cultural events for the inauguration of the holocaust memorial in

1

Press Kit

Sinti and Roma

DENKMAL WEITER (Continued Memorial)

Cultural events for the inauguration of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin

19 – 25 October 2012

On 24 October 2012, the German Federal Government represented by Federal

Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, will inaugurate a memorial not far from the Reichstag

building in Berlin dedicated to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered in the times of

National Socialism. About 20 years after the initiatives taken by the Central Council

of German Sinti and Roma, the Federal Government will erect a symbol that not only

points to the past, but above all symbolises responsibility for the present and future.

The Central Council and the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and

Roma will present a cultural programme in line with the inauguration titled

“DENKMAL WEITER” (Continued Memorial). Between the 19th and 25th of October,

theatre evenings, concerts, exhibitions, discussions, readings, boxing matches,

lectures and talks with contemporary witnesses will be held and will provide a forum

to discuss our society.

Contents of the Press Kit

• Press Release 03

• Overview of Events 05

• What you always wanted to know about gypsy Sinti and Roma 08

• Foreword by Romani Roses to the book “Das Schwarze Wasser” 11

• Santino Spinelli: Auschwitz (Inscription on the monument) 14

• Text on the monument’s information panels 16

• Materials related to the events 20

• Biographical Material

– Zoni Weisz 29

– Romani Rose 34

– Oswald Marschall 39

– Ferenc Snétberger 42

2

A series of events by the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and

Roma and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, as called for by Federal

Government representatives for Culture and Media as a result of a meeting of the

German Bundestag. It has been supported by the Ministry of Labour and Social

Affairs of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, with the kind support of: The Manfred

Lautenschläger Foundation, the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”

Foundation, the Foreign Office, Volkswagen AG, the Allianz Culture Foundation, the

Theo Zwanziger DFB Culture Foundation, Deutsche Bahn, Ernst & Young, the

Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture, and Friede Springer,

Ulrich Plett und Prof. Carl Hahn.

Press contact:

sauerbrey I raabe . Office for Cultural Affairs, www.sauerbrey-raabe.de

Anna Jacobi, [email protected], +49 (0)162 / 8470299

3

Press Release

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

On 24 October 2012, the German Federal Government represented by Federal

Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, will inaugurate a memorial dedicated to the Sinti and

Roma of Europe murdered in the times of National Socialism. About 20 years after

the initiatives taken by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma to build a

central Holocaust memorial in memory of the murdered Sinti and Roma, this

fundamental political commitment by the Federal Government will now be

implemented with a ceremonious grand opening attended by Holocaust survivors.

The memorial will stand in the centre of Berlin between the Reichstag and the

Brandenburg Gate. The monument will on the one hand keep alive the memory of

the genocide of the 500,000 Sinti and Roma and give belated recognition to the few

survivors of the Holocaust. At the same time it will serve as a symbolic commitment

of German politics and society to bear its responsibility for the 12 million Sinti and

Roma living in Europe today. More than 100 Holocaust survivors are expected to

attend the memorial opening in Berlin.

For over three decades after 1945, the genocidal crimes against the Sinti and Roma

were suppressed from the minds of German society, marginalised and even denied.

A first awareness of the crimes was set in West Germany with the civil rights work of

the Sinti and Roma in the mid-1970s, from which the Central Council emerged in

1982 and the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma in 1991.

Ever since that time, the discussion of National Socialism and the genocide of the

Sinti and Roma has expanded thematically and its consequences and reception have

been dealt with in recent years both at home and abroad in various scientific fields.

Between the 19th and 24th of October on the occasion of the memorial inauguration

“DENKMAL WEITER“, the Central Council and the Documentation and Cultural

Centre of German Sinti and Roma will present theatre evenings, concerts,

exhibitions, boxing matches, readings, lectures and talks with contemporary

4

witnesses. With these events the organisers are providing a forum to discuss the

past, present and future of our society.

Notable contemporaries, artists and authors will be in Berlin for the cultural events,

including the Holocaust survivor Zoni Weisz, who on 27 January 2011 held the

commemorative speech for the murdered Sinti and Roma in the German Bundestag.

The guitarist and composer Ferenc Snétberger, who in addition to his internationally

successful music career, runs a talent centre in Felsöörs in Hungary for young,

musically gifted Roma, will also play for the occasion in the Allianz forum at Pariser

Platz. Also at the event will be Oswald Marschall, the Sinto boxer from Minden; under

his direction amateur boxers will contest exhibition bouts in the Kreuzberg Boxing

Camp, named after the legendary sinto-German boxer Johann "Rukeli" Trollmann.

Romani Rose, who will speak at the opening, and Dr. Silvio Peritore from the Central

Council of German Sinti and Roma will also be part of the series of events in Berlin.

5

Overview of Events

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

19 - 26 October, daily 10:00 - 20:00

Exhibition:

Topography of Terror

„The Holocaust against the Roma and Sinti and Present Day Racism in

Europe“

19 October, 11:00 Exhibition Opening

With Prof. Dr. Andreas Nachama, Director of the Topography of Terror Foundation,

Bundestag President Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, Romani Rose, Chairman of the

Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, and Petra Rosenberg, Chairman of the

State Association of German Sinti and Roma in Berlin-Brandenburg.

Register for the opening at [email protected] or call +49 (0)30 /

2545090 up until 15 October 2012

Accreditation for journalists: [email protected]

English/German Audio Guide

Free Entry

19 – 25 October, 11:00 – 19:00

Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg

Otto Pankok, Ceija Stojka, Alfred Ullrich

Exhibition

Free Entry

20 October, 20:00


“Unity and...”

Theatre Performance

Guest performance from Theater Heidelberg

13 euros, concession 8 euros

6

21 October, 12:00


“...Justice and Freedom or TOLERANCE DELUXE”

Panel discussion

With Emran Elmazi (Amaro Drom e.V.), Kenan Emini (Initiative “Alle bleiben“), Dirk

Laucke (Playwright), Moritz Pankok (Galerie Kai Dikhas), Nihad Nino Pušija

(Photographer), and Wolfgang Wippermann (Historian).

Free Entry

21 October, 18:00

GRIPS Theater in Podewil Berlin

"Elses Geschichte" (Else’s Story)

Theatre performance for suitable for 9 years+

Guest performance from Theater Heidelberg


21 October, 18:00

Galerie Kai Dikhas

"Das Brennglas" (The Burning Glass)

Reading from the biography of Otto Rosenberg with Petra Rosenberg

Free Entry

21 October, 20:00

Jazz Club A-Trane Berlin

Jermaine Landsberger and Stochelo Rosenberg

Concert


22 October, 18:00

Johann Trollmann Boxing Camp Kreuzberg

“Lie down, Gypsy: The Story Of Johann Trollmann And Tull Harder” -

Reading with Roger Repplinger and exhibition boxing bouts with the amateur boxers

of the Minden Boxing club under the direction of Sinto Oswald Marschall.

