News

Czech Republic: Politician spreads hoax that Roma get washing machines for free

6.8.2016 9:33 Jiří Maria Sieber, who is running for Senate as a candidate for the Řád národa ("Order of the Nation") political movement, has launched a hoax on Czech-language Facebook alleging that Romani residents of Terezín are getting washing machines for free. Allegedly, all they have to do is go to the "welfare office", but they don't even bother to unwrap them, instead taking them straight to the pawn shop - and it doesn't matter to them that they only get one-fifth of the price, because they didn't buy them, the taxpayers allegedly did.  full story

Czech Education Ministry: Just 205 pupils transferring from "practical" to mainstream schools this fall

5.8.2016 19:40 The Czech Education Ministry announced today that, according to estimates provided by the Regional Authorities of the Czech Republic and based on an investigation performed in various schools, roughly 205 pupils are planning to stop attending "practical" primary schools and to start attending mainstream primary schools as a result of inclusion measures that take effect next month. The overall number of children enrolled in the "practical" schools, which are intended for children with "mild mental disability", is around 18 000 for the country as a whole.  full story

Commentary: How to demolish the pig farm at Lety?

5.8.2016 18:48 "Lety is a problem the resolution of which can naturally be postponed indefinitely. It is not known how much it will cost for the clean-up operation - and over the years that amount has loosely ranged from between roughly CZK 70 million (EUR 2.59 million) to a virtual billion crowns (EUR 37 million) - but it is certain that basically it will never be possible to properly 'calculate' it or compare it to anything that might placed on the table as a counter-argument that 'it would be better to spend that on XYZ' ", writes Czech journalist Jindřich Šídlo on news server iHNED.cz in response to remarks by Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman about resolving the problem of the industrial pig farm on the site of the former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety by Písek.  full story

Slovak accommodation facility refuses students from Turkey, Foreign Ministry says that is discriminatory

5.8.2016 14:57 An accommodation facility in Bratislava recently refused to accommodate students from Turkey and is being criticized by both the Slovak Foreign Ministry and the
Turkish Embassy. The facility owners said that for safety reasons they do not accommodate "people from Turkey and Arab countries".  full story

Čeněk Růžička: Roma Holocaust survivors will use upcoming compensation for their funeral costs

5.8.2016 13:00 Yesterday the news server HlídacíPes.org reported on Germany's breakthrough decision, according to the Czech Foreign Ministry, to further compensate Romani people in the Czech Republic who are Holocaust survivors. Today HlídacíPes.org has published an interview on this and other issues with the President of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic, Čeněk Růžička.  full story

Czech Republic: White supremacist group launches "Anti-Multikulti Watch"

5.8.2016 12:13 In the era of online social networking it is easier than ever before to automatically collect and store data and to analyze the opinions, political convictions and values of large numbers of people simultaneously. Frequently this concerns numbers of people exponentially larger than those on the list of persons called the "Anti-Multikulti Watch" that is part of the racist website of the Czech-language White Media organization, an extremist website run anonymously from servers located outside the Czech Republic.  full story

videoIN IMAGES: Romani people from all over Europe commemorate the Romani victims of the Holocaust

5.8.2016 11:52 Romani people from all over Europe commemorated the victims of Nazi murder on the occasion of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. From 2 August to 3 August 1944, the Nazis murdered 2 898 Roma and Sinti in the gas chambers of the concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Other Roma were murdered at the concentration camps in Bełżec, Chełmno, Majdanek, Sobibór and Treblinka. Others, whose numbers are difficult to estimate, were shot dead and buried in mass graves in the forests.  full story

Germany to compensate Roma survivors of the Holocaust now in the Czech Republic

5.8.2016 11:18 After years of negotiations between the Czech Republic and Germany, a breakthrough decision has now been made. Germany will compensate Czech Roma for the suffering
caused by their internment in German concentration camps during the Second World War.  full story

Czech President rejects all migrants, EU Commissioner says he is mocking the law

5.8.2016 9:28 Czech President Miloš Zeman believes the question of refugee reception needs to be discussed by the Czech Parliament. His spokesperson, Jiří Ovčáček, said earlier this week that the President absolutely disagrees with refugee reception.  full story

