Am 2. August, dem »Roma Holocaust Memorial Day«, wird der Ermordung der Sinti und Roma im Nationalsozialismus gedacht. Doch der Antiziganismus in Europa gehört nicht der Vergangenheit an.

In ganz Europa erstarkt derzeit der Antiziganismus, also der Hass auf Roma. Besonders krass manifestriert er sich seit mehreren Monaten in der Ukraine, wo extrem rechte Milizen regelrecht Jagd auf Roma machen. Brutaler Höhepunkt einer Serie gewalttätiger Übergriffe war die Ermordung eines 24jährigen Rom in Lwiw am 23. Juni während eines nächtlichen Angriffs auf eine Siedlung. Dabei wurden außerdem mehrere Roma, unter ihnen Kinder, schwer verletzt. Immer wieder gibt es schwere antiziganistische Gewalttaten in der Ukraine. Zu einer pogromartigen Vertreibung von Roma aus einem Kiewer Park kam es am 7. Juni. Die Täter, Mitglieder der rechtsextremen Miliz »National Druschyna«, waren mit Hämmern und Äxten bewaffnet – die Miliz besteht unter anderem aus Veteranen des Regiments Asow. Dieses ist einer der etwa 80 paramilitärischen Freiwilligenverbände, die gegen die von Russland unterstützten Separatisten im Osten des Landes kämpfen.

Die Miliz hatte ihren Angriff angekündigt und übertrug ihn live auf ihrer Facebook-Seite.

Dass die mörderische Qualität des Antiziganismus nichts Neues ist, verdeutlicht die Situation der Roma in Ungarn. Nicht nur hetzen seit Jahren Mitglieder der extrem rechten Partei Jobbik und der Regierungspartei Fidesz offen gegen Roma; dort fanden auch regelmäßig gewaltätige Übergriffe paramilitärischer Gruppen auf Roma statt. Bereits vor zehn Jahren hatte am 21. Juli 2008 eine Mordserie in dem Dorf Galgagyörk, nordöstlich von Budapest, begonnen. Bei neun Angriffen auf 55 Roma wurden sechs Menschen getötet und weitere verletzt. Die vier Täter wurden zwar 2013 zu hohen Haftstrafen verurteilt, doch für die Überlebenden und Angehörigen der Ermordeten interessierten und interessieren sich ­Medien und Politiker in Ungarn kaum.

Regelmäßig gibt es Hinweise, dass europäische Polizeibehörden noch heute ethnische Sondererfassungen von Sinti- und Roma vornehmen oder weiterführen.

Ebenso wie bei den Morden in Ungarn machten bei den jüngsten Ausschreitungen in der Ukraine die Täter öffentlich keinen Hehl aus ihrer Überzeugung, Recht und Ordnung in die eigenen Hände nehmen zu müssen. Sie knüpfen an stereotype Vorstellung von »Zigeunern« an als die öffentliche Ordnung störend, kriminell und arbeitsscheu. »Ich lebe anständig, gehe nicht stehlen«, sagte hingegen Lsazlo Bango, ein Zeuge beim Gerichtsverfahren ­gegen die Täter der ungarischen Mordserie. Das Haus, in dem Bango mit ­seiner Frau und seinem damals minderjährigen Sohn wohnte, war eines der ersten Ziele der Angriffe.

Ungebrochen – auch in Westeuropa

»Bis heute ist Antiziganismus in Deutschland und Europa ungebrochen stark und das nicht nur am rechten Rand, sondern auch in der Mitte der Gesellschaft«, sagt Anja Reuss vom Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma der Jungle World.

Erschreckend sei in Deutschland insbesondere der gesellschaftliche Umgang mit dem anhaltend hohen Ausmaß antiziganistischer Gewaltverbrechen. Es sei, so Reuss, »frustrierend zu sehen, dass häufig weder in der deutschen Politik noch in der Öffentlichkeit hiervon Notiz genommen werden wird«.

Tätliche Übergriffe der jüngeren Vergangenheit auch in Deutschland belegen, dass Hassverbrechen gegen Roma kein auf Osteuropa beschränktes Problem darstellen. Immer wieder kommt es zu Brandanschlägen auf von Roma bewohnte Häuser wie in Plauen im vergangenen Dezember und im Februar dieses Jahres oder im Frankfurter Stadtteil Fechenheim im September 2016.