Free Entry

7

23 October, 18:00

"Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” Foundation

“I wanted to go home, to East Prussia! The Survival of a German-Sinto“

Book launch and reading with Reinhard Florian and Robert Gallinowski, "Memorial to

the Murdered Jews of Europe” Foundation

Free Entry

23 October, 20:15

Maxim Gorki Theater

“Gypsy-Boxer”

Theatre

Guest Performance from Badischen Staatstheaters Karlsruhe


24 October, 18:00

Allianz Forum

Concert with Ferenc Snétberger, the chamber orchestra „Concerto Budapest“

under the direction of András Keller and the pupils of the Snétberger Music

Talent Centres

Entrance for invited guests, Accreditation for journalists [email protected]

25 October, 18:30

Anne Frank Centre

“Settela“ Lecture from Aad Wagenaar

Free Entry

8

What you always wanted to know about gypsy Sinti and Roma

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

What is the difference between Sinti and Roma?

Sinti and Roma have lived in Europe for over 600 years. In their home countries they

make up historically evolved minorities. Sinti regard themselves as members of the

minority based in Western and Central Europe, whereas Roma are those from an

Eastern and South-Eastern European origin.

Do Sinti and Roma have a separate country?

Sinti und Roma make up no nation, but constitute national minorities in their

respective home countries. The estimated 70,000 Sinti and Roma in the Federal

Republic of Germany have been citizens since 1997 and are recognised politically as

a national German minority. Just like the Sorbs, Danes und Frisians. Alongside the

German Sinti and Roma, many Roma from East and South-East Europe now live in

Germany as refugees or asylum seekers.

What makes up the identity of the minority?

Sinti und Roma share a common ethnic identity but there are also cultural

differences. For example, the national Roma communities speak in very different

varieties of Romani. Among the most important elements of German Sinti and Roma

cultural identity today are:

■ the Romani language: German-Romani is recognised under the European Charter

for Minority Languages. It has been spoken in Germany for over 600 years and is an

integral part of German culture

■ the importance of family and kinship relations: special care for children and

respect for elders are prime examples of this.

9

■ appreciation of their own art: this can be seen in the long tradition of various music

genres such as Sinti-Jazz, Flamenco, Classical or Hungarian Romani-music,

instrument-making as well as a specific handicraft, but also the visual arts, literature

and poetry.

■ the experience of decades of persecution, especially the NS-genocide of up to half

a million Sinti and Roma: the suffering under the NS-dictatorship and the memory of

Nazi crimes have left an indelible impression in the historical memory of the minority

Should we still say "Gypsy” today?

The term “Gypsy" dates back to the Middle Ages and was a prejudiced external

designation used by the majority of the population. It is considered discriminatory by

most members of the minority. The second edition of the Duden dictionary of

synonymous and related words from 1986 refers to the terms "scum" and “vagabond”

under the heading of “Gypsy” for example. The list of such examples could go on.

They show one thing very clearly: the term “Gypsy" is inextricably linked with racist

attributions which have been reproduced for centuries, perpetuating a secretive and

aggressive enemy that lies deep in the collective consciousness of the majority of

society.

Because of malicious prejudices on the one hand and romantic stereotypes on the

other, a certain image of a “gypsy", which has been duplicated in countless novels,

films and operettas (and still is), has long become independent. It really says a lot

about the thoughts, fears and desires of those who use it. They simply have nothing

in common with the lives of the Sinti and Roma.

The authentic proper name is Sinti or Roma; terms that are the officially recognised

terms in the German Federal Republic as well as in international organisations

(Council Of Europe, European Union, OSCE, UN).

10

How does Europe deal with minorities?

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Sinti and Roma are the largest minority in Europe

with about twelve million people. Most live in Central and Eastern Europe.

According to a 2005 study compiled by the European Monitoring Centre for Racism,

they are the minority most threatened by racism in Europe. As a result of social

disadvantages and exclusion, many members of the minority still live under

inhumane conditions.

Sinti and Roma are currently not only discriminated against in many countries, but

are also the victims of overt violence and even pogroms. The NS-genocide and the

decades of social repression did not help to overcome the racist distorted image of

the Sinti and Roma. Violence against the minority even comes from state institutions

sometimes. Rarely have the perpetrators faced prosecution.

Does Europe respect human rights?

During the Balkan wars in the nineties, Bosnian Roma were victims of torture, rape,

looting and murder, without this being publicly known. Worse still, Roma - including

the ethnic Albanians - were affected by the violent conflict, expulsions and

massacres during the Kosovo war. After the withdrawal of the UN Protection Force,

the majority of Roma that had been based in Kosovo for centuries - 130,000 of

150,000 - were expelled between March and June 1999 and most of their homes

were destroyed. To this day, members of the minority live in constant danger of

racially, aggravated attacks by militant Albanian nationalists.

For years, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma has protested to the

German government and the relevant authorities against the forcible deportation of

Roma refugees while their safety is not ensured and while there is no real prospect

for their equal participation in society. Against the backdrop of history, the Federal

Republic of Germany should be aware of and admit its particular responsibility for the

Sinti and Roma. Just as it has done towards the Jewish minority for decades.

11

Foreword by Romani Roses to the book “Das Schwarze Wasser” (The Black Water) -

O Kalo Phani Memorial for the Sinti and Roma murdered in the times of National

Socialism, Lith Bahlmann, Moritz Pankok, Matthias Reichelt (eds.), Edition Braus /

Aufbau Verlag, to be published at the end of November 2012, ISBN 9783862280384.

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

It was a long and difficult road to the completion of the national memorial to the

500,000 Sinti and Roma in Nazi-occupied Europe who fell victim to the NS-genocide.

On the occasion of the upcoming opening, I would like to remember some of the

most important stages again.

On 5 April 1989, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma made the first public

call for a joint memorial dedicated to the victims of the NS-genocide. At the end of

1992, I was with the former Chairman of the Central Council of Jews, Ignatz Bubis,

who pointed out the religious needs of Jewish victims group, and that is when it was

agreed that separate places of remembrance for Sinti and Roma as well as Jews

should be built in close proximity. After intensive discussions, the Berlin Senate

proposed in 1994 that the Reichstag be the location for the memorial dedicated to

our people. In the same year I first met Dani Karavan who was willing to work out an

artistic design.

On 2 August 2000, a public call for the construction of our memorial then appeared in

several national newspapers: with 200 signatories from politics, culture and society.

On 22 May 2001, a delegation of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma

presented the signatures of 1,630 of our survivors who spoke out in a joint appeal to

the Federal Government for Karavan’s designs to be quickly implemented.

After a long period of political discussion, we finally reached an agreement with the

Federal Government and the Berlin Senate to have the memorial completed with a

chronology of the genocide of our minority.

12

We proposed that the poem "Auschwitz" by the writer Santino Spinelli, a member of

the Italian Sinti and Roma minority, be inscribed on the memorial. After the Federal

Council had unanimously spoken in favour of this idea on the 20th of December

2007, construction could finally be started the following year.

I thank the Federal Government and the Berlin Senate for the construction of the

memorial. I regard the fact that this place of remembrance for our murdered people

stands in the immediate vicinity of the Reichstag building as a special mark of honour

for our victims. It is a clear sign that Sinti and Roma are a part of this country and its

history.

My thanks go to the many public figures for their involvement, but especially to our

Holocaust survivors. Their tireless moral support played a crucial role in ensuring that

the memorial was realised after twenty years of struggle. It is a real shame that many

of them could not live to see the day of the opening.

