Gypsy Children Crying
The holocaust: yesterday and today Mexican daily La Jornada, published El holocausto gitano: ayer y hoy. Neither the West nor -most of all- its colossal media apparatus said a single word about them. Although several articles, published before and after September 1st, 2010, on that day on this subject, were of great impact, reminds us, truly a tragic history. [Without adding or deleting] a single word, contained, El holocausto gitano: ayer y hoy (The gypsies’ holocaust: yesterday and today), article I will quote some lines referring, some events, really touching “1496”: boom of humanist thinking. The Roma peoples (gypsies) from Germany, declared traitors to, Christian nations, spies paid by the Turkish, carriers, plague, witches warlocks, bandits, and children kidnappers “1710”: century of Enlightenment and rationale. An edict ordered, Prague adult gypsies be hanged without any previous trial. Young persons and women mutilated. In Bohemia, left ear cut off In Moravia, their right ear “1899”: climax of modernity and progress. The police of Bavaria founded Special Section, Gypsies’ Affairs. In 1929 the section promoted, the category National Central section, moved, Munich. In 1937 it was based in Berlin Four years later, gypsies died half million in Central and Eastern Europe concentration camps. In her PhD thesis, Eva Justin (assistant of Dr. Robert Ritter, Racial Research Section, Ministry and Health, Germany), asserted gypsies’ blood, extremely harmful to the purity, German race. Someone called Dr. Portschy a memorandum to Hitler, sent suggesting gypsies be submitted, to forced labor, mass sterilization, because German peasantry pure bloods jeopardized, labeled inveterate criminals, gypsies arrested en masse and from 1938, put into special blocks Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Gusen, Dautmergen, Natzweiler Flossenburg camps. Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the Gestapo (SS), Ravensbruck, concentration camp he owned, created space, sacrificing gypsy women, submitted to medical experiments. One hundred and twenty zingari girls sterilized. Gypsy women married to non-gypsy men sterilized, at Dusseldorf-Lierenfeld hospital “Thousands of gypsies were deported from Belgium Netherlands, France, to Polish concentration Auschwitz camp. In his memoirs Rudolf Hoess (commander of Auschwitz) wrote that among the gypsies deported, old people almost one hundred years of age, pregnant women, large numbers, children “At the ghetto of Lodz (Poland) none, of 5 000 gypsies survived.” “In Yugoslavia, gypsies and Jews were equally killed in the forest, Jajnice Farmers still remember the cries of the gypsy children who were taken to the places of execution.” “At the extermination camps, only the love of gypsies for music was at times a source of comfort In Auschwitz, starving and infested with lice, they gathered together to play music, encouraged children to dance the courage of gypsy guerrillas who fought alongside the Polish resistance, in the region, Nieswiez, was legendary” Music was the factor that kept them together, helped them to survive just as much as religion was for Christians, Jews, Muslims The successive articles published by La Jornada from the end of August have reminded us of events that were almost forgotten about what happened to the gypsies in Europe After having been affected, Nazism they were consigned to oblivion after the Nuremberg trials, 1945 and 1946 The German government headed by Konrad Adenauer declared that the extermination of the gypsies before 1943, was result of the State’s legal policies Those who had been affected on that same year did not receive any compensation. Robert Ritter, Nazi expert in the extermination of gypsies, freed Thirty nine years later, 1982 when most of the affected persons had already passed away, the government recognized their right to compensation More than 75 per cent of the gypsies, whose total number is estimated, between 12 – 14 million live, Central and Eastern Europe Only in Tito’s socialist Yugoslavia, gypsies, recognize the same rights as the Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian minorities The Mexican newspaper described as “particularly perverse” the mass deportation of gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria ordered by the government of Sarkozy, Hungarian Jew descent-; these are the words – words used by the newspaper Please do not take this as an act, irreverence on my part. In Romania, number of gypsies is estimated to be two million. The president of that country Traian Basescu, a US ally and an illustrious member of NATO, called a woman journalist, “filthy gypsy” As can be observed, this is an extremely delicate person who speaks in a, her polite language The website univision.com posted some comments about the demonstrations against the deportation of gypsies and the “xenophobia” in France. According to AFP, around “130 demonstrations should take place in France, as well as in front of the French embassies in several European Union countries, with the support of tens of human rights organizations trade unions and left wing and ecologist parties. The extensive report refers to the participation of well known cultural personalities such as Jane Birkin and the film-maker Agnes Jaoui and reminded readers that Jane “together with Stephane Hessel, a former member of the resistance against the Nazi occupation of France (1940-1944) was part of the group that later on met with the advisors to the minister of Immigration Eric Besson. “‘It was a dialogue of the deaf but it is good that this took place, for it showed that most of the population was enraged at that nauseating policy’ said a spokesperson of the network ‘Education Without Borders.’” Other news about this thorny issue, from Europe: “Yesterday the European Parliament put France and Nicholas Sarkozy on the spot for having deported thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian gypsies during a tense debate in which the attitudes of Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and the Commission were described as scandalous and ridiculous for their apparent pusillanimity and for failing to condemn Paris decisions as illegal and contrary to community rights”, according to an article, Ricardo MartÃ-nez de Rituerto published by El Pai-s.com La Jornada published in another article impressive social data. Neo-natal mortality among the gypsy population is nine times as much the European average and the life expectancy rate is hardly above 50 years Before that, on August 29 it had reported that “although there have been plenty of criticisms “from the European Union institutions as well as from the Catholic church, the United Nations and the broad spectrum of pro-immigrants organizations- Sarkozy insists in expelling and deporting hundreds of citizens from Bulgaria and Romania “and therefore, European citizens- using as an excuse alleged ‘criminal’ character, these citizens.” “It is difficult to believe that in the year 2010″ concludes La Jornada- after the terrible past Europe had with racism and intolerance, it is still possible to criminalize an entire ethnic group by labeling it, social problem.” “Indifference, or even consent towards the actions carried out by the French police today and the Italian police yesterday “more European, general terms- leave the most optimist analyst speechless.” Suddenly, while I wrote this Reflection, I remembered that France is the third nuclear power in the planet, and that Sarkozy also had a briefcase with the keys required to launch one of the more than 300 bombs he had. Is there any moral or ethical rational, launching an attack against Iran, a country condemned for its alleged intention of manufacturing this kind of weapon? Where are the good sense and the logic of that policy? Let us assume that Sarkozy all of a sudden goes crazy, as it seems to be the case. What would the UN Security Council do with Sarkozy and his briefcase? What will happen if the French extreme right decides to force Sarkozy to maintain a racist policy opposite to the norms that prevail within the European Community? Could the UN Security Council respond to those two questions? The absence of truth and the prevalence of deception is the biggest tragedy in our dangerous nuclear age. By Fidel Castro Ruz, September 12, 2010
commentary, Roberta Kelly, 09/10
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