert Institute

Date: 06.04.2020

Speaking at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on 1 October, two Romani civil society members raised the urgent issue of the Czech Government’s decision not to compensate the victims of forced sterilizations, human rights abuses that have taken place over the course of decades in the former Czechoslovakia and its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including into the 21st century. Karolina Mirga of the Ternype network raised the issue as well as the continued presence of an industrial pig farm on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma at Lety in the Czech Republic.

Marek Szilvasi of ERRC dedicated his entire remarks to the issue of compensating the victims of forced sterilization, noting that the Czech Government’s rejection of the bill means that „hundreds of Romani women are going to remain without compensation for this human rights violation.“ Szilvasi urged both the Czech and Slovak Governments to immediately begin developing proper compensation schemes and the Czech Government especially to reconsider its decision.

Archived video of the session on 1 October 2016 is available here (remarks at 2:30). Today’s closing session is being broadcast live here.

On 30 September participants raised the issue of police brutality toward Roma and Sinti communities throughout the 57-state OSCE region. Speakers emphasized that negative stereotypes about Roma are widespread among law enforcement and lead to discrimination in policing.

„The police play an important role in ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights,“ said Mirjam Karoly, ODIHR Senior Advisor on Roma and Sinti Issues. „Therefore, investment in improving trust and confidence among the police and Roma and Sinti communities is crucial to combating racism and discrimination.“

Repressive police practices and a lack of effective investigation and prosecution of crimes against Roma create deep distrust among Roma and Sinti towards the criminal justice system in general. „Criminal cases against police representatives suspected of violence against Roma remain under investigation for very long periods of time, which blatantly violates the standards set by the European Court of Human Rights, related to the duty of the state authorities to conduct thorough and effective investigation within a reasonable time,“ said Oana Taba of the Romanian NGO Romani Criss.

„Investigations in such cases can be flawed, very often lacking the racial motivation of the perpetrator,“ Taba noted. Participants also discussed recent police operations targeting Roma and Sinti and their communities.

„The inhabitants of the concerned areas, mostly Roma, were intimidated and harassed by the practice of raid-like joint control activities in segregated Roma settlements by local government authorities in co-ordination with local police,“ said Szalayné Sándor, Deputy Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary. „These practices are incompatible with the principle of the rule of law and the requirement of legal certainty.“

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 02.10.2015

On August 2, 1944, Nazis liquidated the concentration camp’s Gypsy section

At twilight on the evening of Aug. 2, 1944, big, wood-sided trucks arrived at the Gypsy family camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The prisoners were given sausage and a piece of bread and told that they were being taken to another camp. At first, the trucks drove off in a different direction from the gas chambers and crematoria, but as they doubled back toward the killing factories, the Gypsies began to struggle and fight the guards. “Betrayal!” they screamed. “Murder!”

A Hungarian Jew who heard the clamor from a nearby barrack later said that the memory made her blood run cold. “We heard yelling, German orders, the ever, ever-present German Shepherd dogs barking,” she recalled. “And then, screaming. I never, ever forget that screaming. Terrible screams. They must have known.”

On that August night, Nazis liquidated the Gypsy camp, killing nearly 3,000 Roma and Sinti—the two major groups of European Gypsies—in the gas chambers of Birkenau. They were women and men, elderly people and children, many of whom had been victims of Nazi medical experiments and forced sterilization. Their deaths were among the 20,000 Roma and Sinti who perished at Auschwitz—but a fraction of the hundreds of thousands murdered by the Nazis in mass killings and concentration camps.

The Nazi genocide of Roma and Sinti, which in the Romani language is known as Porajmos, or the Great Devouring, has also, until recently, been called “the forgotten Holocaust.” When I set out 20 years ago to record the memories of an extended family of Sinti survivors in Germany, I found that characterization to be sadly true. In 1985, Gabrielle Tyrnauer, a pioneer in recording oral testimonies of Gypsy survivors, issued a call for more of such “urgent research,” as the survivors were dying off. Yet the body of recorded and archived testimonies from Roma and Sinti remains sparse, and still today the experience of Gypsies under the Nazi regime is often neglected or underacknowledged.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in 2012 at the opening of Berlin’s memorial for Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust, “far too little attention has been paid for far too long.”

Why is this so? Ignorance, misunderstanding, prejudice, and even denial have all contributed to the problem. Romantic stereotypes portray Gypsies as colorful free-spirited wanderers; discriminatory stereotypes label them as criminals and thieves. Especially in the United States, where ethnic Gypsies often hide their identity to prevent discrimination, many people are still unaware that Gypsies are a true ethnic group with a distinct language and culture and a long history of persecution in Europe.

