Our work — 04
Community work
A memorial that treats the Holocaust as a closed chapter is doing half the job.
The argument
One subject, not two
What was done to Roma and Sinti did not come out of nowhere in 1933. It was preceded by three decades of registration, and it was made possible by an assumption so ordinary that the men who held it did not think of it as an opinion: that Roma were a policing problem rather than a people.
That assumption survived the war intact. It is why compensation was refused for thirty-seven years, and it is why a Romani family in Britain today can expect to be met, in a range of institutional settings, with the same reflex in a politer register.
We say this carefully, because the distinction matters and collapsing it would be both wrong and counterproductive. Continuity of thinking is not equivalence of harm. Nobody is being deported from Newcastle. But a Centre that taught the 1940s and said nothing about the present would be teaching that anti-Gypsyism is a historical curiosity, and that is not true.
This is also, practically, how the archive gets built. Families bring papers to people they already trust.
In practice
Mostly unglamorous
None of this is a service with a referral form. It is a small number of people who are known locally and who answer the phone.
Sitting in on meetings
School exclusion panels, housing appointments, benefit reviews. A second adult in the room who knows the history of how these meetings tend to go changes how they go.
Language
Interpreting between Romani, Romanian and English, and — more often — translating officialese into something a person can act on.
Reporting
Helping families report incidents where they want to, and being honest about what reporting is likely to achieve where it is not much.
Getting the history into the room
Training for teachers, housing officers and health staff. Not a lecture on the 1930s: a working explanation of why a Romani family might not fill in a form that asks for their ethnicity.
If you need help now
We are not the only door
The Centre is small and volunteer-run. For anything urgent, these organisations are better resourced than we are, and we will happily make the introduction.
Contact the CentreRoma Support Group (opens in a new tab)
A Roma-led charity working across the UK on advocacy, education, health and employment.
ROMA ACCESS — Newcastle Association
Our partner association in Newcastle, and the people we raised the monument with.
Citizens Advice Newcastle (opens in a new tab)
Free, confidential and independent advice on welfare rights, housing, debt, healthcare access, and legal entitlements across Newcastle upon Tyne.