News

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

Czech Human Rights Minister: We must never forget the Nazi atrocities against millions of Jews, Roma and other human beings

Prague, 26.1.2015 20:33, (ROMEA) Tuesday, 27 January 2015 marks 70 years since the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place that embodies and symbolizes the horrors of WWII to the entire world. That is why 27 January is Holocaust Victims' Remembrance and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity Day here.  full story

Commentary: Where does "The Way Out" lead if almost no one cares?

Prague, 26.1.2015 19:41, (ROMEA) The success of the film "The Way Out" (Cesta ven) may be having a paradoxical impact. Petr Václav's movie about the life of Romani people in a ghetto has won the Czech Film Critics Award and was selected to represent Czech cinematography at last year's Cannes Film Festival.  full story

Czech Republic: Auschwitz survivor alive today due to human error

Czech Republic, 26.1.2015 17:52, (ROMEA) Dagmar Lieblová survived her internment in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz at the age of 15 because a clerical error labeled her as older than she really was and she was able to
leave the death camp to work in Germany. Lieblová, who is the chair of the Terezín Initiative, which endeavors to preserve awareness about the Holocaust and aid survivors, told the Czech News Agency today that her survival was an accident.  full story

Slovakia: Local Romani councilors give up their remuneration

Kamenná Poruba, Slovak Republic, 26.1.2015 0:53, (ROMEA) Five newly-elected local councilors from the Romani Coalition Party (Strana romské koalice - SRK) in the town of Kamenná Poruba (Vranov nad Topľou district) have surprised the public by giving up their remuneration. The councilors will perform their roles on the local council completely free of charge.  full story

Germany: Interest in Pegida declining, counter-intelligence says extremist involvement varies

Berlin/Leipzig, 25.1.2015 23:56, (ROMEA) On 22 January approximately 15 000 people attended an anti-Islam demonstration convened by the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (Pegida) movement in Leipzig. Organizers had counted on four times as many people participating.  full story

Commentary: France is going crazy with the fight against terrorism - what next?

Prague, 25.1.2015 5:03, (ROMEA) "We aren't Charlie and we never will be, you band of whores. You reap what you sow," is what one of four underage students in France posted to Facebook, according to the Czech News Agency, before they were arrested on 22 January by French Police.  full story

Czech President says he meant "only" the mentally disabled should be educated separately

Prague, 25.1.2015 3:53, (ROMEA) After meeting with Czech Education Minister Marcel Chládek (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD), Czech President Miloš Zeman has said that his recent remarks about handicapped children were not about the physically disabled. Chládek said that in their conversation, Zeman clarified that he had primarily meant to refer to moderately severe and profound cases of mental handicap.  full story

Czech Holocaust commemoration will appeal against anti-Semitism and extremism - Romani victims forgotten?

Prague/Terezín, 25.1.2015 1:36, (ROMEA) This coming Monday, Prague Castle will be the venue for an international forum that aims to draw attention to rising anti-Semitism and extremism in the world and to seek solutions to the most burning problems linked to religious intolerance; it will be attended by 30 heads of national legislatures from around the world as well as 500 additional guests. The conference is part of a two-day commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the end of the Holocaust.  full story

Czech film about Roma wins Czech Film Critics Award, as does Romani actress

Prague, 24.1.2015 23:37, (ROMEA) The winner of the Czech Film Critics Award this year is Petr Václav's "The Way Out" (Cesta ven). The film has garnered three awards for Best Film, Best Direction and Best Screenplay.  full story

Czech Republic: Museum of Romani Culture marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

Brno, 24.1.2015 22:04, (ROMEA) On 27 January 1945 the complex of Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, where millions of people from all over Europe suffered and died, was liberated by the Red Army. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the day the "death factory", as Auschwitz is called, was closed.  full story

Czech court rules publication of Hitler's speeches was legal

Brno, 24.1.2015 20:43, (ROMEA) The publication of a book entitled Adolf Hitler: Projevy (Adolf Hitler: Speeches) is not a felony and its publisher should not face prosecution. Yesterday the Regional Court in Brno upheld the verdict of the Municipal Court in Brno from last September, which came to the same conclusion.  full story