With this memorial my friend Dani Karavan has created a work of art that draws its

power from silence and just expresses the unspeakable in a distinctive manner. It is

a place of reflection that gives the visitor room to confront the incomprehensible in a

very personal way. Despite the many hurdles that had to be overcome until the

completion of the memorial, Dani Karavan has always had an ear for the concerns of

the victims and their families. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank

him again for the long road together.

My hope is that this memorial will exert its symbolic effect over the borders of

Germany. In light of the collapse of civilisation in Nazi Germany, historical

responsibility has long since become a pan-European task. All the more appalling is

that the everyday lives of many Sinti and Roma in their European home countries are

still marked by exclusion, discrimination and violence almost 70 years after the

Holocaust.

In Eastern Europe more than two dozen members of our minority fell victim in recent

years to racially motivated killings by neo-Nazis, without a public outcry.

13

The fact that antiziganism is not confronted with the same determination as anti-

Semitism undermines the foundation of our democracy and the much-vaunted

European community of values. An attitude of indifference towards the racism that is

directed at our minority paves the way even to anti-Semitism in mainstream society.

For, as historical experience shows, it is mainly Sinti, Roma and Jews that have to

serve as "scapegoats" time and time again for economic and social turmoil. In times

of crisis we must fight against this with all our strength.

Finally, I mustn’t forget to thank the editors and the publishers who have dedicated

this book to the national memorial for our murdered people. The memorial is not only

a place of remembrance, but also a place for the present and the future: a clear

affirmation of a society with a human face, in which there must be no place for

racism.

14

Santino Spinelli: Auschwitz (Inscription on the monument)

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

Santino Spinelli

Auschwitz

Muj šukkó,

kjá kalé

vušt šurdé;

kwit.

Jiló čindó

bi dox,

bi lav,

nikt ruvbé.

(Original version)

Auschwitz

Drenperdo Mui,

phagede Jakha

schiel Wuschtia;

Pokunipen.

Phagedo Dschi

kek Ducho,

kek Labensa,

kek Asvia.

(Sinti-Romani)

15

Auschwitz

Eingefallenes Gesicht

erloschene Augen

kalte Lippen

Stille

ein zerrissenes Herz

ohne Atem

ohne Worte

keine Tränen.

(German)

Auschwitz

Pallid face

dead eyes

cold lips

Silence

a broken heart

without breath

without words

no tears.

(English)

16

Text on the information panels of the memorial

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

Chronology of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma

During the National Socialist dictatorship, from 1933 to 1945, hundreds of thousands

of individuals in Germany and other European countries were persecuted as

“Gypsies”. The majority of them referred to themselves as Sinti, Roma, Lalleri,

Lowara or Manusch, according to their respective affiliation to such groups. The

largest of these groups in Europe were the Sinti and Roma. The goal of the National

Socialist state and its race ideology was the extermination of this minority: children,

women and men were taken away and murdered, either in their home towns or in

ghettos or concentration and extermination camps. Jenische and other travellers

were also affected by these measures.

1933

Sinti and Roma were increasingly discriminated against, deprived of their rights and

excluded from society. Then followed the first incarcerations in concentration camps

and from 1934 onward forced sterilisations.

1935

Camps were set up in many cities in the German Reich. Two weeks before the

opening of the Olympic Games in 1936, hundreds of people were admitted to such a

camp in the district of Marzahn in Berlin. The camps served to round-up, register and

isolate minorities, and recruit them for forced labour.

1936

In January 1936, in accordance with the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, Reich

Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick decreed: "In addition to the Jews only the

Gypsies belong to the non-Aryan races in Europe."

17

On this basis a discriminatory race law was established, which, among other things,

prohibited marriage to "Aryans" as well as exclusion from traditional occupations and

the armed forces.

1938

More than 2,000 Sinti and Roma from Germany and Austria, including children from

the age of twelve, are trafficked to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen,

Ravensbruck, Mauthausen and other concentration camps until 1939. On orders

from Reichsführer SS and Head of the German Police Heinrich Himmler, a central

office was established, within the Reich Criminal Investigation Department in Berlin,

to steer and co-ordinate the registering and persecution of the Sinti and Roma.

In December Heinrich Himmler issued a radical decree, "to tackle the solution of the

Gypsy Question from the nature of this race" the goal being "the final solution of the

Gypsy Question". Almost 24,000 "racial assessments", which formed the basis for

the deportations to extermination camps, were carried out by the "Research Institute

for Racial Hygiene” by the end of the war.

1939

With the beginning of the Second World War the Reich Security Main Office,

responsible for the organisation of the genocide, planned the deportation of all

individuals registered as “Gypsies". In preparation for the deportations it ordered all

those concerned "not to leave their domicile or current abode".

1940

On orders from Heinrich Himmler the deportation of entire families began from

Germany to occupied Poland: "In mid-May the first transport of 2,500 Gypsies

according to the General Government will be set in motion". In concentration camps,

and later also in ghettos, they were compelled into forced labour under the most

barbaric conditions. In many places Sinti and Roma were issued with identity

documents or armbands with the label "Z” for “Zigeuner” (Gypsy).

18

1941

Systematic mass shootings of Roma began in the occupied Soviet Union and other

occupied areas of East and South-East Europe. One Task Force (Einsatzgruppe)

reported from the Crimea: "Gypsy Question resolved".

Around 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported from Burgenland in Austria to the

Litzmannstadt (Łódź) ghetto in occupied Poland - over 600 of them died there. The

survivors were murdered in January 1942 in the Kulmhof (Chelmno) extermination

camp in gas vans.

1942

After a discussion with Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels about the

surrendering of judicial prisoners to the SS, Reich Minister of Justice, Otto George

Thierack, records in the minutes of the meeting that "Jews and Gypsies are to be

completely annihilated. Annihilation through work is the best method."

1943

From February the deportations of approximately 23,000 Sinti and Roma from

practically all over Europe began in accordance with a decree of Heinrich Himmler

from 16 December 1942. The destination of the transports was the SS-named

"Gypsy Camp" section of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Within a few months most of them

were dead of hunger, epidemics or from SS violence. Numerous children fell victim to

the experiments of the SS camp Doctor Josef Mengele.

1944

On 16 May many of the 6,000 prisoners still surviving in the "Gypsy Camp" in

Auschwitz-Birkenau put up resistance against their threatened murder. About half of

them were deported to other concentration camps for forced labour. The remaining

2,897 - mainly children, women and elderly people - were murdered in the gas

chambers on the nights of 2nd and 3rd of August.

19

1945

The number of individuals persecuted as "Gypsies" who became victims of the

National Socialist genocide will probably never be exactly determined. Estimates

extend to 500,000 men, women and children who were murdered.

"Terrible injustice was done to the Sinti and Roma by the National Socialist

dictatorship. They were subject to racial persecution [...]. They suffered the crime of

genocide."

Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, 17 March 1982

"The genocide of the Sinti and Roma was carried out with the same motive of racist

ideology, with the same intention and determination for a methodical and total

annihilation as it was with the Jews. They were murdered systematically, from infants

to the elderly, everywhere within the area of National Socialist occupation."

