We invite all interested to apply to the conference School of Remembrance – gaining knowledge about the genocide against Roma women and men and combating strategies against antitziganizm which is designed for activists from the civil sector, political parties and the media with a goal to jointly create a more just and democratic society we all live in.
History of Roma suffering in Serbia during World War II sill remains insufficiently researched and known. Lack of public activities that would remind of the crimes, neglect of the crimes within histography and even complete lack of such material in the school curriculum have all brought about that Roma directed genocide remains almost inexistent within the public. Moreover, such situation creates an atmosphere that even if there was a will to transfer this information there is not enough material which could be used as historical support.
Some of the reasons we lack information about Roma suffering and crimes committed against them lie in the fact that there are many prejudices against Roma in Serbia but also racist hostility. Therefore it is important to start activities that would increase awareness of the importance in revealing historical facts but also importance to indicate the continuity of discrimination against Roma as an occurrence that, under certain circumstances, can easily lead to the genocide repetition. Roma community remains, even over a half a century after the completion of the WWII, targeted by antitziganizm, delegitimization, violation of the basic human rights and system discrimination throughout Europe.
For all these reasons, the project “School of Remembrance” two year project is envisioned thus to collect and share information about Roma women and men suffering at several levels. A portion of our activities will be related to the historical research about the genocide against the Romas, its causes and mechanisms whereas, the second part will be dealing with the system discrimination and antitziganizm present today but also with recognition and prevention of such events. This conference will be a place of sharing our gathered information up until now and participants will be working on creating next steps and is just the first of a series of planned project activities.
The project “School of Remembrance” is jointly started by Women Space (Niš), Forum for Applied History (Belgrade) and Roma Center from Göttingen, and with support of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung for SEE Europe and International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance - IHRA.
The first conference School of Remembrance will be held in Niš from September 27th through 29th, 2013. Selected conference participants travel costs, accommodation and food will be covered. Applications can be sent to prijave(at)zenskiprostor.org.
Applications deadline is September 15th 2013.
Detailed conference program can be downloaded here.