Die Vorstellung, dass bei Gewalt gegen Roma die Betroffenen irgendwie auch ein bisschen selbst schuld an den Übergriffen seien, ist verbreitet. Am 18. Juni schoss in Berlin-Friedrichshain ein Anwohner nach übereinstimmenden Medienberichten von seinem Balkon aus mit einer Luftdruckpistole auf ein im Hof spielendes Roma-Mädchen. Mehrere Medienberichte stellten in ihrer Berichterstattung den Umstand in den Vordergrund, dass Müll, Lärm und Kriminalität zum Alltag in dieser sogenannten Schrottimmobilie gehörten. »Das suggeriert«, so Andrea Wierich von der Roma-Organisation Amaro Foro in einer Pressemitteilung vom 26. Juni, »dass der Vorfall nicht überraschend und der Zorn des Schützen vielleicht sogar verständlich sei.«

Antiziganistische Hetzkampagnen

Als Beispiel für den »tief verankerten und kaum hinterfragten antiziganistischen Grundkonsens« verweist der ­Antiziganismusforscher Markus End auf die Debatte über die sogenannte Armutszuwanderung. Roma würden darin durchgängig unter Rückgriff auf antiziganistische Stereotype als »fremd, faul und arm« dargestellt. »Selbst kritische Stimmen schafften es meist nicht, die stereotypen Voran­nahmen der gesamten Debatte zu hinterfragen«, sagt End.

Dass bei der Ausgrenzung von Roma Ursache und Wirkung verkehrt werden, zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch die deutsche Zuwanderungsdebatte der vergangenen Jahre. Diese verkehrte Wahrnehmungsweise, die die Frage nach den gesellschaftlichen Ursachen der prekären Situation dieser Neuankömmlinge ausblendet, hat im Antiziganismus eine lange Geschichte. Auf ­diese Weise werden seit dem 19. Jahrhundert immer wieder auf kommu­naler Ebene Vertreibungs- und Verdrängungsmaßnahmen gegen Roma und Sinti legitimiert. Das Resultat waren und sind Desintegrationsprozesse, die antiziganistische Stereotype wie von selbst befeuern.

Angesichts der derzeitigen antiziganistischen Gewaltwelle, so Reuss vom Zentralrat, sei sie ernüchtert, wenn in dieser Woche am 2. August dem Holocaust an den Sinti und Roma gedacht wird; der Begriff Holocaust schließt nach dem Verständnis der Roma-Verbände auch die Opfer des nationalsozialistischen Genozids an den Roma ein. Vor 74 Jahren, am 2. August 1944, wurden die verbliebenen 3 000 Frauen, Männer und Kinder im sogenannten Zigeunerfamilienlager im Konzent­rations- und Vernichtungslager Auschwitz-Birkenau in die Gaskammern ­getrieben und ermordet. Dieser Tag wird mittlerweile in vielen europäischen Ländern als »Roma Holocaust Memorial Day« begangen.

Nur der »kontinuierliche Druck der Bürgerrechtsbewegung« habe in den vergangenen drei Jahrzehnten zu Fortschritten in der öffentlichen Gedenk- und Erinnerungskultur beigetragen, sagt Rinaldo Strauß vom hessischen Landesverband deutscher Sinti und Roma der Jungle World. Ende der siebziger und Anfang der achtziger Jahre ­erregte die neu entstandene Bürgerrechtsbewegung deutscher Sinti und Roma Aufmerksamkeit mit medienwirksamen Aktionen wie Hungerstreiks, Besetzungen und Protestveranstaltungen auf ehemaligen KZ-Lagergeländen. Sie forderte ein Ende polizeilicher Sondererfassung, Wohnungsbauprogramme ohne Ghettoisierung und bessere Bildungsteilhabe. »Diese Forderungen sind heute so aktuell wie damals«, sagt Chana Dischereit vom ­baden-württembergischen Landesverband deutscher Sinti und Roma der Jungle World.

120 Jahre ethnische Sondererfassung

So unglaublich es klingen mag: Regelmäßig gibt es Hinweise, dass euro­päische Polizeibehörden noch heute ethnische Sondererfassungen von ­Sinti und Roma vornehmen oder weiterführen. 2013 bestätigte die schwedische Polizei die Existenz einer illegalen Datenbank, in der ungefähr 5 000 Roma ohne ersichtlichen Grund registriert worden waren.

In einem Gutachten von 2017 über ­Ermittlungsansätze bei deutschen Polizeibehörden sammelte der Antiziganismusforscher End Hinweise darauf, wie in Deutschland Polizeiarbeit von antiziganistischen Stereotypen beeinflusst und geleitet wird.

Bereits vor 120 Jahren wurde der bayerische »Nachrichtendienst für die ­Sicherheitspolizei in Bezug auf Zigeuner« gegründet, er war Vorbild für die Einrichtung weiterer »Zigeunerzentralen« der deutschen Polizei. Einer der ­Arbeitsschwerpunkte der bayerischen Zentrale war der Aufbau einer Personenkartei. Diese Kartei diente im Nationalsozialismus der systematischen Erfassung und Vernichtung der europäischen Sinti und Roma. Doch auch nach 1945 führte die bundesdeutsche Polizei die Kartei weiter.