Federal Chancellor Roman Herzog, 16 March 1997

20

Materials related to the events

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

Friday 19 October 2012, 11:00

Topography of Terror

"The Holocaust against the Roma and Sinti and Present Day Racism in

Europe"

Exhibition Opening

With Prof. Dr. Andreas Nachama, Director of the Topography of Terror Foundation,

Bundestag President Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, Romani Rose, Chairman of the

Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, and Petra Rosenberg, Chairman of the

State Association of German Sinti and Roma in Berlin-Brandenburg.

Disenfranchised, ghettoised and deported to the extermination camps, Sinti and

Roma were systematically persecuted and murdered during the Nazi regime.

Approximately 500,000 Sinti and Roma fell victims to this genocide. Until today this

was almost completely hidden from public awareness. Against this background, the

exhibition seeks to help overcome current conflict situations on a better

understanding of the past. Family photos and personal testimonies of the victims give

the persecuted and murdered Sinti and Roma a face. Four subjects are addressed:

rights, murder, suppression and modern-day discrimination.

Exhibition 19-26 October 2012, daily 10:00 - 20:00

In English. A German language audio guide is available.

Free Entry

In collaboration with Topography of Terror

•••Topography of Terror

Niederkirchnerstraße 8

10963 Berlin

www.topographie.de

Register at [email protected] or call +49 (0)30 / 2545090

21

19 - 25 October 2012, 11:00 - 19:00


Otto Pankok, Ceija Stojka, Alfred Ullrich

The genocide of the Sinti and Roma left a huge void. Works by different generations

of artists document this loss in the Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg: in the 1930s, Otto

Pankok (1893-1966) portrayed the Sinti families of his neighbourhood. These

charcoal drawings served as a model for the graphics presented here. The Austrian

Romni Ceija Stojka (born 1933) is one of the few survivors in her family. On display is

the series “Auch der Tod hat Angst vor Auschwitz“ (Even death is afraid of

Auschwitz). The Sinto Alfred Ullrich (born 1948) shows the photo-documentation of

his performative action “Perlen vor die Säue werfen“ (casting pearls before the

swine), built at the gate of the former Czech concentration camp and today a pig farm

in Lety, where 326 Roma were murdered.

Free Entry

Sunday 20 October 2012, 20:00


“Unity and...” – Guest performance from Theater Heidelberg

By: Dirk Laucke / Director: Tobias Rausch

Helen Stiepel is a local journalist who travels to Hungary to report on the twin city

Kolöstzemiskata. A translator seems to show her pretty much everything on acts of

racism against the Sinti and Roma in modern-day Hungary. But then Helen

disappears. Her son Max sets out to find her...

“Unity and...“ is based on a research trip to Hungary undertaken by the author Dirk

Laucke in February 2012. The half-fictional and half-documentary piece examines

the discrimination of Sinti and Roma in Hungary.


In cooperation with Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg and Theater Heidelberg



“...Justice and Freedom or DULDUNG DELUXE”

Panel discussion

22

With Emran Elmazi (Amaro Drom e.V.), Kenan Emini (Initiative “Alle bleiben“), Dirk

Laucke (Playwright), Moritz Pankok (Galerie Kai Dikhas), Nihad Nino Pušija

(Photographer), and Wolfgang Wippermann (Historian).

Hosted by: Dr. Elizabetha Jonuz (University of Cologne)

Between the historical persecution of Sinti and Roma and their persecution today,

there are numerous references that will be presented and analysed. The event

presents four projects that deal with the memory of the past and antiziganism today:

the participatory photography project “Duldung Deluxe“ by Nihad Nino Pušija in

collaboration with Emran Elmazi and Kenan Emini, the theatre piece “Unity and...“ by

Dirk Laucke, the media project “Blaudes – Dancing and films against racism and

forgetting" by Nadja Winterstein and the film “Phabaj Berlin“ by Árpád Bogdán.

Free Entry

In cooperation with Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg and in collaboration with

ROMANISTAN. Crossing Spaces in Europe, the Allianz Culture Foundation, Culture

Democracy e.V., Galerie Kai Dikhas und Amaro Drom e.V.

•••Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg

Prinzenstraße 85F / Entrance via Prinzenhof

10969 Berlin

www.theater-aufbau-kreuzberg.de

Tickets: +49 (0)30 / 343 99 308


GRIPS Theater in Podewil Berlin

„Elses Geschichte“ (Else’s Story)

Guest performance from Theater and Orchester Heidelberg

Based on the children’s book by Michail Krausnick / Stage adaptation: Nada

Kokotovic and Nedjo Osman / Director: Nada Kokotovic

Else Matulat grows up in the late 1930s on the outskirts of Hamburg. It's war.

Nevertheless Else and her friends go to school and try to lead a normal life. What

Else doesn’t know: she is not the biological child of her parents and has been

23

classified by the Nazis as a "gypsy half-breed". Then on one spring night in 1944,

everything changes for the girl. She is picked up and deported with other Sinti and

Roma families to Auschwitz. Her father Matulat pulls out all the stops to get Else

back.

Else survived the concentration camp and her true story is carefully retold in great

detail. Supported by an enthusiastic cast, the fast-paced play strikes the right note

between warning and remembrance.

Minimum age 9 years old


In cooperation with the Grips Theater und Theater Heidelberg

•••GRIPS Theater in Podewil

Klosterstraße 68

10179 Berlin

www.grips-theater.de

Tickets: +49 (0)30 / 39 74 74 77


Galerie Kai Dikhas

„Das Brennglas“ (The Burning Glass)

Reading with Petra Rosenberg

Otto Rosenberg, a German-Sinto, who survived the Holocaust, recounts his

memories in the book “Das Brennglas“ (the Burning Glass). Nine-year old Otto

Rosenberg and his family were moved to the "Gypsy camp" in Marzahn in 1936 and

were deported to Auschwitz in 1943, where most of his family died. He himself was

sent to Buchenwald, Dora and Bergen-Belsen - and survived. Rosenberg shockingly,

memorably and effectively tells of his fight for survival in Germany. Reading also by

his daughter Petra Rosenberg (Head of the National Association of German Sinti and

Roma in Berlin Brandenburg).

Free Entry

In cooperation with Galerie Kai Dikhas und Wagenbach Verlag Berlin

•••Galerie Kai Dikhas

Aufbau Haus am Moritzplatz

24

Prinzenstr. 85 D

10969 Berlin

www.kaidikhas.com


Jazz Club A-Trane Berlin

Jermaine Landsberger and Stochelo Rosenberg – Concert

Virtuoso playing technique, sparkling musicality and an unerring sense for melody

and phrasing? Sure! If Jermaine Landsberger plays the Hammond organ and

Stochelo Rosenberg is on guitar. The two and their companions play together to

create their very own tunes: Sinti swing at its finest at the legendary Charlottenburg

Club.

