recall - recalling the roma and sinti holocaust: paths inside the memory

Opera Nomani Nazionale
NEWSLETTER OF THE EUROPEAN PROJECT
“RECALL - RECALLING THE ROMA AND SINTI
HOLOCAUST: PATHS INSIDE THE MEMORY”
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use
which may be made of the information contained therein.
NEWSLETTER N. 1
THE EUROPEAN FUNDED PROJECT “RECALL –
RECALLING THE ROMA AND SINTI HOLOCAUST: PATHS INSIDE THE MEMORY”
LAUNCHED IN ROME
With two different events, one held on October 28, 2014 at the Cinema Andromeda in Rome, the other
October held on October 30, 2014 at the House of Memory and History (as well as in “Via degli Zingari”
54), it was presented to the public the EU-funded Project RECALL - Recalling the Roma and Sinti Holocaust:
Paths inside the memory, implemented under the Program Europe for Citizens Strand 1 – European
Memory.
In particular, on October 28, during an event dedicated to the screening of a video-structured interview
conducted by Massimo Converso to the Partisan Primo de Lazzari, the RECALL project was officially
unveiled just by Massimo Converso (President of the Opera Nomadi Nazionale) to a wide audience, made
of all classes of the last year from the Gasmann Institute (11 classes for a total of 238 students), further
to a class of the third year from the Secondary School Stefanelli (25 pupils approximately). Furthermore,
the Director of the Gasmann Institute as well as three other teachers attended the event.
On October 30, it was the turn of the official presentation of the project at the House of Memory and
History of the City of Rome.
Participated in this event, among the others, the Delegate for the Memory politics of the Municipality of
Rome, Carla Di Veroli, the Councilor Mauro Cioffari (Municipality of Rome), a representative from the
UNAR (a public Office depending on the Italian Government) Alessandro Pistecchia, as well as teachers
from some schools (the Director of the Institute Gasman Maria Vittoria Serru and Prof. Daniela Cola) that
will be actively involved in the project. Also, some representatives from the voluntary sector attended the
event: Ernesto Nassi, President of the ANPI National Association of Italian Partisans in Rome, Dr. Andrea
Maccarrone, as well as the Chairman of the Homosexual Cultural Circle "Mario Mieli").
There has been also the contribution of the Italian Parliament with a communication received from the
member of the Italian Parliament Mattiello. The scholar Giorgio Giannini, expert in the Italian forgotten
massacres during the Second World War also attended the launching conference.
We believe that the most significant testimony was that offered by the householder Roma Kemo
Ahmetovic, whose two uncles were suppressed by the Nazi Ustasha in Jasenovac extermination camp in
Croatia.
At the end of the morning, a delegation then visited Via degli Zingari 54 at the Rione Monti, to pay tribute
to a Tombstone placed there in January 27, 2001 (before the celebration of the Memory Day) by the
Opera Nomadi Nazionale and the Jewish community, under the auspices of the late Councillor GIANNI
BORGNA and even then the Homosexual Cultural Circle "Mario Mieli".
The RECALL project will promote, in the course of its implementation, an international joint reflection on
the "Porrajmos" (or "Samudaripen") - the extermination of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers in the Second
World War and the persecution happened since 1936 in Germany-, as well as on the deportations in
Romania and Italy, suffered by these people.
The information on the contribution, yet very little is known, that Roma and Sinti people gave to the
Resistance and Liberation from Nazi-fascism, will be disseminated.
The support of Europe in this initiative reflects the increasingly strong interest and commitment of the
Union to the more than 12 million of Roma/Sinti people living on its territory, in favor of a deeper
knowledge of the history of this people, according to an intercultural perspective. Equally strong is the
commitment to the reflection on the roots of prejudice against this minority, unfortunately still alive.
Of such history of violence, the extermination of Roma and Sinti represents a forgotten page, of which
too often, the Roma people themselves do not preserve and celebrate the memory.
Under the Project, Italy will promote a transnational dialogue, proposing a series of initiatives designed
as an unprecedented trip through the trans generational memory of the Roma/Sinti people in all countries
directly involved in the RECALL project: Romania (where about 2 millions of Roma live, of which at least
1/4 emigrated to the entire Western world to Australia and North America, because of the unbearable
conditions of economic and social disparities created by the fall of Socialism), Italy (where there are
approximately 200,000 Roma people - almost all living in stable and mononuclear housing -, Sinti and
Travellers, the latter partly semi-nomadic) and Bulgaria (the country where the Roma amounted to about
500,000, and where the memory of the Nazi-fascist extermination is less vivid), with events also in
Yugoslavia and Germany.
The memories of the protagonists of this travel into memory will be made accessible to all, through: video
interviews and publications, in all the countries involved in the project, to Roma/Sinti people (also new
and original) that will create in the end a documentary; dissemination workshops at several schools in the
partner countries and interactive workshops focused on storytelling and performances that will allow to
appreciate the culture of the Roma/Sinti people; conferences and commemoration events.
It will also be an exhibition with materials of tangible and intangible Romanì / Sinta culture.
Partners of the project:
Opera Nomadi Nazionale (Italy, project Promoter)
Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu (Romania)
Regional History Museum "Academician Yordan Ivanov" (Bulgaria)
Romani CRISS - Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies (Romania)
Liberal Alternative for Roma Civil Unification LARGO Association (Bulgaria)
Vidya arti e culture dell'Asia (Italy)
The project manager of the RECALL project, Irene Salerno (together with the Responsibile for the
Memory politics of the Minicipality of Rome, Carla Di Veroli, at right in the picture), illustrates the Europe
for Citizens programme – Strand 1 European Memory, as well as the event scheduled in each partner
country.
The Director of the RECALL project and President of the Opera Nomadi Nazionale,
Massimo Converso, talks about the Porrajmos and explains it at the audience.
Professor Giannini at the event held at the
Andromeda cinema, during the speech addressed to
to the students
The Roma spokesperson, Kemo Ahmetovic
A delegation of attendants to the RECALL launching ceremony, visiting Via degli Zingari 54, where in
January 27, 2001 it was placed a plaque commemorating the extermination of the Roma, Sinti and
Travellers. Among others, the Council member Mauro Cioffari as well as the government representative
Alessandro Pistecchia from the UNAR, took part in the commemorational visit to Via degli Zingari.