The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma (german: link=no, Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma) is a German
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
rights group based in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, Germany. It is headed by
Romani Rose
Romani Rose (born 1946 at Heidelberg, Germany) is a Romany activist and head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. He lost 13 relatives in the Holocaust.
Career
Rose was born in Heidelberg in 1946. Until 1982 he lived there as an inde ...
, who lost 13 of his close family in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
Description
The Central Council was founded in 1982. It is the union of the umbrella organisations of the four national autochthonous
minorities which belong to the German nation and have always been resident and here: The
Domowina
Domowina (Sorbian language, Sorbian: "Home") is a political independent league of the Sorbs, Sorbian and Wendish people and umbrella organization of Sorbian societies in Lusatia, Lower and Upper Lusatia, Germany. It represents the interests of ...
of the
Sorbs
Sorbs ( hsb, Serbja, dsb, Serby, german: Sorben; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs and Wends) are a indigenous West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Brandenbu ...
, the
Friesian Council, the South Schleswig Association of the Danish minority and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. Along with delegates of minorities from the United States, Mexico,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, Japan, India,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, France and the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
Rose is also a member of the management committee of the International Movement Against Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) founded in Tokyo in 1988.
For two and a half decades – since June 1979 to be more exact – Romani Rose has led the work for the civil rights of German Sinti and Roma before the eyes of the German as well as the international public; he has also fought for their protection from racism and discrimination and for compensation for the survivors of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, at the same time announcing the magnitude and the historical importance of the genocide of 500,000 Sinti and Roma in
National
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
Socialist occupied Europe. In May 1995, in cooperation with the member organisations of the Central Council, Rose achieved recognition for German Sinti and Roma as a national minority in Germany with their own
minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...
, connected with their goal of equal participation in social and political life.
Civil rights work
To the first important steps of this civil rights work belong:
*the hunger strike by 12 Sinti in the former
KZ Dachau
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
on Easter 1980, organised and participated in by Rose, to get international attention for the genocide and to protest against the continued use of "Gypsy-Race"-files of the Reichs Security Main Office by German police and other authorities decades after the end of the war;
*the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, co-founded on 6 February 1982 by Rose and since then led by him, and until the year 2000 the only and until today the most influential umbrella organisation of state and regional associations of German Sinti and Roma;
*the delegation of German Sinti and Roma led by Rose to meet the former
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming Cha ...
, who proclaimed the historically important and internationally binding recognition of the National Socialist crimes against Sinti and Roma as genocide determined by their so-called "Rasse" (
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
).
In the following years the Central Council drew attention to its demands again and again in the form of protests, press conferences, and events, each under the management of Rose.
Examples of such are:
1) The protest action organised by Rose by 220 Sinti and Roma on 28 January 1983 (to the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the seizing of power by the Nazis) at the Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation against the racially discriminating publications and criminal investigation department learning materials on Sinti and Roma with formulations taken from NS literature;
2) The action with 400 Sinti and Roma KZ survivors in Bonn on 20 November 1986 in connection with Rose's comments in front of a Federal press conference to the first 525 cases of withheld payments of compensation under the Federal Compensation Law, handed over at the office of the Chancellor;
3) The until now unique memorial Mass initiated by Rose, given by the Bishop
Anton Schlembach in the
Speyer cathedral
, native_name_lang = German
, image = Speyer_dom_11.jpg
, imagesize = 280px
, imagelink =
, imagealt =
, landscape =
, caption =
, pushpin ma ...
on 13 March 1988, the 45th anniversary of the deportation of 23,000 European Sinti and Roma to
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. On Rose's invitation, 1,500 Sinti and Roma from all over Germany and personalities such as the then President of the Upper House
Bernhard Vogel
Bernhard Vogel (; born 19 December 1932) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 4th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1976 to 1988 and the 2nd Minister President of Thuringia from 1992 to 2003. ...
and the then President of the Lower House Prof.
Rita Süssmuth
Rita Süssmuth ( ''née'' Kickuth; ; born 17 February 1937) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She served as the 10th President of the Bundestag.
From 1985 to 1988, she served as Federal Minister for Youth, Family ...
came to the Mass;
4) The demonstration by 250 Sinti and Roma Holocaust survivors, led by Rose, at the Federal Ministry of Finance for the following through of equal payment of compensation for forced work to the ca. 1,800 KZ survivors represented by the Central Council to that end in the years 2002 to 2006;
5) Public meetings, gaining signatures on petitions (with 2,124 German Sinti and Roma, among which were 1,520 KZ survivors), other actions and many press appointments since 1989 demanding the erection of the Holocaust memorial for murdered Sinti and Roma on the position between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate agreed to for 1994.
The two and a half decades of non-stop engagement for the compensation of KZ victims gained fundamental significance for the embodiment of the civil rights work in the whole minority. In the course of 20 years since 1985 the office in Heidelberg – which was sponsored by the Federal government since August 1982 and since the year 2000 by the state Minister for Culture and Media – the Central Council, under the crucial leadership of Rose, brought about a significant change to the earlier discriminatory procedure of compensation for 3,200 Sinti and Roma Holocaust survivors.
See also
*
Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma
*
European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma
The European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma was founded in November 2007 in Heidelberg by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma and the Manfred Lautenschläger Founda ...
*
European Roma Rights Centre
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is a Roma-led, international public interest law organisation engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Romani people. The approach of the ERRC involves ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Human rights organisations based in Germany
Romani advocacy
Romani in Germany
Sinti in Germany
Organizations established in 1982
1982 establishments in Germany