LIVE ONLINE AT 12:30 CET FRIDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER: Funeral for the late Mr. Karel Holomek

Since Monday a book of condolences has been available for visitors to sign at the Museum of Romani Culture. People can go there to share their memories of the late Mr. Holomek.

One can write those memories into the book of condolences or just spend a moment of silence there. It will also be possible to sign the book on Friday during the funeral.

“The book of condolences for Karel Holomek will be available tomorrow for you to sign at the funeral,” said his daughter Jana Horváthová, director of the Museum of Romani Culture. The funeral is scheduled to start at 12:30 with the musician Róbert Lacko performing a composition by Johann Sebastian Bach on the violoncello.

Ms. Horváthová will then read a message from film director Břetislav Rychlík. That will be followed by a brief speech from the author and politician Martin Milo Šimečka.

The band Gulo Čar will then perform two pieces: Pačas (“We Believe You”) and Soske mange kerďal? (“Why Did You Do It To Me?”). We will also hear the Czech folk songs “Ach synku synku” (“Oh Sonny Boy”) and “Sedí sokol” (“The Falcon Sits”) in women’s voices.

Róbert Lacko will then perform “Ave Maria” on the violoncello. The funeral will end with thanks to those attending and with the opportunity for them to express their condolences to the family of the deceased.

Karel Holomek, one of the most eminent Romani figures

Mr. Karel Holomek was born in 1937 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. His father, Tomáš Holomek, was the first Romani person to achieve a university education in Czechoslovakia.

The Holomek family was persecuted during the Second World War and a large part of them perished in the concentration camps. Karel and his sister Marcela were also meant to be transported to Auschwitz because they were half-Romani.

Thanks to the bravery of their mother and the aid of a Czech gendarme and their neighbors in Milotice, Nazi officials never discovered Karel and Marcela. Their father went into hiding during the war in Slovakia.

Mr. Holomek graduated from Brno’s Military Academy in mechanical engineering, where he also worked for several years as an assistant. In 1968 he had to leave the academy because of his political position on Czechoslovakia being occupied by Warsaw Pact troops.

In Brno during the 1970s he moved in the circles of dissidents and disseminated samizdat literature. In 1981 he spent a brief time in prison.

Mr. Holomek got involved in politics after the 1989 revolution. From 1990-1992 he was a deputy in the Czech National Council for Civic Form (Občanské fórum) and, after it split up, for the Civic Movement (Občanské hnutí).

He founded the Roma Civic Initiative (Romská občanská iniciativa). He deserves a great deal of credit for establishing the Museum of Romani Culture, the work for which first began in the early 1970s.

The museum was first officially established in 1991 at the initiative of Mr. Holomek and other Romani intellectuals as a non-governmental, nonprofit organization. Since 2005, the museum has been a state-sponsored organization of the Czech Culture Ministry.

The current director of the museum is Mr. Holomek’s daughter, Jana Horváthová. After its founding, he became chair of the Association of Roma in Moravia and honorary chair of the Society of Experts and Friends of the Museum of Romani Culture.

Mr. Holomek was also the director of the International Romani Center of the Helsinki Civil Assembly (Helsinské občanské shromáždění), a member of the Czech Government Council for Human Rights, a member of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs, and the editor-in-chief of the magazine Romano hangos.

Mr. Holomek was awarded a Bronze Medal of Merit. He was given that state honor in 2002.