Romani witnesses to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia remember their fear and determination to fight for freedom
Today the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic are commemorating the sad anniversary of the invasion of the former Czechoslovakia by troops of the Warsaw Pact. Romani witnesses to 1968 also recalled those events for Memory of the Roma (Paměť Romů).
The unique project endeavors to map the stories of Romani people living on the territory of the Czech Republic and to present the history of the Roma from the time of the Second World War to today through their eyes. Shortly before midnight on 20 August 1968, troops from the five states of the Warsaw Pact (Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland and the USSR) invaded what was then Czechoslovakia in order to prevent the emancipation processes underway in Czechoslovak society striving for greater civic freedoms and economic reforms.
The “Prague Spring” was replaced by the rigid “normalization” era and a 20-year occupation period started. The first moments of the invasion prompted fear among the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia because they had no idea what was transpiring.
“Around 3:30 AM we heard a big noise and when we went to the window there were tanks, airplanes were flying very low overhead. My Dad started shouting that there was going to be a war,” recalled eyewitness Ladislav Baláž.
Many citizens of Czechoslovakia publicly condemned the invasion, which negatively impacted their lives for a long time to come. Several Romani people were also among them.
“In ’68 I said: This is the end! Once they invaded, I knew it wouldn’t be good. I told myself the people would probably be against it, though. They were, but then they became afraid and so everybody stayed quiet. I couldn’t do that, it seemed to me like when we were under German rule. I told myself: I will speak out if they get rid of Dubček. They dismissed Dubček, so I did it. I was working as a technician in housing management, so they fired me because I disagreed with the invasion,” says witness Zdeněk Daniel.
“You all cannot believe this is a normal situation that I, as a Czechoslovak citizen and an officer in the Czechoslovak Army, could possibly agree with. I simply said no, this is raw aggression and you all know that just as well as I do. I was already out of there,” is how Karel Holomek described the repercussions of his criticizing the invasion.
The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia condemned the Warsaw Pact occupation from the start and the public also expressed strong opposition to it that first week. Although radio and television broadcasts were disrupted, improvised studios sprang up in various hidden locations all over the republic from which announcers broadcast news, calls and resolutions in different languages.
A recording in Romani was also produced at that time and read aloud by Milena Hübschmannová; unfortunately, just part of the recording has survived. “Esteemed Friends, in our country, in our republic, there are more than a quarter of a million of our fellow citizens who are Gypsies. At this moment it is necessary that each and every citizen of our occupied republic understand the situation. For that reason, we will now reach out to our fellow citizens of Gypsy nationality in their mother tongue,” began the recorded message.
The broadcast in Romani that then followed:
“Phralale Romale amen sam trin šel ezera Roma, so dživas andre amaro štatos, andre Československo socialisticko republika. Amen Roma varekena phenas Rom Romeha gadžo gadžeha, bo hin ajse gadže, so na den le romenge paťiv, aľe the maškar amende hin ajse manuša, so maťon maren peskere Romenge ladž, nane oda čačipen? Aľe akana hin ajsi situacija, že amen imar našťi phenas Rom Romeha, gadžo gadžeha….”
“Brothers, Romale, there are 300,000 of us living in our state, in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. We Roma sometimes say: ‘The Rom with the Roma, the gadjo with the gadje’ [non-Roma with the non-Roma], because there are gadje who do not consider us their equals. Among us Roma there are also those who bring shame upon the Roma, isn’t that so? Right now, though, the situation is such that we cannot just say ‘The Rom with the Roma, the gadjo with the gadje…’” [unfortunately the excerpt of the recording ends there].
