Holocaust. The Jews call him showfor the Roma it is porajmos. They died as a result millions of people who have done nothing wrong other than that they were born as members of an ethnic group whom the Nazi regime intended to exterminate as a result of its erroneous belief in its own supremacy. However, there are rumors in society that the Holocaust only concerned Jews. Fortunately, they are declining.

“Only very marginally can we find a researcher who would claim that the Holocaust only affects Jews, “Said Kateřina Čechová on the occasion of the performance of this year’s Yom HaShoah, a public reading named the victims of the Holocaust, which took place in Prague on Thursday in George of Podebrady Square “The Holocaust affects both Roma and Sinti, but it can affect homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the disabled.“The historian lists groups that the Nazis wanted to exterminate not for racial reasons, but for their” difference “, and therefore faith.

From peace to total destruction

The Holocaust significantly affected the Czech lands, which were incorporated into the Third Reich in 1939 under the auspices of the established Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This act happened spontaneous persecution and deportation of Jews to concentration camps. The first deportation train from Prague, which was loaded with Jews, left the Drum station on 16 October 1941, and many more followed. The Nazis thus started the so-called “the final solution to the Jewish question“.

However, before the war, the Jews were a full part of society. “Although many populists have abused anti-Semitic agitation,” the historian said. “After the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, the segregation and impoverishment of the Jews proceeded step by step. Synagogues were closed, Jewish stars were introduced to clothing. Jews lost the opportunity to earn a living, lost property, were not allowed to leave the country, were expelled from schools and were forced into forced labor. ” deportation to Terezín, the historian states that for some Jews it was mostly “relief”.

Commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Jan 22, 2022)

Author: Reuters

But they had no idea what awaited them. “Terezín was a transit ghetto because most Jews were deported further, mostly to Auschwitz, where they were murdered,” the historian continues. The Nazis set up a total of seven extermination camps, of which the most famous were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Majdanek. In the Czech Republic, it is estimated that out of the total number of 120,000 Jews, “only” 40,000 survived, who, after a cruel experience with difficulties, but still, returned to their original normal lives.

Escams before the war

It was different for the Roma. “The Jews entered the Second Republic as an equal population. Their conditions coincide due to the protectorate. While For years, the Roma have been a thorn in the side of the state administration, which has linked them to a disorganized way of life and livelihood.“A good historian.” They were pejoratively called Gypsies. “Police stations were used to compiling lists of so-called gypsies who were almost automatically considered potential criminals. They defined them as people living a wandering lifestyle. So they took into account not only the skin tone or race, but also the way of life. “

The situation in Czechoslovakia even escalated in 1927 to such an extent that the government passed a law on so-called wandering gypsies, and it was unconstitutional. “It was a law on the basis of which, instead of ID cards, the so-called. Gypsy ID, where there was a detailed description of the individual, including birthmarks. They also had fingerprints in the documentsEven before the war, the Roma were spai for “inferior” inhabitants. “Many of them do not consider the end of the war to be any significant milestones. They were discriminated against before and after her. ”They were not allowed to move to large cities such as Prague.

“Gypsy mischief”

The rise of Nazism and the war made their situation disproportionately difficult. “From January 1940, nomadism was banned. Their situation decreased significantly, people on the basis of which they could only be suspects imprisoned without trial in camps for anti-socials, “Čapková provided. They most often ended up in remand prisons in Prague or Brno, and therefore in concentration camps.

“In the second half of 1942, the Protectorate’s Ministry of the Interior issued Richard Bienert decree on combating the so-called gypsy mischief. The steps that were already connected with the extermination of the entire population followed, “continues Čapková. Two camps have been set up. There was one in Hodonínsecond in ages. “1,400 Roma ended up in Hodonín, 1,300 in Lety. Another home was deported to their own saints.”

Her words are confirmed by the chairman of the Committee for the Compensation of the Roma Holocaust, Čeněk Růžička. “From the stories and memories of the survivors, I know that the Roma were housed in Auschwitz near the kilns where the Nazis gassed the living and burned the bodies., “He told a press conference. “The victims around them were heading for the furnaces, and they knew what was going on. It was a strange smell they didn’t know before. They joked about what was going on in those strange buildings that were actually furnaces. ”

Gypsies they also died in protectorate camps, where they were forced to survive in inhuman conditions. From the youngest to the oldest. What’s sadder is that the administration of both camps was provided not by the Germans, but by the protectorate orderees – the Czechsi. This is not the only difference in such a terrible chapter of Czech history.

It has long been taboo that Czechs murdered Roma in Lety, said an activist fighting to remove the pigsty

Author: Profimedia.cz / Blesk – Vladka Hradska

“There is a terrible similarity in the almost total massacre of the Jewish and Roman communities on the basis of racial definition. However, there are differences. The definition of a so-called gypsy was not just racist. She was associated with prejudices about the Roma as antisocial. It deepens the pagan Roma. Even after the war, many Roma were not compensated, “concludes Čapková.

We will not forget!

It has been held annually in a number of Czech cities since 2006 commemoration of Holocaust victims in the form of a public reading of the victims’ names. “Until then, it took place only in a closed Jewish community,” said Eliška Ševčíková Waageová from the Terezín Initiative Institute, which organizes Yom HaShoah. Apart from, for example, Mělník, Pilsen, Kolín or Klatovy, it also took place on the afternoon of 28 April in Prague. Jiřího Poděbrad Square. The event, which takes place under the auspices of the Israeli embassy and with the support of the Norwegian embassy, ​​featured the names of both Jewish and Roman victims.

“According to my father, a Holocaust survivor, Roma and Jews helped each other during World War II. When the Roma were at their worst, he went to see a Jew and vice versa, ”Čeněk Růžička recalls. Jana Horváthová, director of the Museum of Romani Culture, adds: “Unfortunately, the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti is not yet publicly known, nor is it taught in schools. Therefore I hope that public reading of the victims’ names will make it knownthat the Holocaust during World War II had both Jewish and Roma victims. ”

It has long been taboo that Czechs murdered Roma in Lety, said an activist fighting to remove the pigsty

Author: Profimedia.cz / Blesk – Vladka Hradska