The Sinti Gypsies I met in Germany dispelled such stereotypes. Their families had been settled in Germany and Austria for hundreds of years. They lived in houses, worked as antique dealers or musicians, and sent their children to school. There was no legitimate reason to label them or their children as criminals

Yet some historians still maintain that Nazis did not target Gypsies for racial reasons, as they did the Jews, but rather because they were “asocials” or criminals. In fact, German courts used this argument for decades to deny reparations to Gypsy victims of the Nazis.

But Nazis applied this “asocial” classification to all Sinti and Roma after 1942, even to infants and children, who certainly had committed no crime. The childhood memories of the Sinti I met in Germany, whose families had been labeled “asocial,” recalled the horrors of Auschwitz and Mauthausen, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen, and Bergen-Belsen.

Although debates still rage among Holocaust historians, and words such as “genocide” and “Holocaust” when applied to Gypsy victims can set off an academic conflagration, a clear statement by German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1982 signaled a welcome and long awaited change in attitude.

“The Nazi dictatorship inflicted a grave injustice on the Sinti and Roma,” Schmidt said. “They were persecuted for reasons of race. These crimes constituted an act of genocide.”

Inevitably, a discussion of Roma and Sinti Holocaust victims provokes comparison to Jewish victims and brings up the question of numbers. Nazi policy toward Gypsies was inconsistent before 1942, and there were anomalies, such as the Zigeunerlager or Gypsy camp in Auschwitz, where Gypsies were allowed to stay in family units for some time—until the camp was liquidated. The number of Gypsies who perished is not known, but most estimates range from 220,000 to 500,000.

It’s important to know that before World War II, the Roma and Sinti in Europe represented a far smaller segment of the population than the Jews. In Germany, for example, with a prewar population of 67 million, there were 500,000 Jews and only 30,000 Gypsies. Yet only 5,000 Gypsies survived—a proportion similar to that of the Jewish population. And surely we should reject the notion that only the group with the highest number of victims deserves acknowledgement for their suffering.

What matters most, in any case, is not the anomalies or the differences in the numbers, but the fact that both Jews and Gypsies were deemed “parasitic alien races” and targeted for racial extermination.

“The fates of the two communities were inextricably linked,” said Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, comparing the Nazi treatment of the Jews and the Gypsies at a symposium on Roma and Sinti victims. “It’s not a matter of whether one wants to talk about both—one has to. During the years 1933 to 1945, the parallels between what happened to the two communities, in my view, predominate over the differences.”

Even if some can’t agree on the “parallels,” or whether to call it Porajmos, Holocaust, or Roma Genocide, it is certainly time for full recognition of the Roma and Sinti victims of the Nazis.

Just as Jews have Yom HaShoah, the Roma and Sinti have the Aug. 2 commemoration to fully recognize Gypsy victims of the Holocaust. Roma and Sinti organizations such as the International Roma Youth Network, ternYpe, have called for the Memorial Day of the Roma Genocide to be observed annually on Aug. 2, and will gather at Auschwitz and other sites for education and remembrance. The Polish government in 2011 officially recognized the date as a day to honor the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust.

Seventy years after the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz was liquidated, it’s time.

Source: Tablet
Date: 31.07.2014

Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), speaking ahead of Saturday’s 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the “Zigeunerlager”, or “Gypsy Camp”, at Auschwitz-Birkenau called today on political leaders not only to refrain from scapegoating Roma and Sinti communities, but also to speak out against racist rhetoric in public discourse that can fuel anti-Roma sentiment in society.

“Seventy years after the liquidation of the so-called ‘Zigeunerlager’, where some 23,000 Roma and Sinti were murdered, public discourse still perpetuates old negative stereotypes against these people,” Link said. “In a number of countries in the OSCE region Roma are portrayed as criminals or social outsiders. The crucial role of the media in constructing and perpetuating these negative images has recently been confirmed by a comprehensive study in Germany. These stereotypes must be countered, both to bring justice to the victims of the Roma and Sinti genocide, and to create a better future for Roma today.”

Link underlined the important role of leadership in combatting these attitudes.

“Public figures, and particularly politicians, have a responsibility to lead by example and publicly condemn racist speech targeting Roma and Sinti,” the ODIHR Director said. “The authorities in OSCE participating States should also work to promote non-discriminatory portrayals of Roma and their communities, in order to prevent the perpetuation of negative stereotypes in the media.”