Jermaine Landsberger (p) / Stochelo Rosenberg (g) / Joel Locher (b) / Sebastiaan

De Krom (dr)


•••Jazz-Club A-Trane Berlin

Bleibtreustraße 1 / Ecke Pestalozzistraße

10625 Berlin

www.a-trane.de

Tickets: +49 (0)30 / 313 25 50

Monday 22 October 2012, 18:00

Johann Trollmann Boxing Camp Kreuzberg

“Lie down, Gypsy: The Story Of Johann Trollmann And Tull Harder” -

Exhibition boxing bouts and reading with Roger Repplinger

Johann Trollmann, known as “Rukeli“, was a German Sinto and in 1933 won the

German Championship at light heavyweight. Rukeli’s unusual and successful boxing

style was branded as “ungerman”. The Nazis denied him his title and career and

murdered him in 1944 in the Wittenberge warehouse of the Neuengamme

concentration camp.

25

Journalist Roger Repplinger has dealt with the story of the "Gypsy boxer" Johann

Trollmann and "Aryan" football star Tull Harder in his double biography. The two

sports icons met in the concentration camp - Trollman as a prisoner, Harder as an

SS-commandant of the camp.

In the sports hall named after Johann Trollmann at Marheinekeplatz, the amateur

boxers from the Minden boxing club will stage exhibition bouts under the direction of

Sinto Oswald Marschall.

Free Entry

•••Johann Trollmann Boxing Camp

Bergmannstr. 28

10961 Berlin

www.johann-trollmann.de/Boxcamp-berlin.html

Tuesday 23 October 2012, 18:00

"Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” Foundation

“I wanted to go home, to East Prussia! The Survival of a German-Sinto“

Book launch and reading by Reinhard Florian and Robert Gallinowski. Reinhard

Florian’s memories provide an insight into the up until now largely unknown

persecution of Sinti in East Prussia. They will appear at the inauguration of the

memorial dedicated to the Sinti and Roma murdered in the times of National

Socialism. Reinhard Florian, born in 1923 and detained in 1941, survived

deportation, several camps, starvation, and a death march. After the war, illness and

trauma determined his life.

"I think because of the reality of it all, life in the camp and this brutal past, which is

inside the people, they don’t go out any more, even if we wanted to. We would prefer

to forget it [...] Our life is determined by this brutal past." Reinhard Florian

Reading by the actor and painter Robert Gallinowski. Uwe Neumaerker, director of

the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” Foundation will host the evening.

Romani Rose, Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, will

introduce the topic.

Free Entry

26

From the end of October 2012, the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”

Foundation and the Documentation Centre of German Sinti and Roma offer a jointly

developed workshop in Berlin and Heidelberg for schools and youth groups.

Supported by video interviews from Sinti and Roma persecuted in times of National

Socialism, participants will learn about the methods and places of persecution and

grapple with this persecution from the victims’ perspective. Further information at:

www.sintiundroma.de and www.stiftung-denkmal.de.

In cooperation with the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” Foundation

•••"Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” Foundation

Georgenstraße 23

10117 Berlin

www.stiftung-denkmal.de

Tuesday 23 October 2012, 20:15

Maxim Gorki Theatre

“Gypsy-Boxer"

Guest performance by the Baden State Theatre, Karlsruhe

By: Rike Reiniger / Director: Frederik Tidén

Hans, a young day labourer, makes friends with the “Gypsy-Boxer”, Ruki. Ruki is

Germany’s best boxer, however he has been denied the Championship title.

In 1944 they meet one another again in a concentration camp. Now, Hans attempts

to remember the unbearable experience; namely, how, to the amusement of the

guards, he and Ruki were forced to fight one another. A moving monologue based on

the biography of Sinto Johann “Rukeli” Trollmann, who was murdered in a

concentration camp.

Following the performance, there will be a public discussion led by Dr. Silvio Peritore

(Deputy Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma) and Rike

Reiniger.


In cooperation with the Maxim Gorki Theatre and the Baden State Theatre.

•••Maxim Gorki Theatre / Studio

Hinter dem Gießhaus 2

27

10117 Berlin

www.gorki.de

Tickets: +49 (0)30 / 20 221 115

Wednesday 24 October 2012, 18:00

Allianz Forum

Concert with Ferenc Snétberger, the “Concerto Budapest” Chamber Orchestra

conducted by András Keller and students from the Snétberger Music Talent

Centre.

At the concert, which is sponsored by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation,

Ferenc Snétberger and the “Concerto Budapest“ Chamber Orchestra will commence

with Snétberger’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, „“In Memory for my People”,

which was composed in memory of the Sinti and Roma Holocaust victims in 1995.

Subsequently, Ferenc Snétberger and students from the Music Talent Centre will

present several musical genres; amongst them Classical, Jazz, Hungarian Roma

Music and Django Reinhardt.

Guitarist and Composer, Ferenc Snétberger, is inspired by the Roma tradition of his

Hungarian native country. As the youngest son of a family of musicians, he studied

classical music and jazz guitar. Today, he is best known for his art of improvising and

his blending of musical genres and he is ranked among the prominent guitar players

worldwide. In 2011 in Hungary, he founded the “Snétberger Music Talent Centre“,

which supports 60 young Roma per year in their musical training and careers.

Admission for invited guests.

In cooperation with the Snétberger Music Talent Centre and the Allianz Forum

•••Allianz Forum

Pariser Platz 6

10117 Berlin

www.allianz-forum.de

Thursday 25 October 2012, 18:30

Anne Frank Zentrum

Settela

Presentation by Aad Wagenaar

28

The story of the Holocaust has countless faces. One of these is the face of Anne

Frank. Up until a few years ago, another face was unknown. A wide-eyed girl with a

white headscarf, who was caught on film in May 1944 at Westerbork transit camp,

casting a final glance through the door of a railway carriage before being deported to

Auschwitz. Half a century later, Dutch journalist, Aad Wagenaar, uncovered her

identity: Setella Steinbach. 9 years old. Young Sinti girl. Aad Wagenaar presents this

extraordinary search for clues.

Afterwards, there will be a public discussion (Led by Andreas Pflock, The

Documentation Centre of German Sinti and Roma) and a reception in the “Anne

Frank. here & now” exhibition.

Admission is free. Reservation via e-mail at [email protected] or via

telephone +49 (0)30.28 88 656 41 is advised.

In cooperation with the Anne Frank Centre and the Dutch Embassy.

•••Anne Frank Zentrum

Rosenthaler Str. 39

10178 Berlin

www.annefrank.de

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Further information on individual events is available upon request:

[email protected]

29

Biography – Zoni Weisz

Sinti and Roma


Cultural events to mark the inauguration of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin

19 – 25 October 2012

Zoni Weisz: “We have taken life back into our own hands.”

Zoni (Johan) Weisz was born on 4 March 1937 in The Hague. He was the oldest

child of Jacoba and Johannes Weisz and he had two sisters, Augusta und Johanna,

as well as a younger brother called Emil. His father was a renowned musician and

instrument maker. Towards the end of the 1930s, the family moved to Zutphen, a

small town in the centre of the country, where the father opened a music shop.

With the invasion of German troops in the Netherlands in May 1940, the Sinti and

Roma who were residing there also became a target of national-socialist persecution.

On 16 May 1944, which Zoni Weisz now calls “the blackest day in the history of the

Dutch Sinti and Roma”, violent round ups took place across the country. Sinti and

Roma families were arrested and brought to the police controlled Jewish transit camp

in Westerbork. Among them was the Weisz family from Zutphen. Zoni Weisz initially

avoided arrest purely by chance. He was out of town at the time, staying with an

aunt, who was hiding in a small village with her family. Zoni Weisz recalls, “The

emotion that you go through when you witness the capture of your father, your

mother, your sisters and your brother at the hands of the Nazis is indescribable. You

are gripped with worry, despair and panic. We had to go into hiding as quickly as

possible.

