Eyes wide shut: collective punishment of Roma in twenty-first century Europe
JVL Introduction
Bernard Rorke’s own introductory words warn us all, loudly and clearly:
“Mob violence and collective punishment against Roma in countries such as Bulgaria, Italy, France and Ukraine do not occur in a vacuum – such intimidation is politically orchestrated.
Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, antigypsyism is an obscenity, a stain on the European Union and democratic values. It’s time to call it out and combat it more forcefully.
The message to mainstream political parties for 2020 is simple: eyes wide shut is no longer an option; failure to act against far-right nativism, and the racism that comes with it, amounts to complicity.”
This article was originally published by openDemocracy on Fri 24 Jan 2020. Read the original here.
Eyes wide shut: collective punishment of Roma in twenty-first century Europe
75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, despite the EU Framework for Roma Integration which closes this year, anti-Roma racism has spiked across the continent.
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The events described in this article are shocking… absolutely appalling. It is very appropriate that you have published this article at the present time. It gives even more of a reason why all minorities should unite to support each other in resisting the advance of the far right.
Thank you for the assertion JVL that we are all equally human on this day we are remembering the Holocaust. While Gypsies and Travellers in Britain are not so openly persecuted, they are still the victims of the last “accepted” forms of racism here. The appalling and disgraceful statistics on health and education outcomes stand as evidence. In solidarity.
It is tragic to hear of antigypsyism occurring in European countries 75 years after the holocaust. This is a matter that has not been given proper mention in the press and media. No mention has been made of the huge losses caused by the Roma, gypsy and travellers during the holocaust. I remember when visiting Auschwitz some years ago our guide mentioned the attacks on Roma in Italy. She said the lesson that must be learnt is to fight the issue at once, to ensure it did not develop as had happened before and during the war. We talk about antisemitism and racism but ignore the discrimination suffered by this group.
In the 70s Michael Heseltine justified the attack by the authorities on a travellers camp (not Roma) calling them barbarians. THis became known as the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’. It was shown on television news.
We should also not forget Priti Patel’s intention to criminalise trespass and the deep racism against Roma people of East European origin in our own country.
On a more positive note, Roma and Sinti Holocaust victims are being memorialised by the Stolpersteine project in Germany and elsewhere, as well as political opponents of the Nazis, gay people and people with mental illness and learning difficulties. For those who don’t know, the artist Gunter Demnig places cobblestones with brass plaques outside the houses or workplaces of the victims. For example, there is one for Anne Frank in Aachen. Stolpersteine in particular towns and cities can be located through the internet and people who wish to sponsor ones for their own family will find local groups ready to organise laying ceremonies, although they have to fit in with a pre-arranged schedule (cost €120). Property owners are not allowed to prevent Stolpersteine being laid on the pavements in front of them. There is only one major city that does not have them (I think) and that is Munich:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44979359
I attended the ceremony in Ludwigshafen in October, when 28 plaques were laid at 8 locations, including my family’s former residence. Most moving was the ceremony for a gay man, who was castrated at the age of 17 and died in Dachau ten years later. His father after the war failed to get the town council to class him as a victim of Nazi persecution: as far as they were concerned he was a “criminal”. The SPD mayor apologised for this decision at a reception after the laying ceremony. None of the young man’s relatives were present.
Gunter Demnig laid his 75,000th Stolperstien outside the home and office of an AfD Lantag member in Bavaria in December. It was an entirely non-coinicidental act by this remarkable man. He had a mischievous look in his eye when he told us in October that he was looking forward to doing this:
https://allgaeu.life/videos_artikel,-zwei-neue-stolpersteine-in-memmingen-deutschlandweit-sind-es-jetzt-75000-_arid,2331877.html