As mandated by the 2003 OSCE Action Plan on Roma and Sinti, ODIHR promotes the official recognition and teaching about the experience of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust.

“Teaching about the past and the tragedy of the Roma under the Nazi regime is one key to a better understanding their present situation,” Link said. “Roma and Sinti have long suffered from racism and discrimination, and understanding this history is necessary to promote a more tolerant, inclusive society for all.”

Earlier this year, on 2 June, ODIHR hosted an expert meeting on teaching about the Roma and Sinti genocide in the OSCE area, and will publish a report on the subject later this year.

Source: OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Date: 01.08.2014

Geht es um die Verteidigung der Meinungsfreiheit oder um die Gewährung von Rassismus?

Über eine Band, die am 24. Mai auf der Juwenalia (Studententage) in Poznan (Posen) spielen wird, ist ein Streit zwischen der Gazeta Wyborcza und den studentischen Ausrichtern entbrannt.

„Und habe ich Dir nicht gesagt, mein Liebling, treibe doch bitte den Zigeuner ab“, singt die Disco-Polo Kappelle „Bracia Figo Fagot“, die sich seit 2010 mit launig-vulgären Texten und Disco-Folk eine treue Fangemeinde erspielt hatte.

Vertreter der Roma in Polen sowie einige Professoren der Universität Poznan schrieben einen Protestbrief an das Rektorat und die studentischen Organisatoren. „Ob sie es wollen oder nicht – wir treten auf“, so konterte die Band auf ihrem Facebook-Profil.

Das Rektorat will die Entscheidung den Studenten überlassen und diese wittern eine Kampagne der Zeitung Gazeta Wyborcza, die über die Proteste erstmal berichtete. Die Organisatoren halten an dem Aufrtritt fest, da sie die Texte für einen Bestandteil der polnischen Kultur des Absurden ansehen, der von dem studentischen Publikum richtig interpretiert werden könne.

Es seien schon lange Bands mit provokanten Texten aufgetreten, doch dies habe die Zeitung bislang nicht interessiert. Vielmehr wären die Medien aktuell an einem Bild des unkultivierten Studentenlebens interessiert. Die Organisatoren haben jedoch die Band gebeten, das Wort „Student“ mit dem Wort „Zigeuner“ zu vertauschen. Ihr Pressesprecher verteidigte das Auftreten der Band auch mit dem Hinweis, dass man nicht mehr in den Zeiten der Volksrepublik lebe.

Anna Markowska, Sprecherin der örtlichen Roma-Vereinigung „Bahtale Roma“ glaubt, dass solche Texte zu „Aggression und Aufruhr“ führen können. Der zuständige Wojewode (in etwa Ministerpräsident) Piotr Florek hat heute sein Patronat für das Musikfestival zurück gezogen.

In Polen leben mehrere Gruppen, man geht von 35.000 Sprechern der Roma-Dialekte aus. Fast ein Drittel der Roma-Kinder nehmen nicht am Schulunterricht teil, in der polnischen Bevölkerung wird die Minderheit zumeist als Bettler und Musiker wahr genommen.

Die Gazeta Wyborcza, die Zeitung, die ursprünglich aus der Solidarnosc-Bewegung entstand, veröffentlichte kürzlich mehrere Artikel, die sich mit der Situation der Roma in Polen befassten. So ist derzeit ein Roma-Lager in Wroclaw (Breslau) von der Zwangsräumung bedroht. Die Zeitung wird für ihre kampagnenhafte, sehr engagierte Berichterstattung immer wieder von konservativen Polen kritisiert.

Quelle: Heise.de
Stand: 17.05.2013

Am 16. Mai 1944 erblickt im sogenannten Zigeunerlager von Auschwitz Birkenau ein Kind das Licht der Welt: Edmund Weiss. Auch am Tag zuvor wird dort ein Junge geboren: Oskar Broschinski. Doch die beiden Jungen haben keine Überlebenschance. Mager, klein, untergewichtig – sie bräuchten besondere Fürsorge, aber im „Zigeunerlager“ gibt es kaum Nahrung für sie: Ihre Mütter sind selbst halb verhungert und dem Tode nahe. Es ist, wie für alle Neugeborenen im Zigeunerlager, eine Frage von Stunden, Tagen, höchstens Wochen bis zu ihrem Tod.

