Gypsy Holocaust Memorial

From Deutsche Welle:

"Can a memorial end discrimination?"

Sinti and Roma have fought for a Holocaust memorial in Germany for decades, not only because they were victims of genocide, but also because they still face discrimination today. Their wish has finally been granted. "When they unveil the memorial now, the tragic thing is that many of the survivors will not be able to see it," said Silvio Peritore, member of the Central Council of Roma and Sinti in Germany. One of these, said Peritore, was 85-year-old Franz Rosenbach, a former forced laborer and Auschwitz survivor who spoke of his experiences in schools and campaigned for the memorial. He died just days before the memorial was opened. The German state has taken a long time to acknowledge the Nazi genocide against Sinti and Roma - for many, far too long. The issue is not simply adding up victims - six million murdered Jews versus 500,000 Sinti and Roma. "What does a memorial express? It is an acknowledgement of the victims. It is showing responsibility for the history that resulted from the Holocaust," said Peritore. But the Sinti and Roma are clearly still an unloved minority, which has meant they have long been denied their recognition as victims of genocide. That, at any rate, is what people like Rosenbach felt. "They ask themselves, why don't they want that?" said Peritore. By "they," he means that belong to mainstream German society. There are 12 million Roma and Sinti in Europe, and in many countries, including those in the European Union, they are still marginalized. "In countries like Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, Roma and Sinti are denied basic human rights," Peritore said. "They don't have equal access to the core areas of life - occupation, health care, a decent home." He added that Sinti and Roma are discredited, criminalized, and scapegoated in many central and southern European countries. Peritore also claimed that EU funds meant to help the community often disappear into dark channels, rather than invested in infrastructure projects that would improve the lives of Sinti and Roma. His criticisms do not spare western Europe. "Here in Germany, when we hear about a 'Roma problem,' then we're talking about people searching for a safe, dignified economic existence. That is a justified hope," he said. But here too they are seen as a security risk, he argued - as in 2010, when President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly defied French and EU law and deported Sinti and Roma. Peritore also accuses Germany of deporting some Roma and Sinti to Kosovo, even though they are threatened with persecution there, and had already established themselves in German society.  My grandparents and their four children survived," Peritore said. "They were taken to a ghetto in occupied Poland in May 1940, along with 2,500 other German Sinti and Roma." As a trained telegraph technician, his grandfather had to maintain communications equipment, which gave him contact with Polish partisans. That meant he could flee from the ghetto with his wife and children and disappear among Polish farmers. After the war, his family then returned home to the southern German town of Karlsruhe. The rest of his family were sent to a death camp in 1943 and murdered. "Serious scholars have long since proved that there was a second Holocaust," said Peritore. "They were the completely identical racist motives, the identical criminal apparatus - the same murder methods in the same places, carried out systematically and efficiently." But the first German chancellor to acknowledge this was Helmut Schmidt, in 1982. After it was decided that there would be no common remembrance for all the victims of the Holocaust, the German parliament voted to establish a memorial to the Roma and Sinti. But then there was a bitter row - the government, historians, and the representatives of the minority could not agree on details. For the Central Council of Sinti and Roma, the issue is not just the belated acknowledgement of the past, but responsibility for the present and the future - to prevent further discrimination and marginalization. "If there's something to be learned, then maybe it's that. But maybe that's too much to ask," Peritore said, the sadness audible in his voice.

^ To the German Government and most of Europe (Western and Eastern) the Gypsies are still seen as "sub-humans" who lie, cheat and steal. They were discriminated against by the Nazis and their allies during World War 2, they were discriminated against by both the Communist  and non-Communists governments during the Cold War and they continue to be discriminated against today. It should not have taken 70 + years to make an official memorial to the Gypsies murdered by the Nazis. I remembered being at the US Holocaust Museum in DC and asked a researcher there about the killing of the Gypsies during the war and what happened after 1945 and he said that most Europeans tolerated the Jews before the war because they were traders and businessmen and most had assilimated into the "regular" society of the country they were in (especially in Western Europe) but that the Gypsies were very nomadic throughout the continent for centuries and so there was a strong resentment and fear of them. After the war the de-natizifaction by the Allies was plagued with the same fear and resentment of the Gypsies (the French and British set the tone that the Americans followed while the Soviets did so out of their own distrust of the Gypsies.) This same fear and resentment continues throughout the continent because the two groups: the Gypsies and the non-Gypsies are kept apart. Each group remembers the stories told to them about how bad the other is and so it gets passed through the generations. The fact that the Gypsies don't have a homeland - like the Jews got after the war - helps these myths spread since they are separated around the many countries of Europe. I'm surprised that the EU continues to allow the discrimination of the Gypsies since they are supposed to be for a "united and peaceful Europe where everyone is equal." I guess I shouldn't be so surprised since the EU also allows the discrimination of people from Bulgaria and Romania. There are quotas in many EU member states that curb the "free movement of the Bulgarians and Romanians" even though both are supposed to be full members of the EU. Guess which country is leading this policy: Germany. I guess old habits die hard. Europe and the EU needs to work with the Gypsy communities to bring them from the outer-regions of society and into the modern 21st Century. Hopefully, this Gypsy Holocaust Memorial will help to that end. ^

http://www.dw.de/can-a-memorial-end-discrimination/a-16326840