July 5



NETHERLANDS:

Wall of names for holocaust victims



The Netherlands Auschwitz Committee wants to set up a "Wall of Names"
bearing the names of all 110,000 Dutch who were killed in Nazi
concentration camps during World War II.

The committee would like to see the wall built in the Wertheim park in
Amsterdam, where Jan Wolkers Auschwitz monument stands.

The committee hopes that the Wall of Names can be completed in the course
of 2009, a spokesperson said on Monday. The names will represent people of
all different backgrounds who ended up in the camps.

Not on Dutch Jews will be listed on the wall, but also resistance fighters
and political prisoners.

(source: Expatica News)




ROMANIA:

New movie premieres about Roma survivor from Transnistria holocaust


Romania's use of "Transnistria" as a holocaust didn't just target Jews.
Thousands of Romas (gypsies) were sent here to die, too. Now a new movie
describes the ordeal of one of the few who survived.


A group of Gypsy prisoners, awaiting instructions, sit near their
concentration camp's fence (Photo: U.S. Holocaust Memorial)TIRASPOL
(Tiraspol Times) - A new documentary called "O Krisinitori" profiles the
life of a Roma who survived the Holocaust in what was called Transnistria
during World War II.

Today the small Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, the area was the
largest World War II killing field in terms of geographical extension.
Invaded by Romania with its Nazi ally Germany, the land was used as
deportation area for Jews and Romas (Gypsies).

"The judge"/"O Krisinitori" is a movie about the real live of a Holocaust
survivor living in the city of Tg. Jiu, but deported to Transdniester -
called Transnistria by the Romanian occupiers - during 1942 and 1944.

During July 11 and 14, 2007, the movie will be presented within the event
"Zigeunerkulturtage to take place in Zurich, Switzerland.

Marin Constantin called "Suta" is 69 years old, a judge in the traditional
Roma communities who lived all his life in the spirit of justice. He is
the man "bringing peace in the community". The action of the movie
develops around the main character, namely judge "Suta", but crosses other
testimonies of siblings Rabedea and Maria often surrounded by nephews
listening to the testimonies of the deported people and stories about the
injustice made to Romas in Transdniester.

The viewers could see a real case of traditional justice Roma "Romano
Kris", more precisely the way judge "Suta" reestablishes peace along with
other regional judges, in an ethnic Roma family in Oravita.

Anti-discrimination campaign
The new movie is a co-production of Tumende TV and TV Productive
International, directed by Laurentiu Calciu, and is promoted through an
anti-discrimination campaign throughout Romania.

Such a campaign is needed because racial discrimination is still
considered a huge problem in Romania and Moldova, with countless children
of minorities suffering racism.

The practice of placing Roma students in segregated schools or classes
remains widespread in Romania and Moldova. In Romania, many Roma children
have been channeled into all-Roma schools that offer inferior quality
education and are sometimes in poor physical condition. This is documented
in a new report by the Open Society Institute - EU Monitoring and Advocacy
Program (EUMAP) which was issued earlier this year. Illegal segregation is
also widespread: Roma children are segregated all-Roma or predominantly
Roma classes, according to the report "Equal access to quality education
for Roma".

Amnesty International blame widespread police and government racism and
persecution. The same kind of government-supported racism led Romania to
commit the Transnistrian Holocaust, and it counterpart, the Porajmos.

The Porajmos, literally Devouring, is a term coined by the Romani (Gypsy)
people to describe attempts by the Nazi regime to exterminate most of the
Roma peoples of Europe during The Holocaust.

According to testimonies of Jewish and Nazi witnesses, Gypsies sent to the
death camps often suffered even worse than Jews. In some instances, the
Nazis were so appalled by the sight of Roma arriving in the transports
that they would not even let them in the gates of the camps for selection
and simply murdered them by the railway platforms.

The governments of Nazi German allies, most notably Romania, also
contributed to the Nazi plan of Roma extermination. The Romanian
government of Ion Antonescu had taken over Transnistria - outside
Moldova's and Romania's historical borders - and established concentration
camps where they deported Jews and Roma people. Some 25,000 Roma people
were deported to Transnistria. Of those, 11,000 never made it back.

(source: The Tiraspol Times)