We collected a few items of clothing, took what food we had left and went into hiding

in the forest and hid among the trees. A small group of nine people. Our feelings of

worry and uncertainty were indescribable.”

Three days later, the group was discovered and arrested. They were to be deported,

along with other family members, from the Westerbork camp to the Auschwitz-

Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. On 19 May 1944, the “Gypsy

30

Transport”, carrying 245 Dutch Sinti and Roma, had already departed before the

arrival of the group. Consequently, the decision was taken to take Zoni Weisz and his

relatives to the railway station for Assen. There, the deportation train was to stop

briefly in order to take more victims to the death camps.

Zoni Weisz owes his survival to a Dutch police officer who was active in the

resistance. He elaborates, “How many of us were there? Eight or nine of us. We

were supposed to be getting on the train to Auschwitz. There were police officers and

military everywhere. Later, I had many terrible dreams. In the dreams I always saw

grey trousers tucked into boots, just like what the military wore. It was awful. I was

seven years old at the time. At that age you see the world from below, not from

above. However, this kind police officer, who had previously already given us

something to eat, was someone from the resistance, or, as we call it, from

underground. He said, ‘When I take my hat off, you must escape’. In hindsight, the

reality, the fact that it was possible for a group of people in that situation to escape,

seems unbelievable. Here stood the train to Auschwitz: the cattle trucks with all of

my family inside. On the other side of the platform stood a normal train. When the

police officer took off his hat, we shot off and, in all of the chaos, we were able to

climb aboard the departing passenger train and, as a result, escape. My father cried

‘Moezla, Moezla, take care of my boy.‘ That was the last that I heard from him. Then I

could only watch how the train departed. Then, they disappeared. Not only my father,

my mother, my sisters and my brother, but also aunts and uncles, almost all of my

family were deported to Auschwitz.“

Initially, Zoni Weisz and his relatives hid in forests, where they lived in constant fear,

“like the animals”. Later, they were able to hide among trees. It was a time of hunger,

accompanied by the constant fear of being discovered. Later, Zoni Weisz was taken

to his grandparents, with whom he hid until the end of the war. After the liberation by

the Allies in the spring of 1945, a search began for deported family members. Today,

Zoni Weisz describes this time as perhaps the worst and the most painful time for

him: “We tried everything. The Red Cross, lists of names. There were thousands and

thousands of names on the lists. Yet also thousands with the surname Weiss, written

with an s, with double s, with sz. We searched and searched and searched, but we

did not find anything. Then we tried our luck with letters and sent one to the Mayor of

31

Zutphen, among others. I still have a letter from my grandfather: ‘My daughter’s son

is here with us. He is so unhappy. Please, can you help me? We are still trying to find

out what happened to our family.‘ However, at that time, immediately after the war,

everyone was busy with their own matters. We received a short reply back,

‘Unfortunately, we are unable to help you. On 16 May 1944, the Weisz family was

taken to Auschwitz on the Gypsy Transport.’ That was all that it said.”

Only later did Zoni Weisz find out that his father was taken from Auschwitz to the

Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp near Nordhausen, where he died. It is presumed

that his mother and siblings were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau on the night of 2

August 1944. That night, some 2,900 Sinti and Roma who were still living in the

“Gypsy Camp” were murdered by the SS in the gas chambers.

Zoni Weisz was deeply traumatised for a long time and only slowly, and with help

from his Aunt, rebuilt his life. He recalls, “The first thing that she did was to give me a

football and say, ‘Go out, go and play with the other lads! At that time I was so

unhappy that I would sit down every day and I would not want to do anything else. I

was completely apathetic. However, she made sure that I went to play football with

the lads. Several weeks later I received a guitar. I already knew how to play it. Ever

so slowly, things got a bit better for me.“

After three years of absence, Zoni went back to school. He got along well there and

he studied diligently. After gaining his secondary school qualifications, he got a job at

a florists in Apeldoorn as a temporary assistant. He enjoyed the work and the florist,

Herman Derksen, became a very important person to him, a sort of father figure.

Based on his advice, Zoni Weisz finally attended a horticultural school. He applied for

an apprenticeship as a gardener at Het Loo Palace and he was given the job. He

developed “slowly, but surely into a good florist”. Subsequently, Zoni Weisz carried

out two years of military service in Suriname. He remembers this as being an

amazing and very positive time. It taught him “to respect nature”, and he considers

this to be important to this day. After returning to the Netherlands, Zoni Weisz worked

in Amsterdam with Georg Kirsch, one of the most well-known florists in the

Netherlands. Furthermore, during this period he studied Architectural Design and Art

History.

32

In 1958, he acquired Kirsch’s business, made an international name for himself due

to numerous award-winning exhibitions and emerged as entrepreneur of one of the

leading florists in the Netherlands. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for

having created the world’s largest flower arrangement. Zoni Weisz designed and

arranged works for many state events and ceremonies of the Dutch Royal Family.

For more than 40 years, as a representative of the Dutch flower industry, he has

organised promotional campaigns in the United States of America, Canada, Asia and

many European countries.

A special moment in his professional career was his experience creating the

floral work of art which the Dutch Parliament gave to the German Bundestag as a gift

to mark its 50th anniversary in 1999. “When I was asked to take on the task, I

doubted whether or not, as a survivor of the Holocaust, I should accept. It was not an

easy decision, but I am proud that I accepted and completed the job. Working on this

flower arrangement gave me a good feeling.

Right there, in the German Bundestag, I could show that the Nazis did not succeed in

murdering all of us and that we have taken life back into our own hands and we have

made something of it. For me, it was a symbolic gesture to Germany.“

Despite a fulfilling life and professional accomplishments, the painful reminder of his

stolen childhood and the family that he lost remains. “I have often stood behind the

table in my florist shop and often seen my mother come in with the children. Almost

every day I recall what happened for a moment.“ Weisz’s wife and children helped

him come to terms with his deeply traumatic childhood experiences. Today, Zoni

Weisz is one of the most prominent personalities in the Netherlands, who keeps the

memory of the victims of the occupation years alive.

As a witness of past events, he gives talks in Dutch schools and he is a member,

alongside survivors from other groups of victims, of the Dutch and International

Auschwitz Committee. He campaigns for the civil rights of Dutch Sinti and Roma and,

in January 2007, he was the keynote speaker at the exhibition “The Holocaust

33

against the Roma and Sinti and present day racism in Europe“ at the United Nations

Headquarters in New York.

Furthermore, Zoni Weisz is a member of the International Selection Committee for

the awarding of the European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma. The prize is

awarded every two years by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation together with

the Central Council and the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and

Roma.

In recognition of his service to the Dutch flower industry and his dedication to the

Sinti and Roma minority, he was appointed one of the highest honours in the

Netherlands by Queen Beatrix: “Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau”.

