Subaltern Memories International – Conference 2023
La Model. Memory Site. C/ d’Entença, 155 – Barcelona
November 21st, 2023
Overview
The activity “Transnational forum: Roma resistance” has been carried out in Barcelona in an all-day conference (morning and afternoon) dedicated to memory and Roma resistance “Subaltern memories international conference 2023”. The morning sessions (9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.) were dedicated to “Transnational forum: Roma resistance) and the afternoon sessions (4-6:30 p.m.) were dedicated to “Memory forum Roma Solidarity, with the participation in the organisation of CEIPES. A video summary is being made and will be available in the next few days on the Project website and the NOVACT and CEIPES website. 74 people assisted to the conference (institutions, civil society organisations, roma organisations, journalist, etc.).
These two activities were organised with EUROM: The European Observatory on Memories to increase the added value of the event, connect SOLREM with other prestigious organisations, institutions and universities at the European level, and be able to have more impact, resources and dissemination.
The event began by emphasising the need to fight against authoritarianism and hate speech through grassroots associations in a space like La Model, an old prison, inaugurated in 1904, which became a symbol of Francoist repression. During the 20th-century Spanish dictatorship, many political prisoners and other victims of the regime were incarcerated there. In 1995, the Parliament of Catalonia committed to closing La Model, as it was now located in the metropolitan area due to the growth of the Catalan capital. In 2017, all prison activity ceased, and it currently serves as a space for social, cultural, and community dynamism, with a memorial area that can be visited.
The first roundtable was presented by Jordi Guixé, director of the European Observatory of Memories EUROM, co-chaired by Jaume Muñoz Jofre, director of Historical Memory and Heritage of the Barcelona City Council, and Asier Rodríguez, European coordinator of the NOVACT institute. The round table puts in value the coordination of the projects that fight together to pull forward the objectives and functions of the public policies of historical memory in the city of Barcelona. The location of La Model, also includes a particularity and is that Helios Gomez, a roma artist who was a victim of Franco’s repression, painted in one of the cells that served as an oratory, a fresco called the Roma Chapel dedicated to “the Virgin of La Merced”.
The three speakers highlighted the need of the event to fight together against authoritarianism and far right movements.
Jana Mechelhoff-Herezi presented the opening lecture, highlighting “The German Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism,” moderated by Oriol Pérez from EUROM.
Herezi is the head of the Department of Commemoration of the Nazi Genocide of the European Sinti and Roma of the Memorial Foundation of the Murdered Jews of Europe in Germany. The speaker presented the reality by taking a thorough review of the history of the Sinti and Roma people under the social-nationalist policy, where more than 500,000 individuals suffered deportations, persecutions, imprisonments, and many of them death. Asserting the systematic abuse and stigmatization in public life even after World War II, this led to the Roma Holocaust being overlooked for many years in Germany’s reality. She explained that the recognition of the memorial was thanks to the German Sinti and Roma communities, and that it was not until 1992 that it was accepted and finally inaugurated in 2012.
Herezi expressed the ongoing question of why the largest minority in Europe is listened to so little, but believes that through the personification in the form of a memorial by the sculptor Dani Karavan to the Sinti and Roma Holocaust, awareness of the repression faced by the Sinti and Roma people will be raised, contributing significantly to enriching their cultural identity. The speaker asserts that the responsibility does not solely fall on the affected minorities; there is a moral and political obligation on the part of the state to defend these minorities and the memory spaces that are created. Clarifying that in Germany there is a small culture of historical memory, but a genuine awareness is needed for these projects to function well, she explains that there are currently various projects. She mentions a dynamic laboratory on Romani memories that analyzes different dimensions of plural cultures.
The first panel, titled “Against discrimination: memory to stop Romaphobia,” moderated by Núria Millán from NOVACT, who started expressing concern about the current trend: the increase in discrimination against minority groups and the growth of authoritarian and far-right movements. Stating that Europe faces current challenges in the fight against Romaphobia, from lack of access to education and employment to police discrimination and social exclusion. She expressed that this racism is not new. Romaphobia has persisted throughout European history.
The Roma people have resisted discriminatory laws and attitudes for hundreds of years. They have been persecuted and targeted. Millán stated that historical memory is an essential tool to prevent discrimination for recognition and avoiding repetition.
Leif Hagert is the chair of the Finnish Roma Association and the Roma Youth Association. He is also part of the board of the SOLREM partner project RKI The Peace Education Institute. He pointed out that Finnish Roma people have faced discrimination, destruction, control, and assimilation by authorities for hundreds of years, jeopardizing their cultural identity. Asserting that it wasn’t until the 1980s that their culture was valued and education opportunities opened up, he emphasized that the Sinti and Roma communities are often not mentioned in this context. He highlighted the need to actively counteract internalized racism in Finland, even within the Roma population. In Finland, there is strong labor discrimination, with women facing it even more, suggesting that antiromanism is another form of racism. Hagert criticized the lack of state support, both in inclusion policies and in interest in the community. However, he expressed positivity about the warm reception of the event on Sinti and Roma in April in Finland, which was a space dedicated to culture and community engagement. Finally, he advocated for the creation of a solid foundation where the Sinti and Roma populations can express and embrace their identities, due to the lack of historical memory policies that are recently and slowly being valued.
Chiara Nencioni is a researcher at the University of Pisa, specializing in contemporary history and politics, the Roma people, and the Balkans. Affiliated with the Ferruccio Parri National Institute for the Resistance and Contemporary History, she conducts research on the Holocaust.
She was suggested by CEIPES Italy for speaking about the situation in Italy and the concerning stigma that still surrounds the Sinti and Roma populations. Nencioni recalled the persecution of this community with the rise of fascism in the 1920s, stating that there was neither awareness nor memory of the Porrajmos until the 1960s. She emphasized the importance of inclusive education, given that the Sinti and Roma community constitutes 0.23% of the population, with 45% of them being under 16 years old. Nencioni denounced the significant percentage of hate speech coming from politics and expressed her concern about the growth of antiromanism. She highlighted the challenging conditions that Italian Roma face, including poverty, social marginalisation, employment difficulties, and difficult access to housing, as well as the lack of public, political, and media representation. Nencioni concluded by stating that memory and cultural policies are being implemented for the Sinti and Roma populations to counteract this situation.
Emir Grbič is a croatian expert in human and minority rights, Representative of the SRRH KALI SARA association, political advisor, and member of the Croatian delegation to the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) and the Human Rights Council of the Croatian Government. He spoke about the situation of minorities in Croatia, stating that the Sinti and Roma community is very diverse, but the Croatian Romani Union KALI SARA successfully represents approximately 80% of the Romani and Sinti population. He asserts that numerous Roma groups are socially, economically, and culturally marginalised, tendencies inherited from the interwar period when they mostly lived in rural areas of eastern Croatia and faced racism from authorities, even Yugoslav newspapers openly defaming the Roma community. He mentioned that with the success of Croatia’s strategic program for the inclusion of the community, it materialised in the Roma Memorial Center Uštica and other necessary projects in the fields of education and housing. The Roma Memorial Center Uštica was solemnly opened on the International Day of Remembrance for the Roma Victims of the Genocide during World War II / Samudaripen in August 2020. Finally, he emphasised the importance of terminology, where each community should have its own space, and the significance of historical memory to create a fair narrative, referring to Samudaripen, the name given to the genocide of the Sinti and Roma.
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