Category Archives: Czech Republic

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Reimar Lust Award

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Reimar Lust Award

The historian Kateřina Čapková is a leading expert on modern Jewish history in Central and Eastern Europe, the history of the Sinti and Roma, and on flight and migration in the 20th century. She teaches at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The central focus of her research is on the experiences of Jewish communities in what was then Czechoslovakia during and after World War II. Čapková opens up new perspectives on the interactions between nationalism, minority policy, and transnational networks in Europe. The Reimar Lüst Prize will enable her to conduct research at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig.

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Roma Children Books

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Roma Children Books

The Czech Roma Literature Publishing House “Kher” published a unique book for children aged four and up this year. It was written by Romani author Eva Danišová, winner of the Milena Hübschmannová Award. For the youngest readers, the book presents a Romani peer as the main character for the first time in everyday life situations and during preparation for first grade.

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Forced Sterilisation

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Forced Sterilisation

The Czech government has finally agreed to extend the deadline for submitting their claims for forced sterilisation by two years to January 2027. The deadline was originally set to January 2025, but the authorities raised so many hurdles for Romnja, that is was almost impossible to get these sterilisations acknowledged (even when there was some written evidence).

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Research Grant

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Research Grant

Ethnographer Martin Fotta from the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic has received a prestigious grant from the European Research Council (ERC). His project, entitled “Roma Family in the Period of War” (RAW), received financial support of 2 million euros, or approximately 51 million crowns. The aim of the research is to understand how war conflicts and their consequences affected Roma kinship ties, family structures and community cohesion in different parts of Europe and the Middle East.

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Doctors and Roma in Czechia

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Doctors and Roma in Czechia

A paediatrician in the Czech town of Aš posted on his door: “In view of the increasing aggressiveness of the Romani people, I am not registering them with immediate effect.”

Apparently, several Roma were in his waiting room without an appointment and behaved aggressively. What really happened remains to be seen.

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Czechia and the Holocaust

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Czechia and the Holocaust

The Czechs’ awareness of the genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust remains low, although the situation has been improving in recent years thanks to media coverage. But teaching about the history of the Roma in schools is still insufficient. In an interview with ČTK, historian and director of the Museum of Roma Culture Jana Horváthová said this. She believes that the topic needs to be included in the curriculum.

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Public Collection

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Public Collection

The Brno Museum of Romani Culture launched a public collection on Monday, the aim of which is to raise money to acquire a portrait of Romani singer Věra Bílá. It wants to buy the portrait because it sees Bílá as an exceptional personality who has appealed to a wide audience with her art. The collection will last 60 days, and the aim is to raise 70,000 crowns. Bílá died on March 12 at the age of 64 in a Pilsen hospital. The Rokycany native was probably the most famous Czech singer in the world at the turn of the millennium, and years ago she sold out the Paris Olympia.

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House without an Exit

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Tomáš Hlaváček, director of the film House Without an Exit explains that his documentary shows that since the state and its institutions leaves the Roma to fend off by themselves, they rely on the family. But this is not always an advantage, as it keeps the families in a spiral of exclusion and poverty.

 

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Roma and the Velvet Revolution

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Roma and the Velvet Revolution

On November 25, 1989, Emil Ščuka and Jan Rusenko spoke to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Letná in Prague. They also reached most households through television cameras. At the same time, a Roma group unfurled the Roma flag on the Letne plain, and a huge crowd chanted “Long live the Roma”.

Prior to that, Czech Roma dissidents were practically inexistant. The only notable exception was Karel Holomek, a signatory of the Movement for Civil Liberties (HOS), established in 1988. Holomek, expelled from the military college after 1968 and expelled from the Communist Party of the Czech Republic, was detained and interrogated as early as 1981 for “subversion of the republic.”

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Czechia: Documentary

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Czechia: Documentary

The documentary Dajori [small mother in Romanes], which won the audience award at the Jihlava Film Festival, is now in theatres. The film is ostensibly a story about a Roma foster family, but it also reveals the housing crisis, the trade in poverty and racism rooted in society.

The foster mother, Dajori Marie Hučkova, in the movie says “Ravens are like Roma. There are many of them and they are roaring. People don’t mind, so shoot them. An animal can take care of its children, and my sister, the mother, cannot take care of her children.”

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Baruvas Meeting

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Baruvas Meeting

From November 1 to 3, the 24th BaruvaS meeting took place in Prague. It focused on connecting young Roma with literature and art. The participants took a thematic walk around Žižkov with journalist and writer Patrik Banga, experienced his author’s reading, and the climax of the program was a visit to the performance of Romeo and Juliet at the ABC Theatre in Prague.

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Lety: Building of the Year

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Lety: Building of the Year

The newly opened Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia became one of the significant buildings of 2024. He received the Prize of the Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic for extraordinary societal contribution. The memorial, ceremonially opened in May of this year, was created on the site of a former concentration camp where Czech Roma and Sinti were imprisoned during the Nazi occupation.

Architects Jan Sulzer and studio Terra Florida signed the architectural design of the area. An interesting element of the space is the forest symbolizing the Roma community and the empty spaces commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. The memorial circle then marks the original site of the camp.

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Czechia and Racism

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Czechia and Racism

The 50 Shades of Anti-Roma Racism campaign draws attention to the long-lasting expressions of hate and discrimination. It brings awareness, specific stories, but also instructions on how to defend yourself. The details and goals of the campaign are described in an interview by its leader psychologist Monika Mihaličková from the RomanoNet organization. She says that “Most people imagine manifestations of racism and discrimination in connection with very explicit situations, but quite often they also have a more subtle form.”

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Lety Memorial

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The Museum of Roma Culture received a prestigious award in the Building of the Year 2024 competition for the newly opened Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia, located in Lety u Písek. The monument received the Award of the Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic for an extraordinary social contribution. The award is recognition for an important step in the commemoration of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust and an effort to bring the historical events associated with the Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti in our country closer to the general public.

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Czechia: Attack and Manifestation

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Czechia: Attack and Manifestation

Several dozen Roma gathered on the square in Náchod on Saturday afternoon. According to representatives of the Roma association Náchod, the reason for convening the assembly was growing security concerns. Tensions have risen in the community following an incident last weekend in which a young Rom was assaulted.

The gathering, is meant to draw attention to the growing concerns of Roma about their safety in the city.

The grandmother of the attacked young man spoke at the meeting. “Hopefully it won’t happen again,” she said. She added that she was worried about the safety of Roma children.

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Czechia: Book

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Czechia: Book

The organization Slovo 21 has published a book  titled “Fameľija nadevše” [Famous above all], a collection of short stories in which fifteen Romnja authors share experiences and values ​​related to family through their stories. The collection was created within the Paramisara literary club, which provides authors with space for creative growth and mutual inspiration.

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Prague: Concert

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Prague: Concert

At the end of October, the Concert of Legends took place in the Gong Theater in Prague. The event was organized by the Viva association with the financial support of the Prague 9 district. Traditional music accompanied by Josef Šenki’s cymbalum band was accompanied by Roma artists.

The composer, singer and musician Gejza Horváth gve an interview about the event.

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Czechia: Counting Roma Children

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Czechia: Counting Roma Children

Recent reports in the media about the collection of an estimate of the number of Roma children in primary schools have caused strong reactions and much confusion. This process, which has been running regularly since 2015, aims to monitor how the situation of Roma children in Czech education is developing and whether progress is being made in reducing segregation. The collection of data is a response to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights and the pressure of the European Commission, which drew the Czech Republic’s attention to the discriminatory practice against Roma children. This procedure is not a novelty.

Nevertheless, the criteria for saying who is Rom are dubious …

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