Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism – located between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany – filmed in 2013.
The monument is dedicated to the memory of the estimated 500,000 European Roma and Sinti that were murdered during the Holocaust – called Porajmos or Pharrajimos in the Romani language (“the Devouring” or “Destruction”) – the genocide of the European Sinti and Roma peoples by the German Nazis and their fascist allies ( http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home ).
The memorial by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan consists of a circular pool of water with a triangular stone in the center upon which a fresh flower is placed daily.
At the site you hear the sound, a note of a lonely violin from a composition/sound installation titled “Mare Manuschenge” / “Our People” by Romeo Franz, a Sinto musician, composer and politician in Germany.
Karavan : „dem Klang einer einsamen Geige allein geblieben von der gemordeten Melodie, schwebend im Schmerz“
Romeo Franz:
Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of the Sinti and Roma, called me in 2012 and said he was looking for a violinist who could play just one single note at the ceremony. I tried, but at some point I couldn’t stand this note any longer. Instead I imitated a whistle that Sinti often use to call their children. It’s a sound that each of us recognise, it’s a bit like a mark of identification, a signal. Then I transposed it onto the gypsy minor scale. Shortly before the memorial was completed, I met with Dani Caravan, the Israeli architect who designed the memorial, at the construction site, and he said, “That’s it!” For me, it was possibly the most significant thing I’ve ever achieved in my life.
From : The Handreader’s Tale via https://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/en/magazine/magazine_26-1/the_handreaders_tale.html
Note
Yesterday – August 4, 2019 – a more subjective short film impression of the memorial was posted see ‘Porajmos Memorial Sinti Roma Europe’ ~ https://settela.com/2019/08/04/porajmos-memorial-sinti-roma-europe/ More information on this memorial also in that 20190804 post.
Film: Mare Manuschenge | Music Roma Memorial Berlin | 20190805 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism, filmed in 2013 in the Tiergarten (close to other Holocaust memorials) in Berlin – between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate, in Germany.
The monument is dedicated to the memory of the estimated 500,000 European Roma and Sinti that were murdered during the Holocaust – called Porajmos or Pharrajimos in the Romani language (“the Devouring” or “Destruction”) – the genocide of the European Sinti and Roma peoples by the German Nazis and their fascist allies ( http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home ).
August 2 is European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day commemorating this genocide of Roma people during World War II. Declared by the European Parliament in 2015 (Resolution 2015/2615), the day marks the anniversary of the extermination of around 3,000 Roma at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the night of 2 August 1944. The so-called Gypsy Camp in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp was dissolved – or “liquidated,” as the SS called it.
Settela Steinbach (9) was one of those murdered early August 1944, now 75 years ago.
The memorial (by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan) consists of a circular pool of water with a triangular stone in the center (not shown in this film) upon which a fresh flower is placed daily.
Film: Porajmos Memorial Sinti Roma Europe | 20190804 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0
Poem “Auschwitz” by Santino Spinelli
In a ring around the pond in English and German – and in two Romani dialects on a stone – are the words of the poem “Auschwitz” by Santino Spinelli (artist name Alexian), a Rom from the Abruzzi region of Italy – a musician, poet, teacher, composer and essayist.
Auschwitz (Original)
Muj šukkó, kjá kalé vušt šurde; kwit. Jilo čindó bi dox, bi lav, nikt ruvbé.
Auschwitz (Deutsch)
Eingefallenes Gesicht, erloschene Augen, kalte Lippen. Stille. Ein zerrissenes Herz, ohne Atem, ohne Worte, keine Tränen.
Auschwitz (English)
Pallid face, dead eyes, cold lips. Silence. A broken heart without breath, without words, no tears.
Music “Mare Manuschenge” by Romeo Franz
At the site you faintly hear the sound, a note of a lonely violin from a composition/sound installation titled “Mare Manuschenge” / “Our People” by Romeo Franz, a Sinto musician, composer and politician in Germany.
The sound in this film I posted is mixed from several video recordings there, with the emphasis on the sound from one video of one of the loudspeakers in the surrounding trees.
