News

Czech Republic: More charges over brawl in Ostrava, six people being prosecuted

Ostrava, 30.1.2015 1:07, (ROMEA) Police have charged another assailant from the large group of people who attacked the security guards of a gaming room in mid-January in Ostrava. The serious scuffle between the bodyguards and the Romani assailants occurred after two customers were removed from the gaming room by bouncers.  full story

Human Rights Watch report mentions Czech Republic for discrimination of Roma in education

Prague, 30.1.2015 0:30, (ROMEA) The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued its annual report today which found that European Union countries overall have made some progress in advancing human rights. The report also mentions the European Commission's move to initiate infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic over its discrimination of Romani children in the education system.  full story

Czech Republic: Half a million people are housing insecure

Prague, 29.1.2015 20:58, (ROMEA) Around half a million citizens of the Czech Republic are at risk of losing their housing. Many families with young children are among them.  full story

videoJan Hauer: Intolerance is rising, the victims of Nazism must be remembered

Terezín, 29.1.2015 20:05, (ROMEA) Jan Hauer (68) traveled to Terezín on Tuesday to honor the memory of the Romani victims of the Holocaust. "We must constantly remember what the Nazis did, not only to the Jews, but also to the Roma, the Sinti and other nations, especially today, when racial intolerance is increasing," Hauer said at the National Cemetery after attending a prayer service for the dead organized by the Konexe organization as part of its commemoration of Romani victims.  full story

Commentary: Gala at Prague Castle vs. a smelly pig farm

Prague, 29.1.2015 19:40, (ROMEA) It cost the Czech Police CZK 10.5 million to keep an eye on security for the event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust that took place on Monday and Tuesday in Prague and at Terezín. How much it might cost to move the pig farm from the site of the former concentration camp for Roma at Lety by Písek is still just being estimated - it could cost dozens of millions, but more likely would cost several hundred million crowns.  full story

Czech Republic: European legislative heads say anti-Semitism and intolerance must not be tolerated

Prague, 29.1.2015 2:20, (ROMEA) Calls to combat Islamist radicals and terrorism and to eliminate rising displays of anti-Semitism and intolerance were heard during a two-day international forum in Prague marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. The most dramatic challenge was addressed to the international community by Czech President Miloš Zeman, who warned of the threat of a "super Holocaust" by the radical organization Islamic State at a potential cost of hundreds of millions of lives.  full story

Czech court levies record damages against online publisher for racist discussion posts

Prague, 29.1.2015 0:38, (ROMEA) A Czech court has, for the first time, handed down a punishment for the racism that occurs in online discussions beneath articles posted to news servers and social networking sites, a phenomenon that has yet to be sufficiently prosecuted here. Plaintiff Jaroslav Suchý has succeeded with a lawsuit against OUR MEDIA, the publisher of the online tabloid Parlamentní listy, and the Municipal Court has awarded him damages of CZK 150 000 for insults targeting him in anonymous online discussions.  full story

Commentary: Invisible Romani victims and an anti-Muslim crusade

Prague, 28.1.2015 21:47, (ROMEA) This year's anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz seemed like a delayed whipping up of a call to arms. The alarm was sounded without a clear enemy.  full story

Czech Republic: Politicians and survivors remember the Holocaust at Terezín

Terezín, 28.1.2015 1:00, (ROMEA) Dozens of chairs and vice-chairs of legislatures from countries all over Europe commemorated the fates of the victims of the Holocaust today at Terezín together with many people who survived the Nazi terror. The event was part of a two-day international forum marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi camp at Auschwitz.
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Liberation of Auschwitz marked by survivors

Oświęcim, Poland, 27.1.2015 23:54, (ROMEA) Today's commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, held at the former Nazi extermination camp, was a challenge to the world not to forget the horrors of the Holocaust or allow them to be repeated. The Nazis murdered more than 1.1 million people, most of the Jews, in the camp, as well as Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.  full story

International Romani charity says helping others is a joy

27.1.2015 22:08, (ROMEA) A Czech Romani man and a Slovak Romani man have established a small charity organization abroad and begun aiding impoverished Romani children. They have delivered a first installment of aid to Romani settlements in Slovakia and are planning to deliver more in future.  full story