34

Biography – Romani Rose

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

Romani Rose

... was born in Heidelberg in 1946, where he was an independent businessman until

1982. When the Central Council was founded in 1982, he was elected as chairman

by delegates of the member organisations, then comprising of nine, today sixteen

regional associations and societies, and has since been re-elected every four years.

In 1991 Rose took over and now continues to manage the Centre for German Sinti

and Roma Documentation and Culture in Heidelberg. For years he has been known

by the federal and state governments for his determination and relentless work.

Together with the chairman of the national group Minorities in Germany, Rose

governs the Minority Council founded on 9 September 2004. It is the union of the

umbrella organisations of the four national minorities which belong to the German

nation and which have always been resident and autochthonous there. Namely the

Sorb organisation DOMOWINA, the Frisian Council, the South Schleswig Association

of the Danish Minorities, and the Central Council for German Sinti and Roma. Along

with minority representatives from the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, India, Sri

Lanka, France and Holland, Rose is also a board member of the International

Movement Against Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), founded in Tokyo in 1988.

One significant stimulus for Rose’s commitment is his personal concernment.

Thirteen of Romani Rose’s immediate relatives were murdered in concentration

camps during National Socialism, including his grandparents in Auschwitz and

Ravensbrück. Living illegally and on the run, his father, Oskar Rose survived.

His uncle, Vinzenz Rose survived the Auschwitz extermination camp, medical

experiments in the Natzweiler concentration camp and slave work for Daimler-Benz.

[text missing]. The first independent group of German Sinti, the West German Central

35

Committee of Sinti was founded in 1972, where Romani Rose helped out when he

was still not even thirty years old.

For a quarter of a century (since June 1979 to be precise), Rose has successfully led

the work for the civil rights of the Sinti and Roma minority in front of both the German

and international public. He has fought for their protection against racism and

discrimination and compensation for survivors of the Holocaust, while at the same

time making people aware of the extent and historical importance of the genocide of

500,000 Sinti and Roma people in National Socialist occupied Europe. In May 1995,

in collaboration with member societies of the Central Council, Rose achieved

recognition of German Sinti and Roma as a national minority in Germany with their

own minority language, also with the aim of equal participation in social and political

life.

The first most important steps of this work for civil liberty include:

- The week long hunger strike in Easter 1980, which Rose organised and took part in

alongside twelve Sinti in the former Dachau concentration camp, who were

campaigning for international publication of the genocide and fighting against the

continued widespread use of the Reich Security Head Office’s “Gypsy-Race” records

in the German police force and other public authorities, decades after the end of the

war.

– The co-founding of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma on 6 February

1982, which since then he has run and which before 2000 was the only organisation

of its kind, and is to date the biggest and most influential umbrella organisation of

state and regional associations of German Sinti and Roma.

– The delegation of German Sinti and Roma headed by Rose on 17 March 1982

whereby the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt proclaimed the historically

significant and internationally lawful acknowledgement that national socialist crimes

towards the Sinti and Roma were, in fact, genocide determined by their so-called

“race”. Helmut Kohl also expressed this acknowledgement in March 1982 as leader

of the opposition and again on 7 November 1985 as Federal Chancellor at the first

Bundestag debate on the situation of Sinti and Roma in Germany.

36

In the following years under Rose’s leadership, the Central Council continuously

drew attention to its demands by taking part in protest action, press conferences and

rallies. Such examples include:

1.) The campaign organised by Rose of 220 Sinti and Roma on 28 January 1983 (to

mark the 50th anniversary of the Nazi advent to power) at the Federal Criminal Police

Office in Wiesbaden, protesting against its racist and discriminatory (towards Sinti

and Roma people) publications and police criminal investigation educational

materials with phrasing taken from National Socialist literature.

2.) The campaign of 400 Sinti and Roma concentration camp survivors on 20

November 1986 in Bonn, alongside Rose’s comments at the Federal press

conference on 525 cases of compensatory pensions being withheld by the Federal

Chancellor according to Federal compensation law.

3.) The thus far unique memorial service initiated by Rose and held by Bishop Dr.

Anton Schlembachin in Speyer Cathedral on 13 March 1988 (the 45th anniversary of

the deportation of 23,000 European Sinti and Roma to Auschwitz). At Rose’s

invitation, 1500 Sinti and Roma from across Germany came to the service, as well as

personalities such as the then president of the Bundesrat, Dr. Bernhard Vogel, and

the then president of the Bundestag, Prof. Rita Süssmuth.

4.) The demonstration lead by Rose of 250 German Sinti and Roma Holocaust

survivors on 19 December 2001 at the Federal Ministry of Finance, which was

campaigning for the enforcement of equal forced labour compensation payments due

to be paid in the following years of 2002 to 2006 to approximately 1800 concentration

camp survivors who were also represented by the Central Council.

5.) Public meetings, campaigns to sign petitions (which gained the signatures of 2124

German Sinti and Roma, of which 1520 were concentration camp survivors), and

several campaigns and press appointments since 1989, demanding the erection of a

Holocaust memorial for the murdered Sinti and Roma, which had been agreed to be

positioned by 1994 between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg gate.

Essentially, Rose’s two and a half decade long advocacy for compensation for the

concentration camp victims gained weight for the establishment of civil rights work in

the entire minority community. Over the course of twenty years since 1985, under

Rose’s decisive leadership and with the office in Heidelberg (which was sponsored

37

by the Federal government as of 1982 and since 2000 is now sponsored by the State

Minister for Culture and Media), the Central Council has achieved a fundamental

change for 3200 Sinti and Roma Holocaust survivors from the former discriminatory

compensation practice. Always with the survivors’ authorisation and with the help of

his staff, Rose thereby established positive new rulings in each individual case of the

regional and federal compensation authorities.

The Centre for German Sinti and Roma Documentation and Culture, managed by

Rose is an exception in Europe. He had been calling for it since the hunger strike in

1980, and at the beginning of the 1990s it was constructed with financial help from

the federal government. Then, assisted by the then government (Federal President

Prof. Herzog, President of the Bundestag Prof. Süssmuth, and President of the

Bundesrat Teufel) on 13 March 1997 in Heidelberg, it was opened by Rose with a

large on-going exhibition about the National Socialist genocide. Over 700 Sinti and

Roma from Germany and numerous national and international personalities took

part. This included visitors from the embassies of 22 European countries and Israel.

Since 1998 the exhibition is still being successfully displayed, in accordance with

Rose’s initiatives, as a transportable version in several German cities, mostly in

connection with an accompanying programme organised by the Documentation

Centre.

One of the most important results of the Documentation Centre’s work is the

international exhibition, which came about under Rose’s leadership, about the

genocide of Sinti and Roma in Europe,which can be seen continuously in Block 13 of

the Auschwitz State Museum since its opening on 2 August 2001.

With the employees of the Documentation Centre, Rose developed an Anglophone

exhibition about the genocide of Sinti and Roma in National Socialist Europe and

current racism towards members of the national Sinti and Roma minorities in several

other European countries. Rose opened this exhibition on 17 January 2006 at the

European Parliament in Strasburg with the involvement of the President of the

Parliament Borell Fontelles, additional personalities and Sinti and Roma

representatives from several European countries. The exhibition is subsequently

38

being displayed in European capital cities such as Budapest, Prague and Warsaw

(as of October 2006).