It rained April 19th, 1943 – and it rained cats and dogs for a moment during the 2019 commemoration of Transport XX last sunday in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium. ① memo 20190507 ~ Speech in Showers ~ Transport XX
The present has its past. Presentation of new unique book of a study of Transport XX by author Marc Michiels yesterday during the commemoration of Transport XX – May 5, 2019 in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium.
“Het XXste transport naar Auschwitz” (the XXth transport to Auschwitz) is the 2nd (revised and expanded) edition of this detailed dutch work (ISBN
9789059089808 ) published last month by the two authors Marc Michiels and Mark Van den Wijngaert.
On the night of April 19, 1943 the XXth Transport departs from the Dossinkazerne in Mechelen with 1631 Jewish men, women and children heading for Auschwitz. Armed with one revolver, and a storm lamp covered with red tissue paper, three young men manage to stop the train between Boortmeerbeek and Haacht and free seventeen prisoners.
This rescue operation by George Livschitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon is unique in the history of the Holocaust. Even before the train reaches the Belgian border, more than two hundred prisoners can escape. Some of them are shot, others are arrested again by the Nazis, but most escape the fate that awaits them in Auschwitz.
The book describes the escapes from the XXth Transport, how the transport was put together and what would happen to the vast majority of deportees. The countless testimonies confront the reader with the racial destructiveness of the Nazis and tell how some people barely managed to escape.
Marc is dreaming now of an English and or French translation of his dutch book…
Music by the Crescendo Boortmeerbeek Choir.
① memo 20190506 ~ XXth Transport to Auschwitz ~ Marc Michiels & Mark Van den Wijngaert
Koninklijke Fanfare Albert (Royal Brass Band Albert) during today’s commemoration of Transport XX in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium. ① memo 20190505 ~ Royal Brass Band Albert
① memo 20181215 ~ Ferdinand Popleu’s Poppy ~ (EN below) Ferdinand Popleu – Voorzitter N.S.B. Oud-strijdersbond Boortmeerbeek – is afgelopen zaterdag 8 december overleden op 94-jarige leeftijd.
Hier een korte film als eerbetoon aan Ferdinand , van onze laatste ontmoeting in April tijdens de Transport XX herdenking in Boortmeerbeek , België – met Ferdinand Popleu – pleitbezorger van respect voor de vrede – trots op zijn geliefde medailles en Vlaamse klaproos – ‘bloed van de soldaten … klaproos’ leerde hij mij.
Vandaag nemen familie en vrienden afscheid van Ferdinand Popleu , en krijgt hij zijn laatste rustplaats op het oudstrijdersperk van de begraafplaats in Boortmeerbeek.
EN
Ferdinand Popleu – Chairman of the Boortmeerbeek N.S.B. – National Veterans of Belgium Association – died last Saturday, December 8th, at the age of 94.
Here my short film tribute to Ferdinand , of our last meeting April this year at the Transport XX commemoration in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium – with Ferdinand Popleu – advocate for respect for peace – proudly wearing his cherished medals and Flanders poppy – ‘bloed van de soldaten … klaproos’ he told me : soldier’s blood , poppy …
Today Family and friends say final goodbye to Ferdinand Popleu – he gets his final resting place at the veterans field of the cemetery in Boortmeerbeek.
The weekly Yiddish newspaper Der Blatt (Yiddish: דער בּלאַט) published last Friday (May 25, ‘18) a 6 pages long article on the 75th anniversary in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium , of the ‘only rescue action against a transport to Auschwitz’ (צודי75יָאר איינציגע רעטונג ַאקציע קעגן “אוישוויץ טרַאנספָּארט”) – the 20th transport.
The three Belgian heroes Youra Livschitz , Robert Maistriau, and Jean Franklemon liberated 17 people during an attack on the cattle car train ‘Transport XX’ – crammed with 1631 Jewish passengers, heading for Auschwitz – and another more than 200 others jumped out also. Portaits in the wind filmed following the 75th anniversary in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium.
① memo 20180528 ~ Youra Livschitz , Robert Maistriau, Jean Franklemon