Czech media retract unverified article about Romani quintuplets and organic food

Prague, 27.1.2015 21:26, (ROMEA) The online news servers Blesk.cz and KrajskéListy.cz began the start of last week with articles claiming that the family of the Romani quintuplets had rejected a gift of organic food from an unidentified farmer. The family was alleged to have returned the gift to the farmer without even thanking her for it.  full story

Czech wartime superhero "returns" to criticize Lety pig farm

Prague, 27.1.2015 20:24, (ROMEA) On the eve of the commemoration of the Holocaust and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, a poster and signs referencing the concentration camp at Lety by Písek have been posted in Brno, Lety, Prague and Terezín reminding readers that a pig farm still stands on the site where hundreds of people died. No one has taken responsibility for the text, which is signed with the name of "Pérák", a Czech legendary superhero who was depicted during the war as fighting against the Nazis.  full story

Czech Republic: Lety pig farm remembered at entrance to Terezín

Terezín, 27.1.2015 19:22, (ROMEA) The Konexe association has once again called attention to the topic of the Romani Holocaust and the scandal of the pig farm at Lety by Písek within the framework of the commemoration in honor of Holocaust victims at Terezín. Miroslav Brož of the association explained his reasons for holding the event to news server Romea.cz last week as follows: "Not just the commemorative ceremony at Terezín, but the entire atmosphere around it does not assure us that the Romani people who were murdered will also be remembered in a dignified way. For example, Czech Television is preparing to broadcast a whole slate of films and other programs to mark the anniversary, including programs about the Czech resistance and about Jewish people, but not one program is about Romani people."  full story

Czech Republic: Romani NGO helps halt illegal debt collections worth more than CZK 2.5 million

Brno, 27.1.2015 18:38, (ROMEA) The Brno-based organization DROM Romani Center has long been successfully aiding people who have ended up in the debt trap because of usurious loans. In 2014 the courts halted unjustified collections proceedings against 33 clients of DROM worth CZK 2 532 000.  full story

Commentary: Hitler was the biggest optimist

27.1.2015 17:17, (ROMEA) Within the framework of all of the pathetic, militant, moving, well-intentioned, sincere, intelligent, deep and perhaps even hypocritical and populist theses about the Holocaust, I believe it does no arm to also present ideas that are outrageous - outrageously funny. For example: At the end of last year a book was published here in the Czech Republic by Shalom Auslander called Hope: A Tragedy (Naděje: Tragédie - Argo 2014).  full story

videoVIDEO: World commemorates 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz

Oświęcim, Poland , 27.1.2015 15:53, (ROMEA) Approximately 300 former prisoners and the representatives of 42 countries, including 12 Presidents, several crowned heads of state and half a dozen Prime Ministers are marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Army with a gathering at what was once the "Gate of Death". The commemoration is being attended by French President François Hollande, German President Joachim Gauck, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, while Russia (at odds with the Western world over the conflict in Ukraine) will be represented by Sergei Ivanov, the head of Putin's presidential office; the Czech delegation is led by Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.  full story

Czech Supreme Court says "machete attack" was attempted murder

Brno, 27.1.2015 1:01, (ROMEA) The Czech Supreme Court (Nejvyšší soud - NS) has confirmed that the "machete attack" committed in the town of Nový Bor was attempted murder and that the perpetrators conspired to commit the attack in full awareness of its possible outcome. The court rejected the appeal of the four men convicted of the crime, who are serving sentences ranging from five to 17.5 years in prison.  full story

Authorities return confiscated Czech-Romani flags to artist after acquittal

Prague, 27.1.2015 0:21, (ROMEA) The story of the art project called "Selection Procedure for a Czech-Romani Flag", which was exhibited during the summer of 2013 at the outdoor Artwall Gallery in Prague on the Edvard Beneš embankment of the Vltava River has now ended with both misdemeanor proceedings that were opened against artist Tomáš Rafa ending in acquittal. "I am startled by the fact that discussions have once again erupted that are evidently being incited by ultra-right groups, because they still keep talking about this art project as having endangered the statehood of the Czech Republic or its state symbol. This was an anti-racist project that intended to support the unity of everyone in the Czech Republic," Rafa told news server Romea.cz.  full story

The forgotten Holocaust: Romani victims of the Holocaust and their place in the Czech past and present

26.1.2015 23:19, (ROMEA) On 27 January 1945 the Red Army liberated the complex of Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, where millions of people from all over Europe suffered and died. Among them were the Romani children, men and women in the so-called "Gypsy Family Camp" in one section of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  full story