Czech Republic marks five years since the anti-Romani unrest in the Šluknov foothills

4.8.2016 14:17 Do you remember the summer of 2011, when the Czech Republic was shaken by anti-Roma unrest that seemed to come out of nowhere? "It's not against the Roma," the main
actors involved, who came from the ranks of local politicians, said at the time when asked to describe what was happening.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani football trainer keeps children in the ghettos away from drugs

4.8.2016 7:20 The road away from drugs and the ghetto leads through the football pitch. Lukáš Pulko of Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, who has established the Mongaguá football team
together with Brazilian player Rodrigo Taverna, can confirm that.  full story

Commentary: Czech TV Prima broadcasts manipulative report about Roma returning from Britain en masse

3.8.2016 20:00 The Prima television station in the Czech Republic must have some sort of "anti-ethics code" obligating it to constantly incite the public against minorities. Previously, for example, it was revealed that its news editors were instructed by their superiors to report about refugees in exclusively negative terms.    

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Czech Regional Development Minister: We're negotiating about the pig farm on the Roma Holocaust site, but don't ask for details

3.8.2016 17:15 Czech Regional Development Minister Karla Šlechtová (ANO) attended a commemorative ceremony yesterday at the site of the former so-called "Gypsy camp" at Lety by Písek and told the press that revealing details of the Government's negotiations to buy the pig farm located there could endanger the outcome of the agreement. She made the remarks in response to questions from journalists and in response to a prior statement by Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman.  full story

Czech religious representatives fly Roma flag in honor of Holocaust victims

3.8.2016 16:19 Yesterday in Prague the Roma flag was flown together with the flags of three religious societies in the Czech Republic in honor of the victims of the Roma Holocaust. From 2 August to 3 August 1944, almost 3 000 Roma and Sinti were murdered in the concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and 2 August is therefore commemorated as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day throughout Europe.  full story

Romany Holocaust victims remembered at Auschwitz

3.8.2016 13:23 August 2, 2016 marks the 72nd anniversary of the nearly 3,000 Roma men, women, and children murdered at Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
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Czech Culture Minister says Govt will resolve pig farm on Roma Holocaust site by next fall

3.8.2016 8:27 Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats) is convinced that the current Government will manage to resolve the issue of the pig farm on the site of the former so-called "Gypsy camp" at Lety by Písek by the next elections. The minister made his remarks on the eve of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in an interview for Czech Radio.  full story

Czech Govt to open memorial at Hodonín camp next year honoring its WWII, post-war and Communist-era victims

3.8.2016 7:13 Construction work has finished on the memorial in Hodonín by Kunštát (Blansko district) that will tell the stories of the WWII-era transit camp there for Moravian Roma, the internment center there for the Germans expelled post-war, and the forced labor camp in operation there from the 1950s. The total cost for purchasing the campus, reconstructing it and creating the exhibitions is CZK 98 million (EUR 3.6 million).  full story

Council of Europe honours victims and survivors of Roma Holocaust

2.8.2016 22:09 The Council of Europe honoured the memory of Roma Holocaust victims and survivors with commemorations at the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and at the Organisation’s Strasbourg headquarters.  full story

EU Commissioners on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day: Too many Roma are victims of hate crime in Europe

2.8.2016 14:44 News server NewEurope.eu reports that First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Věra Jourová have issued a joint statement on the occasion of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. The statement recalls that on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, around 3 000 Roma men, women and children from the "Gypsy family camp" of Auschwitz-Birkenau were murdered in the gas chambers.  full story

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and ODIHR issue joint statement on need to ensure dignity for Roma Holocaust remembrance

2.8.2016 14:13 Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Ambassador Mihnea Constantinescu, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), called today for greater efforts to protect endangered memorial sites related to the Roma and Sinti genocide during World War II. Speaking on the occasion of the commemoration of the liquidation of the “Gypsy family camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, when almost 3 000 Roma and Sinti in the camp were murdered, they stressed that states have to do more to demonstrate their sincere and strong commitment to education about and remembrance of the genocide.  full story