Commemoration at WWII-era concentration camp for Roma in Czech Republic to give Award for Humanity in memoriam to Dr Alfred Bader

On Sunday, 12 May, a commemorative ceremony will be held by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu – VPORH) in the Czech Republic at the memorial to the former concentration camp for Roma at Lety u Písku. Mr Čeněk Růžička and other representatives of the Committee will give its Award for Humanity in memoriam to the late Dr Alfred Bader, whose philanthropic activities have contributed significantly to improving the position of Romani people and others in the Czech Republic.

Mr Yechiel Bar-Chaim will attend the ceremony to receive the award on behalf of Bader Philanthropies, which has been the main conduit recently for Dr Bader’s generosity. The Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust is organizing a free round-trip chartered bus to the ceremony from Prague for those interested in attending.

The bus will be parked on Na Florenci street in front of the newly-opened grocery market there. It will have a sign reading LETY and will leave Prague at 9:45 AM.

Another free charter bus organized by the Museum of Romani Culture will also travel to the ceremony from Brno. Those interested should meet in front of the Museum at 7:30 AM at the very latest.

The bus from Brno will depart at 8 AM. There are a limited number of seats on both buses.

Those interested in traveling from Prague on the charter bus must reserve a place by sending the names of the passengers to ruzicka.vporh@seznam.cz or by calling/texting +420 603247617. Those interested in traveling from Brno can reserve a place by writing to sekretariat@rommuz.cz or by calling/texting +420 545 581 206.

Ceremony Program

12:00 Czech national anthem, hymn of the Romani prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps

12:10 Welcoming of participants

12:15 Award for Humanity

13:00 Laying of floral offerings at the memorial

13:45 Spiritual reflection

14:05 Cultural program

15:00 Speeches

15:30 Ceremony closes – participants may also visit the parish cemetery in Mirovice, where the imprisoned children who died at Lety were buried en masse