Relatives of Czech and Moravian Roma, who survived the Holocaust, may receive compensation for the suffering in World War II. concentration camps.
A state-supported foundation for Holocaust victims, which has been established for Jews, could also be formed for Roma.
“In a letter sent to minister Kocáb, we’ve called for establishment of the foundation. The issue of the Roma Holocaust is a minor topic here although these people suffered in concentration camps like the Jews,” said Čeněk Růžička, president of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust.
“We’re going to deal with the foundation issue soon. At the moment, we are working intensively to have Roma Holocaust memorials erected on the sites of former camps, Lety u Písku and Hodonín u Kunštátu,” said Lejla Abbasová, spokeswoman for the ministry of human rights and minorities.
In 1943, German forces deported about 5,000 Czech Roma to a special section of the Auschwitz concentration camp known as the Gypsy family camp. Only 583 of them returned back home.
Romani assets mapping
The Roma people of Czech origins were almost eliminated from the former Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Nazis killed an estimated 90% of the pre-war Romani population. While the Jewish Holocaust victims claimed compensation after the war, the Romani victims did not. “The Jews were more organised, educated, while the Roma, in many cases, could not even read and write,” said Jana Horváthová, director of the Museum of Romani Culture. The Czechoslovak Union of Antifascist Fighters therefore compensated mainly Czech Jews.
“We would like to use the funds to support Romani community programmes, to compensate holocaust victims and to map the Romani assets stolen by the local people in public auctions under the protectorate. Roma people lost their gold, horses, caravans, everything they had,” said Čeněk Růžička.
Sinti from Liberec
Růžička, however, can’t estimate how many people would be eligible for the compensation and how much money should be distributed. He was among the first who managed to negotiate compensation for his parents (they both survived the Lety and Auschwitz camps) in 1973 in the form of an additional pension payment. “They learned about the possibility from their Sinti friend from Liberec, who had been compensated. He was helped by a doctor from a hospital in Liberec, who had also been in a concentration camp,” said Růžička. “That’s how I assured myself that it was our right to claim and I began immediately contacting other prisoners,” he said. Dozens of Roma applied for compensation in 1973. But it was not until after the fall of communism when Czech authorities began compensating the Holocaust victims. “Compensations for these people were launched only in 2001. Out of the 8,000 submitted applications to the Defence Ministry, about 300 have been compensated,” said Růžička.
