Recent Romnews postings
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Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 08:47:29 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Recent Romnews postings
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Recent Romnews postings
REMEMBERING VICTIMS ON HOLOCAUST ANNIVERSARIES
REMEMBERING VICTIMS DURING HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL SERVICES
To-day light is being shed on the fate of gay prisoners at the former
camp at Sachsenhausen
Cruel treatment of inmates wearing the pink triangle
ORANIENBURG / Germany (RNN Correspondent) February 22th, 1999
A certain phrase - Strafkommando Schuhlaeufer - is to be found on the
file of one Sachsenhuaser prisoner, who was imprisoned because of
Paragraph 175. Like Roma, Poles and Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals
belong to those Nazi victims whom we tend to forget about.
This year on January 27th, the day that the Federal Republic remembers
Nazis' victims, gay prisoners will also be remembered. The decision to
commemorate a separate community of victims on the official day of
remembrance sets Sachsenhausen apart form other commemorative sites.
Last year's ceremony was dedicated to Jehovah's Witnesses; next year
will belong to Roma. Commemorating gay victims also means
acknowledging people for whom persecution did not cease after 1945.
Paragraph 175 as "intensified" by the Nazis remained in place until
1968 and 1969 in East and West Germany respectively. Socialist
politician Mafred Stolpe warned about forgetting the Nazi regime's
acts of cruelty. He said that it was especially important to remain
aware of victims' sufferring, especially against the background of the
current - and maybe unhappy - debate about where, if at all, to draw
the line when remembering the past. "We must develop a feeling for the
dangers of repetition", he said. The history of the persecution and
murder of millions of Jews, Roma, homosexuals, mentally handicapped
people, political opponents and prisoners forced into slave labour
threatens to pale and become of lesser importance if reduced to
statistics and slogans. Future generations muct be provoked into
reflection. The Brandenburg commemorative sites should not be "mere"
places where the dead are remembered but they should also be places
which enlighten us about politics and history.
-----------------------------
PARISHES' COLLECTION FOR FORGOTTEN NAZI VICTIMS
Duesseldorf / GERMANY (RNN Correspondent) February 24th, 1999
Lutheran communities in the Rhineland will be collecting money after
services to aid victims of the Nazi regime. Church officials have said
that above all Roma, victims of Nazi military justice, those forced
into slave labour or forcibly sterilised have not yet been
acknowledged or received compensation. Similarly, they said that many
surviving Jewish victims in Central and Eastern Europe live in poverty
and urgently need aid. Victims' organisations and foundations have
helped choose the projects which are to benefit from the action.
-----------------------------
Belgrade / Fed. Rep. of YUGOSLAVIA (RNN Correspondent) March the 1st,
1999
Ratko Markovic is an expert on constitutional matters. The head of the
Serbian delegates at the peace talks in Rambouillet, goevernment
second-in-command Ratko Markovic, has not had any positive experience
in dealing with the Kosovo Albanians' leaders. A year ago he invited
them to talks in either the province's capital, Pristina or in
Belgrade, but received no response. The only people to take part were
representatives from Albanian cirlcles loyal to Serbia and from
smaller communities like the Roma. They too will be present at
Rambouillet.
By sending Markovic, it would seem that Serbia's president Slobodan
Milosovic wishes to indicate that he is not about to give in. Markovic
has said in parliament that "Kosovo will be able to practice its
autonomy only as part of Serbia". No plans could be made by the
contact group relating to the Serbian and Yugoslvian constitution,
warned the jurist, who has also made important laws and drawn up the
Yugoslavian constitution.
Markovic is viewed as a close friend of Milosovic: they were both born
in the southern Serbian town of Pozarevac and have been friends ever
sonce they were at university. Two further delegates, Vladan Kutlesic
and Vladimir Stambuk, are also closely connected to Milosovic and are
known to be capable of driving a hard bargain. Stambuk is furthermore
a confidante of Milosovic's powerful wife, Mira Markovic, and is a
leading
figure within her left-wing communist clique.
The Roma representatives:
LJUAN KOKA
Representative of the Romany ethnic community and president of the
Coordination Committee of the Alliance of Romanies of Yugoslavia.
CHERIM ABAZI
Representative of the ethnic community of Egyptians.
-----------------------------
Bonn / GERMANY (RNN Correspondent) March the 2nd, 1999
The newly-elected German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, is trying to
reach a settlement with Washington and the World Jewish Congress on
the matter of claims against German companies which used forced labour
during WWII; Schroeder is keen to see some kind of limitations placed
onthe damage this could do to company finances. Reports have claimed
that his representative in Washington, Bodo Hombach, has suggested
that German industry establish its own private foundation to
compensate former slave labourers from Eastern Europe along with Jews
and Roma, and also fund international peace-keeping projects. This
would take pressure to pay off the government, whose reparation
payments already total 120 billion marks.
Leading banks like Deutsche Bank, Dredner Bank and Coomerzbank face
accusations that they helped fund Nazi projects, including Auschwitz,
and traded in gold taken from Holocaust victims. Carmakers
Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen and BMW face charges of having used forced
labour, as do chemicals giants BASF, Hoechst and Bayer. Some companies
such as Volkswagen have already set up reparations funds while others,
like electricals firm Siemens, have announced their intentions to do
so.
Accusations against insurance firms like Allianz, maintaining that
they have failed to honour life assurance policies held by Holocaust
victims, led to the establishment of a fund last November and promises
to look up unpaid claims.
-----------------------------
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