Over the course of 2006 Rose arranged for this English exhibition to be opened on

24 January 2007 at the United Nations in New York so it would gain greater

international attention.

As a consequence of his international work, on 29 May 2006 Rose was nominated by

the Polish government to become a member of the International Auschwitz Council,

as he was the first representative of the Sinti and Roma people.

39

Biography – Oswald Marschall

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

“Really clever!” - Prevention of violence through education and sport

In German amateur boxing of the early 1970s, German Sinto Oswald Marschall was

German National Relay Boxer on more than a number of occasions, and he also took

part for his country in the 1974 European Championship in Kiev. At the end of his

active career, Oswald Marschall became chairman of and trainer at the Minden

Boxing Club, and since then has developed it into one of the most successful and

most respected boxing associations in Westphalia. The club has generated a

German champion, a third place winner at the European Youth Championships, and

a further twelve medal winners at the German Championships. For many years

Marschall has taken care of both national and international young sportspeople, who

belong to both the Sinti and Roma minority, as well as the German majority

population or other nationalities. In addition to the sporting aspect, the association

also imparts core values to the young people such as team spirit, discipline, manners

and responsibility. The aim is to boost training and further education of young people

both in and outside of school.

In the meantime training and further education activities are held at regular intervals

with schools in Minden within the confines of the association. Alongside specific help

with homework, a strong sense of community is developed among the students and

motivation to learn is promoted. It is planned to encourage students and grant them

the opportunity to reconcile competitive sports with the requirements of their studies

and work commitments.

Recent experience has shown that some promising boxing talent has had to give up

or cut down on boxing due to the double burden of studies and work, so that training

top athletes was still only able to take place in exceptional circumstances and under

great stress. Therefore, alongside the wide support a continuous elite support should

40

take place from now on. Moving forward, a wide network comprising of social

strengths, and of politics, sport and culture must be integrated into the association’s

work, in order to achieve set goals.

In 2010 the Minden Association of German Sinti was set up and chaired by Oswald

Marschall. It has since then become a member organisation of the Central Council of

German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg. Furthermore the social-political aims, targeted

in the boxing club, are also pursued and implemented by the Association of German

Sinti. Therein lie the main focuses of support for young Sinti and Roma in matters of

educational, professional and academic training and further education: the

possibilities of intercultural meetings between members of the minority and majority

communities, as well as making the public aware of the national socialist genocide of

500,000 Sinti and Roma and such consequences to date. Oswald Marschall

emphasises that today, nearly 70 years after the Holocaust, it is not a matter of

apportioning the blame but is rather about never forgetting Auschwitz. In memory of

this, the opportunity should be understood today to go forward and fight against all

forms of discrimination. In any case it is vital to advocate values such as equality,

justice and human dignity at all times against the dangers that arise from racism and

antiziganism.

Both associations make important contributions to the sensiblisation of the public to

the prevention of violence and the crackdown on antiziganism and racism. Likewise

the work contributes to further education on identity within the Sinti and Roma group;

especially since the association, in particular its chairman Oswald Marschall, has put

on several events in numerous towns and cities in north and west Germany for

members of the minority and also the general public, and has also informed people

about the work of the Central Council and the German Sinti and Roma

Documentation Centre. In particular, meetings and dialogues held on a “level playing

field” between members of the so-called majority population and of the minority as

well as between different generations should contribute to a better coexistence.

Besides it must always be remembered that Sinti and Roma are to be looked at not

only as members of a minority, but also always as part of society as a whole. The life

of Oswald Marschall is a good example of how social responsibility and respect

41

between majority and minority group members can go hand in hand with a general

impartation of values. Therefore the aspect of professional and political education is

particularly important. Young people are brought up to be personally responsible and

therefore also responsible for the community. Based on its social commitment, the

Minden Boxing Club was recognised as a charitable association and on 31 March

2011, it was distinguished by the Alliance for Tolerance and Democracy for its

“Really Clever” campaign.

Source: http://www.buendnis-toleranz.de/cms/beitrag/10033113/455442/

42

Biography – Ferenc Snétberger

Sinti and Roma



19 – 25 October 2012

Guitarist and composer Ferenc Snétberger , the youngest son of a musical family

was born in 1957 in Northern Hungary. Even in his childhood his greatest hero was

his father, also a guitarist. Snétberger studied classical music and jazz guitar, and is

now particularly known for his improvisational art and the way in which he plays

across the borders of genre.

His repertoire is inspired by the Roma tradition of his native land, Brazilian music and

Flamenco as well as classical guitar and jazz. He has released numerous albums

under his own name, as well as many others as co-leader or sideman with other

artists. His concert tours have taken him through the whole of Europe, Japan, Korea,

India and the USA. In 1995 he composed the guitar and orchestra concerto “In

memory for my people” in commemoration of the Sinti and Roma Holocaust victims.

Inspired by melodies of the gypsy tradition, the concerto is a powerful statement

against human suffering and has been performed by the composer himself

accompanied by a chamber orchestra, in Hungary, Italy, Germany and also in 2007

in the New York United Nations Headquarters to mark the International Holocaust

Memorial day.

As a soloist Snétberger has performed Luciano Berios Sequenza XI (for solo guitar),

and with an orchestra he has interpreted concertos from Vivaldi, Rodrigo and John

McLaughlin. On top of this he has written music for film and theatre. In 2002, Ferenc

Snétberger became an honorary citizen of his birth town, and two years later he

received the Hungarian Order of Merit. In 2005 he was awarded the Franz Liszt prize

in Budapest. He has appeared on stage with, among others, David Friedman, Dhafer

Youssef, James Moody, Trilok Gurtu, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Bobby

McFerrin.

43

In 2004 Snétberger formed a new trio with legendary Norwegian bass player Arild

Andersen and Norway-based Italian drummer Paolo Vinaccia. This trio fuses well-

chosen compositions, technical skill, improvisational drive and musical fantasy, with

natural ease and at the highest level. Their album “Nomad” appeared in Autumn

2005 and was enthusiastically received by the public and press. In the same year

came Snétberger’s first encounter with Bobby McFerrin at the Veszprém summer

festival, which has been recorded on his DVD “Snétberger live in Veszprém” (which

shows him perform solo, in duos with Bobby McFerrin and in the NOMAD trio). In the

Summer of 2007 Ferenc Snétberger was invited by Bobby McFerrin to perform at

further duo concerts in Germany and Spain.

The recording of Ferenc Snétberger’s “Landscapes” for his “For My People” CD in

1999, began his congenial collaboration with Markus Stockhausen. In three

compositions for guitar and trumpet, both musicians instantly arrive at a common

language and document their common skills in an astounding manner. “Easily and at

the same time full of melancholy, they come along and convey the feeling that it was

necessary for these two instrumentalists to have come together at some point in

order for this music to see the light of day. After listening, one can hope for nothing

else but for the continuation of this collaboration.”, wrote Ralf von der Kellen about

the collaboration in specialist magazine “Intro”. After eight years, during which Ferenc

Snétberger and Markus Stockhausen’s artistic work has always continued to mutually

grow, their development has finally been proven with their duo album “Streams”.

cultural events for the inauguration of the holocaust memorial in

Documents