Sinti and Roma claim for equalization with the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime in case of compensation. ‘‘50 years after Auschwitz this is an act of justice’’, said the president of the Central Council of the German Sinti and Roma, Roman Rose, in a conversation in the office of the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, in Bonn on Wednesday.
After several years of negotiations the German government decided early in January that East European Jewish survivors of the holocaust will get a monthly pension of approximately DM 250,00. For this purpose, Germany pays 200 millions Deutsche Mark into a fund of the Jewish Claim Conference. In a press statement the chief of the Federal Chancellery, Friedrich Bohl, repudiated the claims and the reproaches of the Sinti and Roma. He said, that like all the other Nazi persecutees the Sinti and Roma also received payments according to the German compensation law. Furthermore, there exists a special settlement of hardship cases for this population group, said Bohl, and Sinti and Roma who are living in Central Europe or East Europe have received reparations as well.