Mayor of Prague and RomanoNet fly the Romani flag at Prague City Hall to honor the memory of the Holocaust and its Romani victims
Prague City Hall is flying the Romani flag today to mark European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. The date is related to the tragic night of 2 August and early morning of 3 August 1944, when what was known as the "Gypsy Family Camp" at Auschwitz II-Birkenau was liquidated.
The tragic fates of Romani people from Bohemia and Moravia during the Second World War is recalled by an exhibition that starts today in Hodonín u Kunštátu (Blansko district), while the names of Romani victims of Nazi persecution will be read aloud this evening in Prague. European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates all of the Romani and Sinti victims of the wartime genocide.
The number of those targeted for murder is estimated at half a million persons. The Romani flag was hoisted today at New City Hall on Mariánské náměstí in Prague by Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda, Vice-Mayor Zdeněk Hřib, Prague City Councillor Michal Hroza and the director of the umbrella organization RomanoNet, Michal Miko.
“Exactly 80 years ago, in the early morning hours of 3 August 1944, the Nazis murdered thousands of Roma and Sinti in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The New City Hall has hoisted the Romani flag to remember them this year and marked European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. Evil must not be forgotten,” said Mayor Svoboda.
“RomanoNet, as an umbrella organization protecting the interests and rights of Romani people in the Czech Republic, aims not just to commemorate the victims of these horrible events, but also to educate the public about this important aspect of history, because for many long decades, the Romani victims of the Holocaust were never discussed. It is essential for the stories of the survivors to be heard and for their experiences to be passed on to the next generation so such horrors will never be repeated,” Miko said in a statement released by RomanoNet.
Hoisting the Romani flag at Prague City Hall, 2 August 2024. (PHOTO: used with the permission of Prague City Hall)
According to Miko, what is commemorated on this day is not just the past, but we also reflect on the present. “Romani people face discrimination, prejudices, and social exclusion to this day, as well as systemic racism in the form of anti-Romani attitudes. That’s why it is important to continue our endeavors to achieve equality, justice, and respect for all,” he told news server Romea.cz.
“RomanoNet calls on governments, international organizations and civil society to strive together to preserve the memories of the Romani victims of the Holocaust and support measures ensuring a dignified life for all members of the Romani community,” Miko said. The Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport also hoisted the Romani flag on its building in Prague today as well.
The life stories of several Romani survivors of the Holocaust is the subject of an exhibition opening today at the Hodonín u Kunštátu Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Moravia. The memorial occupies the site where what was called a “Gypsy Camp” ran in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia between 1942 and 1943.
The exhibition presents the stories of people who were labeled “gypsies” and became the victims of Nazi racial persecution. Each person portrayed is described for visitors through authentic family photographs and audio recordings of readings of their memoirs.
The exhibition will be on display there until the end of October. Today in Prague the actor and singer Marsell Bendig will also perform the story of one witness to this history.
At 19:00, ARA ART’s traditional commemorative ceremony will be held in the park at Karlovo náměstí in Prague. The evening will feature live music by the Josef Šenki Band, performing with Marsell Bendig, Márie Bikárová and Ladislav Demeter.
The evening will include the reading of the names of Romani victims of the Holocaust from the Book of the Dead by non-Romani and Romani figures from public life. The vast majority of the Romani people in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were concentrated in these camps at Lety u Písku and Hodonín u Kunštátu.
The prisoners were deported to the Nazi extermination camp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau in occupied Poland, where roughly 22,000 European Roma eventually were imprisoned. In the summer of 1944, the “Gypsy Family Camp” was liquidated after the able-bodied prisoners were moved elsewhere.
During a single night from 2-3 August several thousand people were murdered in the gas chambers. Of the Roma in the Czech lands, fewer than 600 survived the Second World War, according to the Museum of Romani Culture.
That means between 80 and 90 % of the interwar Romani population in the Czech lands was murdered during the Holocaust.