Die Forderung nach systematische Erfassung von Roma erfreut sich wieder großer Beliebtheit. Im Juni kündigte der italienische Innenminister Matteo Salvini an, er wolle Italiens migrantische Roma zählen lassen und des Landes verweisen.

»Die italienischen Roma müssen wir leider hier behalten«, sagte Salvini, wie die Taz am 19. Juni berich­tete. Gleichzeitig kam es aus den Reihen der AfD zu ähnlichen Äußerungen. Der sächsische AfD-Abgeordnete Carsten Hütter richtete am 13. Juni eine Kleine Anfrage an den Landtag, die auf eine statistische Sondererfassung von Sinti und Roma zielt. Darin heißt es: »Wie viele Sinti und Roma haben einen Flüchtlingsstatus und wie viele beziehen staatliche Leistungen, in welchem Umfang?« Auch wollte die AfD wissen, wie viele Sinti und Roma die Schulpflicht nicht einhalten beziehungsweise »aktuell wohnungslos oder von ­Wohnungslosigkeit bedroht« seien.

Stand: 25.08.2018
Quelle: Jungle World

Papuşa Ciuraru, 81, survived the genocide of the Roma people during the Second World War. She is now a beggar on the streets of Stockholm. It’s freezing. But I do it for my dear grandchildren, she says.

An old woman is begging by the entrance to Kungshallen, a food court at Hötorget in central Stockholm. Her face is wrinkled and her body is weighed down under her two coats. The old woman would like enter the food court to warm up her frozen fingers. Approach the guests with her empty coffee cup and ask for some coins. But every time she has tried to enter, a waiter or a guard has come up to her:

– You have to leave!

– You scare our guests!

The woman’s name is Papuşa Ciuraru and what neither the restaurant guests, nor the waiters know is that she is one of the great survivors of the 20 century. Looking at her ID, you would think that Papuşa is born in 1945. That is not true. The date was set by Romanian authorities at the end of the Second World War, when there was chaos in Europe with far more refugees than today. In fact Papuşa Ciuraru was born several years earlier. Around 1934, according to people close to her. That means that Papuşa – her name means „doll“ in Romanian – is around 81 years old. She grew up close to the town of Buhuși in northeastern Romania. Her father and grandfather were skilled metal workers and the family were nomads, travelling from village to village with their horse and wagon selling copper kettles. On a winter day in 1942, Romanian policemen approached their camp and started shooting.

– I was only a child when it happened. But I remember clearly that there was a lot of snow outside. My mother and father quickly gathered us children, she says.

It is called porajmos or the Roma Holocaust. The romani people were, apart from the Jews, one of the groups that suffered the Nazi extermination policy most severely during the Second World War. Tens of thousands of Roma were massacred by SS troops on the Eastern Front or killed in the gas chambers. Others were left to Hitler’s allies to deal with. Many of the victims could not read or write. The crimes committed are not sufficiently documented and the suffering of the Romani people was for many years not recognized. It was as if the porajmos had never happened. Even today, no one knows exactly how many Roma people died during the war. Some historians claim about 250,000, others half a million. The Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu, an ally of Hitler, decided to expel the Roma people to Transnistria. An area conquered from the Soviet union in present Moldova and Ukraine, to where tens of thousands of Jews already had been deported. Papuşa’s family were robbed of their belongings and forced out on a 200 kilometer long march.

– I remember how my mother carried me through the snow on her shoulder. We had no idea where we were going or what was going to happen to us, says Papuşa.

It is the end of November and the winter has taken hold of Stockholm. Papuşa move her frozen fingers back and forth. Last year, she left Romania together with two of her children to beg on the streets in Sweden.

– I love my grandchildren. I cry when I can’t be with them. But I have to support them so that they can stay in school. Nobody gives you anything in Romania, that is why I have come here.

Papuşa says she earns thirty or forty kronor a day in Sweden. She eats only if someone offers her something and saves every penny.

– People used to give more in the summer. Now, it has become more difficult or us. But still, there are kind-hearted people in Sweden.

The soldiers deported Papuşa’s family and the other Roma people to a piece of infertile land wedged between two rivers.

– We spread out corn stalks on the cold, frozen ground and slept on them, she says.

During the days, she was sent out along with the other children to try to snatch potatoes and sugar beets.

– We ate everything we came across, but it was not enough. Children and old people were the worst affected, they starved and froze to death and died of diseases like typhoid.

Out of the seven siblings, only Papuşa and two of her sisters survived the deportation.

– My brother and my sisters were left on the ground like all the other dead. There were large fields, but no place to bury them. They remained there until the dogs came.

