{"id":1103,"date":"2014-10-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/03-10-2014-journalism-prize-for-article-on-the-genocide-of-czech-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T14:50:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:50:32","slug":"03-10-2014-journalism-prize-for-article-on-the-genocide-of-czech-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/03-10-2014-journalism-prize-for-article-on-the-genocide-of-czech-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"03.10.2014 Journalism prize for article on the genocide of Czech Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The article by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjournalist Silvie Lauder (2014) on the genocide of Rroma from the Czech \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRepublic gives attention to a little addressed historical event and shows the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timportance of moral courage against collectively committed injustices: \u201cSeventy years ago Czech and Slovak Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tembarked on a grim path to nearly complete annihilation. In the spring and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsummer of 1943, 4,500 Roma were shipped off to the so-called Gypsy camp in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAuschwitz: one-third were from camps in Lety and Hodonin, in the south and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsouthwest of the country, and two-thirds were taken from their homes. The fates \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof local Roma remain one of the least investigated chapters of the war, and one \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpart of this story is completely unknown \u2013 that some Roma survived the Nazi \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tattempt at extermination thanks to the help of \u201cwhite people.\u201d\u201d <\/em>At this \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoint, one needs to comment that the genocide would not have been possible \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twithout the collaboration of the Czech authorities, who cooperated with the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tregime of the National Socialists, or at least obeyed them. Even before the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trise of the Nazis, laws against Rroma were adopted in the Czech Republic: in 1927, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Czech Parliament initiated a law against \u201cwandering gypsies\u201d that forced them \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto register themselves with fingerprints and henceforth forbade them to enter \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcertain areas. A detailed description of the experiences of survivors, who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsurvived the Holocaust thanks to the help of dedicated individuals follows. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNevertheless Lauder comes to a bleak conclusion: \u201cTwenty thousand of the 23,000 European Roma who went through the Gypsy \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcamp did not survive. Czech and Moravian Roma, after German and Austrian Roma, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmade up the second-largest group and on them the Nazi persecution fell with the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmost terrifying strength. \u201cThe majority of adults were killed along with entire \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfamilies and clans, and with them their family traditions, customs, music, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsongs, and stories were lost,\u201d notes Vlasta Kladivova in the book, The Last \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStop: Auschwitz-Birkenau. \u201cThere was no one left to pass them on to.\u201d\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n