On the occasion of the European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma being awarded to Simone Veil, the former president of the European parliament, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) reminds the international community that it was the commitment of three internationally renowned personages that led to the acknowledgement of the Nazi genocide of "Gypsies" and to a fundamental improvement of their situation in Germany: Simone Veil, Simon Wiesenthal and Indira Gandhi.

The winner of this year's prize, who had been imprisoned as a child in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen where her mother was murdered, spoke at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial on 29 October 1979. She talked of what Sinti and Jews have in common, "because back then we died separated from one another." Simon Wiesenthal and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were patrons of the Roma World Congress in Göttingen, held 16 - 20 May 1981, which was attended by Sinti, Roma, Gitanos and Gypsies from 28 countries on four continents.

The 1979 and 1981 events, both initiated by the Society for Threatened Peoples, led to the founding of the German Associations of Sinti and Roma. Since then, the name that this ethnic group chose for itself has made its way into common use by the media, administrative authorities and the public. Other achievements included the enactment of the first pension law for Holocaust victims, repatriation of hundreds of German Sinti from the area that had been East Germany who had been robbed of their German citizenship, and the financing of independent counseling centers in numerous German Bundesländer.

The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and its documentation center in Heidelberg have been tirelessly active since then in the interests of their ethnic group. They should also be heard by German politicians on topics relating to the lives of Roma refugees in Germany.

For further information please contact Tilman Zülch: 0049 - 551 - 4990624

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford