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.
Saturday Aug 3, 2019. Funeral prayers Samir Hamdard starts 1 o’clock in the Mosquée Al Khalil in Brussels.
Candles filmed during the afghan refugees camp, March 2014, in the Beguinage church of Brussels.
In March 2014 Kristen Cattell (USA) and Michel van der Burg (Holland) traveled to Brussels, Belgium to meet a group of Afghans living inside an old Catholic church – the church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage (Beguinage Church). At the time, nearly one hundred Afghan refugees had set up camp within the walls of the seventeenth century compound. We made a reportage and interviewed several people including Samir Hamdard – the spokesperson for these afghan refugees – who died last Wednesday (report yesterday http://bit.ly/2GJe64S ). In between the interviews we enjoyed watching Samir and the others playing a cricket game in front of the Beguinage church. More about the Beguinage Project here http://bit.ly/1HZguvY
20190802 ~ Cricket Beguinage Afghans Team ~ Beguinage Project reportage Kristen Cattell / Michel van der Burg (film) – michelvanderburg.com | miracles.media
Thursday Aug 1, 2019. Shocked today to learn that Samir Hamdard (Ahmad Samir Hamdard) has died yesterday (Wednesday) in a hospital as a result of his terrible injuries after he jumped out of the window last Monday in an attempt to escape an explosion and fire of the house in Schaerbeek, Brussels. Samir the tireless activist of peace, justice and solidarity, was chosen as the spokesperson for the afghan refugees in Belgium.
My condolences to his family, afghan and belgian and other friends, the activists who crossed his road in the fight for regularization of the afghan sans-papiers.
Here in commemoration a short film of Samir demanding Justice! – 20 nov 2013, on the arrival of the silent solidarity march for afghan refugees in Brussels.
Samir «Afghans Sans-Papiers Spokesperson»
Ahmad Samir Hamdard demanding justice at the solidarity march for the Afghan “sans papier” community in Belgium, Brussels , Nov 20, 2013.
20190801 ~ Samir ~ Film : Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com
① memo 20190321 ~ House of the Beguinage Afghans ~ Monument (maquette) by Farid Abdulhamid and Ahmad Hameed together with intern group.
” … In the church we have built a maquette of a house out of recycled stuff and with a minimum of resources. Everyone in the group contributed in some way or another in making ‘our house’: from the design to the cleanup afterwards …The Afghans of the Beguinage church anno 2015 ” – Pictures in the back from manifestations in 2013 – Church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage earlier this month in Brussels
① memo 20190312 ~ Artistic Activism Asylum ~ Sculpture with barbed wire used in manifestation for regularisation of undocumented migrants found ‘resting’ last weekend in the Brussels Beguinage Church