Why did you survive?

– It was God’s will. Only he knows why things happen.

Papuşa walks Drottninggatan, one of Stockholm’s major shopping streets, with a beggar’s cup in her hand. Her legs hurt, but still, she walks up to everyone she meets.

– Begging is in my blood, she says, laughing.

Christmas lightning is everywhere, generosity nowhere. A woman shakes her head when Papuşa approaches her. A man stares into his smartphone. A boy laughs nervously.

– I say „thank you“, I do not steal and I am not being unkind to anyone. Some give, some do not. That’s the way it is.

When she first arrived in Sweden, Papuşa lived with a group of other Roma people from the same part of Romania in a parking lot in Kista in northern Stockholm. One day in April, a 25-year old Swede attacked the group. He poured fire-lighting fluid on one of the women’s clothes and started shouting in a threatful way.

– Everybody was running and some people stamped upon me. We lost all of our belongings. I was so scared, says Papuşa.

After nearly two years, the Nazis were pushed out of Transnistria by the Red Army. But the Russians were no liberators. They shot in the air and forced Papuşa’s family to flee once again – back to Romania.

– We were all walking in a long row. We were walking for a year. No one knew the way back or how we could cross the rivers. We got lost several times and had to turn back. We were barefoot, and many died along the way. Even today, people call it the „gypsies ‚road“.

When they finally reached the Romanian border, they were once again fired upon. Now by Romanian soldiers.

– Somehow we still made it through.

What was it like to come home? Papuşa looks at me in surprise.

– My God, what do you think? Awful! We were starving and had nowhere to live. But someone gave us tents. A little help arrived, and slowly things got better.

Papuşa married a Romani man from the city of Iași and had twelve children, nine of whom are still alive today. Romania went from fascism to communism and the dictator Ceauşescu ruled the country with an iron fist. For Papuşa, little changed. She continued to walk from village to village selling copper kettles, as her family used to before the war.

– There were good times and bad. Life is like the weather, you know. It goes back and forth.

It is a late, dark afternoon and Papuşa has not eaten all day. We enter a McDonald’s restaurant and order chicken burger and fries. The 25-year-old man who attacked the Roma people in Kista was sentenced to probation, but is already suspected of new crimes against Romanians in Sweden. Papuşa is forced to sleep outdoors, like she used to 70 years ago. This time she doesn’t put corn stalks on the ground but pieces of cartons that the fruit vendors at Hötorget have left behind. She wraps herself in the blankets that some aid workers have given her and curls up between her son and daughter on the steps of the Concert Hall, where Stockholmers flock on sunny spring days. Before she falls asleep, Papuşa prays to God that the police will not come and force them to leave or that some drunk people will menace them.

– It’s freezing. My head aches, I can’t move my toes and it is so difficult to get up in the mornings.

She hopes to get a bed at a hostel run by a charity for a few nights every now and then. But no matter what happens, she will hold out. For her grandchildren. Papuşa is one of the last witnesses of one of the Second World War’s least known genocides. But she belongs to a people that have never been able to write down their own history. All of her life, she has wanted to learn how to read and write. Spell out her own name, P-a-p-u-ş-a. Survivors of the deportation are entitled to a small pension in Romania. Papuşa filled out a form a couple of years ago and put the letter “X” instead of a signature at the bottom, but has not yet received any response.

– That is why I tell my grandchildren that they need to learn how to read and write. I don’t want them to be helpless like me.

She shows me her hands with her finest possessions: three copper rings that her grandfather once made, that the soldiers never stole.

– They are my memory of our history. My link to the past.

Still, she cries whenever she thinks of what happened to her people more than 70 years ago.

– We are Roma people. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what is wrong with us….

She coughs.

– God forbid that it happens again.

Papuşa’s legs have become stiff after being seated too long inside the warm hamburger restaurant. She apologizes and says that she needs to walk around for a little while to stretch them. Almost immediately, a young employee approaches her:

– You cannot beg in her!

Papuşa quickly heads back to her table. Clearly, the young woman in the restaurant does not know who she is or what she has gone through. And even if she had: would that have made any difference? Life is like the weather, it goes back and forth. Sometimes it is as raw and cold as today, but Papuşa Ciuraru is a survivor. She will endure.

Source: Aftonbladet
Date: 29.11.2015

Sweden and other Nordic countries have long been viewed as exemplary in terms of the protection of minorities. By the public they are seen as the quintessential tolerant and human rights-based countries. Recently, however, the international press and media have also reported on the rise racism and hate crimes in Sweden.