An diesem Tag jedoch ist ihr Leben doppelt bedroht. Denn die Lagerführung hat am Vortag beschlossen, das Zigeunerlager zu liquidieren. Doch gelingen wird dies nicht: Die Häftlinge wehren sich – erfolgreich:
Etwa 20 000 Menschen sind insgesamt im „Zigeunerlager“ untergebracht gewesen: Männer, Frauen und Kinder. Es sind „zigeunerische Personen“ oder „Zigeunermischlinge“, wie die SS sie nennt, die 1942 überall im damaligen Reichsgebiet verhaftet und nach Auschwitz gebracht worden sind. Dort wartet eine fürchterliche Existenz auf sie. In dreißig Pferdebaracken eingepfercht zwischen Männerlager und Häftlingskrankenbau vegetieren sie dahin. Ihre Verpflegung ist noch schlechter als die der übrigen Häftlinge, die hygienischen Verhältnisse noch katastrophaler als im Rest des Lagers. Die Sterblichkeitsrate ist ungeheuer hoch.

Am 15. Mai 1944 also beschließt die Lagerleitung, das „Zigeunerlager“ mit etwa 6000 Menschen zu liquidieren. Sie sollen alle ins Gas gehen Am 16. Mai wird abends Blocksperre angeordnet: Niemand darf die Blocks verlassen. Aber die Insassen des „Zigeunerlagers“ sind durch einen SS-Mann gewarnt und vorbereitet worden. Einer der Insassen ist Hugo Höllenreiner. Sein Vater hat in München ein Fuhrunternehmen betrieben und dann in der Wehrmacht gedient, bis 1941 alle „Zigeunermischlinge“ aus dem Wehrdienst entlassen worden sind. Der kleine Hugo beobachtet von seiner Pritsche oben das Geschehen: „Papa stand unten, gerade, mit dem Pickel in der Hand und einer seiner Brüder mit einem Schaufelstiel, einer links, einer rechts. Draußen gingen sie auf das Tor zu, bestimmt sieben, acht Mann. Der Papa hat einen Schrei losgelassen. Die ganze Baracke hat gezittert, so hat er geschrieen: Wir kommen nicht raus. Kommt ihr rein. Wenn ihr was wollt, müsst ihr reinkommen. Wir warten hier. Die blieben stehen, es war still. Nach einer Weile kam ein Motorrad angefahren, die unterhielten sich draußen, dann sind sie weggefahren, der Lastwagen ist weitergefahren. Wir haben alle aufgeatmet.“

Das gleiche geschieht in allen Baracken. Die Häftlinge, oft ehemalige Wehrmachtssoldaten haben sich bewaffnet, mit Stöcken, Schaufeln und Messern, die sie sich aus Blech geschliffen haben. Das Unglaubliche geschieht. Die SS rückt ab. Der Aufstand hat Erfolg.

Aber es ist ein Triumph von kurzer Dauer: einige Häftlinge wie Hugo Höllenreiner werden in andere Lager überstellt. Auf die meisten wie den kleinen Edmund Weiss und Oskar Broschinski wartet nur der Tod. (In der Nacht vom 31. Juli zum 1. August 1944 wird das „Zigeunerlager“ endgültig liquidiert werden.)

Quelle: shoah.org
Stand: 28.06.2004

Roma inhabitants of the village of Krosnica, southern Poland, near the Slovak border, have called for monitoring on their estate, after an assault involving Molotov cocktails last Friday.

The incident occurred at about 10 pm on Friday night, when two flaming bottles of petrol landed on property belonging to members of the Roma community.
One bottle fell onto grass and the flames quickly petered out. The second landed on the roof of a house, and the inhabitants swiftly extinguished the flames.
No one was injured in the assault.
Police believe that the crime was carried out by someone driving through the village.
Roma inhabitants of Krosnica told the Gazeta Krakowska daily that they are regularly intimidated by drivers, whether it be with empty cans or stones.
However, this is the first time that a home-made bomb has been used.
“Up until now its just been stones and insults that have been thrown at us,” said one resident.
“But now, if someone wants to go as far as to set us alight, we’ve reason to fear for our lives.”
The resident underlined that the Roma community did not suspect other inhabitants of the village.
“They’re good people, we manage to get along with them,” they said.

In January this year Roma from the western city of Poznan complained that they were being banned from bars and clubs simply because they were members of the Roma community. Prosecutors opened an investigation after local authorities and the Interior Ministry became involved to solve what Roma said was a case of “blatant racism”

Quelle: Polskie Radio
Stand: 26.10.2011