Simone Veil, the designated laureate 2010

„It is a great wish of mine to remind you that a multitude of Sinti and Roma suffered the same fate as the Jews.” (Simone Veil, 2006)

The French Politician and former President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil, is this year’s laureate of the European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma.

With Simone Veil, a personality is given the award who, as one of the first, engaged herself socially and politically for the recognition of the victims who had suffered from the National Socialist genocide of Sinti and Roma.

Even prior to her official inaugural visit to Germany, Simone Veil, as President of the European Parliament, took part in the Sinti and Roma’s commemoration ceremony at the Bergen-Belsen former concentration camp in 1979. In her speech she emphasised her unreserved solidarity vis-à-vis the Sinti and Roma and her special loyalty towards all victims of Nazi atrocities. She characterised the fight of the Sinti and Roma for their recognition as victims of the race-ideological persecution by the National Socialists as “Fight for Human Rights”. With this first European commemoration ceremony and Simone Veil’s impressive speech, the public awareness for the persecution and suffering of the minority at the time of National Socialism was created. It laid the foundation for the civil rights activities of Sinti and Roma, as well as for the later recognition of the genocide of the 500,000 Sinti and Roma in the National Socialist-occupied Europe by the former Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl.

The Chairman of the Jury, Romani Rose, particularly emphasised that for Simone Veil, the National Socialist genocide of Sinti and Roma and, of course, just as the genocide of the Jews, had happened solely for racist reasons. By emphasising this analogy and her solidarity with the victims among the Sinti and Roma to this day, she is making a significant contribution to the creation of a societal awareness and remembrance. The great public effect would not have been achieved without her commitment as well as her position and the progress of the continued political work for Sinti and Roma could hardly have been so successfully advanced.

The founder of the award, Manfred Lautenschläger, praised Veil’s speech at Bergen-Belsen as a “great feat and politically pioneering for the continuing progress of the work for the minority”.

The European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma is to contribute to the safeguarding of human rights and the equal chances of Sinti and Roma minorities in their respective home countries in Europe. The award is presented to individuals, groups or institutions who/which engaged in an improvement of the human rights situation of Sinti and Roma. At the same time, the award is meant to be a signal to politically responsible authorities, media and social groups in Europe, to take actions against outdated stereotypes, prejudicial structures and against any form of exclusion.