Although Sweden remains the only European country in which the majority has a positive attitude to non-EU immigration (European Commission, 2015), the growing number of racist attacks in the country have raised alarms recently. Recently, a host of examples for the growing racism in Sweden were highlighted by a UN report, published on August 25, 2015. The text revealed that “the group most vulnerable to racist hate crimes is that of Afro-Swedes”, with 1,075 Afrophobic hate crimes having been reported last year in the Nordic country, which marks a rise from the previous year’s 980. The paper also revealed the structural and institutional racism people of African descent face in Sweden, noting that “a general Swedish self-perception of being a tolerant and humane society” might obstruct the recognition of these barriers to racial equality (United Nations, 2015).

Besides having the highest per capita inflow of asylum seekers among OECD countries (OECD, 2015), Sweden also faces a new wave of immigrants from the newly accessed members of the EU. The latter group, arriving mostly from Southern Europe, has also “tested limits of Swedish tolerance”, as The New York Times has put it recently. It refers to both the rise in the popularity of the right-wing populism and the escalating number of attacks against Roma beggars, who provide a novel sight in the streets of Swedish cities (Castle, 2015). (European migrants without employment are not eligible for social welfare benefits in Sweden, but begging is not illegal in the country. – The ed.)

The government estimates that approximately 5000 migrants are begging in Sweden. Many of them live in camps or on the streets (Castle, 2015). Most of these camps are located in the outskirts of cities, but some of them also in downtown areas, like in Malmö. There have been numerous attacks on beggars and in Roma camps lately in Sweden. During 2014 300 attacks were reported, an increase of 23% compared to the year before (Dickson & Von Hildebrand, 2015). Recent attacks include a camp in Malmö, which was set in fire; in Boras a beggar got ran over by a moped, in a camp in Skara another was wounded with an air rifle and in a public park Stockholm a corrosive fluid was doused on a 27-year-old Roma from Romania in his sleep (Castle, 2015).

Far-right parties also fuel xenophobia all over Europe. In 2010, the anti-immigrant party Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) entered the Swedish parliament with 5.7% of the votes, which increased to increased to 12.7% in the 2014 elections. A poll in September 2015 showed that the Sweden Democrats, for the first time, became the most popular party in the country, with 25,2% of the voters supporting them (TNS Sifo, 2015). It was preceded by their anti-begging campaign a month earlier at a subway station in central Stockholm. Their controversial banners, receiving international publicity, read: “Sorry about the mess here in Sweden. We have a serious problem with forced begging! International gangs profit from people’s desperation. Our government won’t do what’s needed. But we will! And we’re growing at records speed. We are the Sweden Democrats! Welcome back in Sweden in 2018!” (Bolton, 2015).

These texts were shown together with pictures of people sleeping in the street. The next day, thousands of Swedish people demonstrated in downtown against the advertisements. The organizers of the event stated that the campaign of the Sweden Democrats “kicks at some of the most vulnerable in our society”. Two people were also arrested for trying to tear down the adverts (Bolton, 2015).

Earlier the human rights abuses of the Swedish police against the Roma stirred a similar controversy. On March 5th 2015 the Swedish human rights group Civil Rights Defenders sued the Swedish state for breaking a number of human rights laws. The group represents 11 Roma Swedes of the thousands who have been registered in a police registry based on their ethnicity. In 2013 the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter revealed that the police in Skåne County, the southernmost region of Sweden has secretly registered nearly 5000 Roma people, mostly with no criminal record, and 1000 of them children. The registration was declared illegal by the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection, but the authority did not consider it as a case of ethnic discrimination, endorsing the claim that the basis of the registration was familial ties to criminals. Although the Parliamentary Ombudsman Cecilia Renfors accepted this framing, she nevertheless claimed that the database also “acquired a character of an ethnic register” (Civil Rights Defenders, 2015; Löfgren, 2015).

Despite the registry having been declared illegal, no one was held responsible for its creation. The Swedish national police commissioner made an apology and the people registered were offered an indemnity of SEK 5000 (500 EUR), a measure some of the affected felt offensive. Critics of the illicit actions suggest these events significantly damaged the trust of Roma Swedes towards the Swedish police and justice system (Civil Rights Defenders, 2015). The chairman of the Commission against Antiziganism of the Swedish Government, Thomas Hammarberg stated:

“This has been a huge shock among the Roma themselves. Some of them had begun to believe that the time to be especially singled out was over. Roma are concerned that the registration itself plus the police’s attitude that the register was justified, should be perceived as a confirmation of the prejudices about the Roma being more criminal than other groups. Moreover, it leads to Roma people not going to the police when they are victims of crime” (Nylander, 2015).

The issue came to light just in the wake of efforts by the Swedish government to reveal “the abuses, neglect and discriminatory measures inflicted on the Roma minority in the 20th century” (Ministry of Employment, 2012). According to the authors of a 2010 government report, a close examination of this part of history is necessary to rebuild the trust between the Roma and the majority society that was eroded by systematic discrimination.

In the history of Sweden ethnic registries were made by the church and state institutions, which later provided the ground for the mistreatment of the Roma. For example the practice of forced sterilization, of which the public has been made aware by the government report The dark unknown history: White paper on abuses and rights violations against Roma in the 20th century (Ministry of Culture Sweden, 2015). The recent events in Sweden can also remind us of what happened in other countries before and during World War II, an experience affecting many Roma who arrived to the country in the second half of the 20th century. In Germany the registration of Roma started already in the 1920s, due to the so-called “Law for the Fight Against Gypsies, Vagrants and the Workshy”, which banned the Roma from a travelling lifestyle, subjected them to surveillance and ordered the unemployed Roma to be sent to forced labour. Some years later, the same registries provided the ground for the enforcement of the racial purity laws of Nazi Germany, culminating in the persecution and genocide committed against the Roma (Barsony & Daroczi, 2008).

Source (+ Videos & Pictures): Romedia Foundation
Date: 10.11.2015

Green party co-spokesperson Åsa Romson has apologized after calling Roma people “zigenare” (gypsies) as well as comparing the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean to the Holocaust.

Åsa Romson used the term “zigenare” following a debate between the leaders of Sweden’s major political parties, broadcast on SVT. The word, which means “gypsy” in English is deeply offensive. In April it became one of a selection of words followed by the phrase „använd istället“ (use instead) in the latest edition of Sweden’s official dictionary produced by Svenska Akademien (The Swedish Academy). The book advises all Swedes to use “Roma” instead. But Romson used word term “zigenare” instead of “Roma” as she defended describing the migrant crisis in Europe as “the new Auschwitz” in the broadcast on Sunday night. After her comparisons with the mass killings proved controversial, she told SVT she wanted to apologize to “any of the groups” affected by Adolf Hitler’s crimes during the second word war including “zigenare” (gypsies), Jews and gay people. She also said the word “zigenare” during an interview with Sweden’s Expressen newspaper on Sunday.

The leader later told SVT that she was sorry, adding that she had used an expression that “did not fit”, while trying to make a strong argument about the migrant crisis in the EU. Her press spokesperson Hellström Gefvert later told the broadcaster that Romson had been “tired” after the debate and knew that her choice of words was “indefensible”. On Monday, Romson issued another apology on Twitter, posting: „Again: It was wrong to make an Auschwitz analogy. I sincerely apologize“. Sweden’s Social Democrat-Green government announced last month that it was going to allocate 13 million kronor a year from 2016-19 to help tackle racism towards Roma people, including increasing understanding of Roma culture and language in Sweden’s education and social care sectors. Romson is not the first Swedish politician to compare Europe’s refugee crisis to the Holocaust. Last month, Liberal Party MEP Cecilia Wikström told The Local that EU member states were currently doing so little to help guarantee safe passage for migrants that future generations would compare their actions to Sweden „turning a blind eye“ to the Holocaust. „I think that my children and grandchildren are going to ask why more wasn’t done to help people running away from Isis, or violence in Eritrea or wherever, when we knew that people were dying in their thousands. People will ask the same question they did after the war, ‚if you were aware, why didn’t you do something?'“, she said.

Source: The Local
Date: 11.05.2015

Experte: Antziganismus in Schweden weitverbreitet

Unbekannte Täter haben in der Nacht zum Freitag in der schwedischen Stadt Malmö einen Brandanschlag auf ein Roma-Kulturzentrum verübt. Wie die Polizei mitteilte, wurden zwei Brandflaschen durch Fenster geworfen. Ein in dem Gebäude anwesender Mann – der zunächst einzige Zeuge – habe das „kleine Feuer“ gelöscht und die Polizei benachrichtigt. Ein Polizeisprecher sagte im Radiosender SR, dieses Attentat und andere Brandanschläge auf Moscheen vor mehr als einem Monat seien vermutlich rassistisch motiviert.

Quelle: Die Welt
Stand: 06.02.2015

„Beängstigend, unethisch, illegal“: Mit deutlichen Worten hat die schwedische Ministerin Brigitta Ohlsson die Polizei für die Einrichtung einer Roma-Datenbank getadelt. Die Datei enthält Informationen über viele unbescholtene Personen – und Hunderte Minderjährige.

Schwedens Polizei steht massiv in der Kritik. Ermittler haben Informationen über mehr als 4000 Roma gespeichert, von denen offenbar viele weder einer Straftat verdächtig noch vorbestraft sind. Die Tageszeitung „Dagens Nyheter“ berichtete am Montag über die Datenbank der Polizei im südschwedischen Skane, in der unter anderem Hunderte Minderjährige aufgeführt seien.

Schwedens Ministerin für Angelegenheiten der Europäischen Union, Brigitta Ohlsson, bezeichnete den Vorgang per Twitter als „beängstigend, unethisch, inakzeptabel und illegal“: „Wenn wir in der Lage sind, für Menschenrechte in Europa einzustehen, müssen wir auch zu Hause aufräumen“, sagte Ohlsson. Die Vorratsspeicherung der Roma-Daten sei abscheulich.

Ein Sprecher der schwedischen Polizei erklärte, die Behörde nutze die Datenbank, um im Rahmen von speziellen Ermittlungen Verbrechen zu lösen und vorzubeugen. Solche Datenbanken würden temporär eingerichtet; darin könnten auch Namen von Personen enthalten sein, die nicht verdächtigt werden. Die Einrichtung der Datei werde nun extern evaluiert, teilte der Sprecher mit.

Die internen Untersuchungen sollen klären, ob die Behörde mit dem Register Vorschriften zur Privatsphäre und zum Datenschutz verletzt habe. Auch Schwedens Polizeichef Bengt Svensson erklärte, eine Datenbank wie in der Zeitung beschrieben, sei „völlig inakzeptabel“. Die Kriminalpolizei in Skane erklärte dagegen, die ethnische Zugehörigkeit werde in dem Register, das zur Verbrechensanalyse genutzt werde, nicht erwähnt.

Quelle: Spiegel Online
Stand: 23.09.2013

Die Polizei legte illegale Geheimlisten über Roma an. Das erinnert an die „Zigeunerinventur“ in Schweden während der des 2. Weltkriegs. Nun hagelt es Kritik.

Sara Håkansson ist zwei Jahre alt. Doch ihr Name steht mit Geburtsdatum und Wohnort schon in einem Register der schwedischen Polizei. Dort landete sie im Alter von drei Monaten. Auch ihre dreijährige Schwester Miranda und Mama Sandra sind da zu finden.

In einem Stammbaum sind die genauen Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse ihrer und vieler anderer Familien grafisch dargestellt. Über 4.000 Namen umfasst das Register. Der alleinige Grund der Registrierung: Alle diese Menschen sind Roma.

„Reisende“ heißt das Register, das die Polizei in der südschwedischen Provinz Schonen angelegt hat. Es bedurfte keiner kriminellen Handlung oder eines Verdachts, um registriert zu werden. Rund 1.000 der Registrierten sind Minderjährige und 52 sind wie Sara erst zwei Jahre alt.

Das Register war geheim, bis die Stockholmer Tageszeitung Dagens Nyheter am Montag seine Existenz enthüllte. Am Dienstag berichtete die Zeitung über ein weiteres ähnliches polizeiliches Roma-Register mit knapp 1.000 Namen. „Warum registriert die Polizei mich und meine Kinder“, fragte Sandra Håkansson, als sie von Dagens Nyheter informiert wurde. Die Frage wird nun in Schweden von vielen Seiten gestellt, aber eine für Montagnachmittag eilig einberufene Pressekonferenz der Polizeiführung von Schonen brachte darauf keine wirkliche Antwort.

Auch weitere Informationen, zum Beispiel, das Register sei 2011 im Zusammenhang mit einem Ermittlungsverfahren wegen Körperverletzung und Waffengebrauch erstellt worden und man habe „vergessen“, es zu löschen – wurden schnell in Frage gestellt.

Fragen weden abgeblockt

Laut Medienrecherchen soll es schon seit 2005 bestehen, sei von der Polizeiführung abgesegnet und seitdem ergänzt und aktualisiert worden. Polizeibehörden aus dem ganzen Land sollen darauf zugegriffen haben. Weitere Fragen werden von der Polizei mittlerweile mit dem Hinweis auf ein „laufendes Justizverfahren“ abgeblockt. Die Polizei in Schonen hat sich wegen des Registers selbst angezeigt.

Ein ethnisches Register würde nicht nur gegen schwedisches Recht, sondern auch gegen internationale Konventionen verstoßen, wie auch Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt konstatierte. Fred Taikon, Herausgeber der Roma-Zeitschrift É Romani Glinda, sieht einen „unglaublichen Rechtsbruch.“ Domino Kai, die in der Regierungskanzlei an einer Studie über Roma arbeitete, hält die Register für „reinen Antiziganismus“. Justizministerin Beatrice Ask und Demokratieministerin Birgitta Ohlsson versprachen „lückenlose Aufklärung“.

Hans Caldaras, Sänger, Schauspieler und seit Jahren gegen die Diskriminierung der Roma in Schweden engagiert, spricht von einem „rassistischen Übergriff“: „Da denkt man spontan an 1942/43, als die Polizei alle schwedischen Roma und Juden registrierte.“ Die Regierung hatte damals eine „Zigeunerinventur“ angeordnet.

Zwangssterilisation von Roma

Offiziell zu „statistischen Zwecken“, doch wie viele Historiker meinen, in Erwartung einer deutschen Invasion und um der Gestapo die entsprechenden Listen gleich zur Verfügung stellen zu können. Was die Behandlung von Roma angeht, die seit 1999 in Schweden offiziell als Minderheitengruppe anerkannt sind, hat das Land weitere Leichen im Keller: Zwischen 1914 und 1954 war ihnen verboten, nach Schweden einzureisen, viele wurden zwangssterilisiert.

Wenn sich Schwedens Reichspolizeichef Bengt Svenson nun „verdammt sauer“ wegen des Roma-Registers zeigte, dann wohl auch, weil gegen die Polizei erneut Rassismusvorwürfe laut werden. Die gab es schon im Frühjahr wegen gezielter Kontrolle von Menschen mit „ausländischem“ Aussehen in der Stockholmer U-Bahn im Rahmen einer Aktion gegen „Illegale“. Auch im Zusammenhang mit den Vorortunruhen im Mai wurde die Polizei beschuldigt, durch rassistisches Verhalten deren Ausbruch und gewaltsamen Verlauf mitverschuldet zu haben.

Quelle: taz.de
Stand: 24.09.2013

A woman from Sweden claims to have lost her rental property after the contract was already signed and keys had been exchanged, following pressure from the other tenants to not let a member of the Roma people live in the building.

“The other tenants would move out if I moved in,” said Tuija Svart to Sveriges Television (SVT).
Svart and her teenage daughter had returned to Sweden after staying for a year in Finland, and had been looking for a flat near her other daughter.
She went to look at an advertised apartment and decided that she liked the flat.
According to SVT, she then signed a contract, got the keys and changed her address over the internet. But while in the moving van, the landlord rang her and said that she couldn’t move in after all.

“He said that I had a different background,” Svart told SVT.
Svart told SVT that it was the first time she felt discriminated against in Sweden for being a member of the Roma people.
Her daughter Samira was also upset about what happened.
“Mainly I felt angry. And sad as well. It felt a bit like if my dreams were crushed,” she told SVT.

Fearing what would happen otherwise, Svart returned the keys to the landlord. But she also reported the incident to the police and to the Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO).
Then the landlord changed his tune and said that the reason he didn’t want to accept her as a tenant was that she didn’t have a valid passport, that her car was registered in Finland and that she had no previous address in Sweden, according to SVT.
However, despite the legal experts at the local authority finding in Tuija Svart’s favour, their hands are tied as Svart sent back the keys without coercion.
However, police are still investigating if Svart has been the victim of discrimination.
“We have spoken to the landlord and he has been allowed to present his side of the story. I have read the statements and see no reason to drop the preliminary investigation at this point,“ said prosecutor Niclas Wargren to SVT.
At the Equality Ombudsman they are also currently looking into the matter.
“We’re investigating it right now and are collecting witness statements from those involved,“ said Lars Tornberg at DO to SVT.

Quelle: The Local
Stand: 09.12.2011

The owner of a Swedish petrol station has been order to compensate a Roma woman after an employee told her to pay for petrol in advance, saying they had had „problems with the Roma in the past“.

”I am very happy over the verdict. Above all I am grateful that someone was on my side for the first time. As far as I am concerned it has never been about getting compensation but getting satisfaction,” the woman said in a statement.

The incident occurred in October 2009 when the woman arrived at the station in Örebro in eastern Sweden to fill up her car.

When she got out of her vehicle an employee of the station came running out telling her that she had to pay in advance as the station had previously ”had problems with the Roma”.

The case was initially brought up in Örebro district court, which ruled in favour of the petrol station.

However, the verdict was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled on Wednesday that by deviating from the normal procedure of payment after filling up the car with petrol, the station was guilty of discriminating the woman.

According to the Örebro Centre for Equal Rights (Örebro Rättighetscenter), discrimination is still widespread in places where goods and services are being traded, and the centre has received several reports of similar discrimination over the past few years.

”Hopefully this verdict might influence how petrol stations across the country are treating their customers. Any businessman who lets their prejudices govern their actions won’t benefit in the long run. Instead they are risking losing both money and reputation,” said the woman’s lawyer Vida Paridad in a statement.

The court ruled that the petrol station pay the woman damages of 5,000 kronor ($730).

It is estimated that there are between 40,000 and 120,000 members of the Roma minority in Sweden today.

Quelle: The Local
Stand: 06.10.2011