Search
1.6.2023
NEWS

HISTORY

TRADITIONS, CULTURE

PERSONALITIES

USEFUL CONTACTS

PHOTOS OF THE ROMA

VARIOUS

RADIO PRAGUE










Česky English Deutsch Francais
Roma commemorate victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau
03-08-2004 - Dita Asiedu

On Monday hundreds of Roma, including representatives of Czech Romani groups, visited the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, southern Poland to commemorate thousands of victims of the Roma Holocaust. The ceremony was held on the 60th anniversary of the darkest hour of the Roma Holocaust when, on the night of August 2-3, 3,000 Roma were sent to the gas chambers as the liberation forces drew nearer.

Commemoration of victims of the Roma Holocaust at Auschwitz-Birkenau, photo: CTK Antonin Hlavacek was still a young boy when he was sent from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz in March 1943. Sixty years later, he still has vivid memories of the year he spent at the death camp:

"The transports would come in at around 10 p.m. when it was dark. We weren't allowed to go outside but heard it all. They'd pull everyone out of the train, pile up their clothes and belongings on the floor and send most of them straight to the showers. But instead of water, it was gas that came out of the pipes. There was also a group of prisoners, selected every three months, that was given more food and made to work in what we thought was a bakery. Only much later did we realise it was a crematorium, where they burned people. The toilet was far away at the end of one of the blocks. It was just one big hole with a piece of wood over it and in order to get to it, we had to move aside dead bodies because they were only taken away every three days."

Antonin Hlavacek At Auschwitz-Birkenau, a special camp called the "gypsy family camp" was set up in 1943 for the Roma, who were marked with black triangles. For the next year and a half, close to 23,000 Roma, who the Nazis considered 'asocials', had to suffer starvation, disease, torture, murder, and even the sick experiments of the infamous Josef Mengele. Antonin Hlavacek again:

"Those whose lives were spared were tattooed camp identification numbers. However, children and the elderly had them written with ink as it was expected that they wouldn't live long anyway. I remember my number -1,996. Numbers were what we had to answer to. I would never do to them what they did to us. Not all Germans were the same. The Germans from the German Reich were okay, but the Sudeten Germans who joined the Nazis were the worst. But people from all countries were involved - the Poles, many Slovaks, and there were numerous Czechs too."

Commemoration of victims of the Roma Holocaust at Auschwitz-Birkenau, photo: CTK Antonin Lagrin is from Brno. His parents and grandparents who survived Auschwitz have told him numerous stories about the camp. Mr Lagrin took part in the commemorations this year, to honour the victims, especially members of his family who he never met because they weren't lucky enough to survive:

"I saw a list of names of prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau which had the names of about fifty relatives. That came as a big surprise. I didn't know there were so many of us there. I just know of my close relatives - parents, brother. My great grandfather was shot there and my great grandmother was kicked to death just because she tried to get snow off her head when she was working outside in the freezing cold. From my parents I know that camp prisoners must have gone through horrific things. But my parents don't like to think about them."



Related articles
DateTitleFeature
26.06.2017Activists meet at Lety to keep pressure on government to remove controversial pig farmNews
31.01.2015Paul Polansky and the Lety Roma camp: Part 2News
01.08.2014Ensuring the right to remembrance and dignity for the Roma peopleNews
25.01.2013International Holocaust Remembrance DayNews
07.11.2012Requiem for Auschwitz – fighting prejudice, with choir and violinNews
09.07.2012Commemoration of Romany Holocaust victims sparks controversyNews
15.11.2010Italian rock band 7Grani realized the music video about the extermination camp at BuchenwaldNews
21.04.2010Project „Routes of Disappearance. Jewish and Roma Memory of Transnistria”News
18.06.2008Educational centre to open at former Roma concentration campNews
All related articles
Article
Format for printing
Send as e-mail

Also in section "News"
31.10.19  Roma children’s choir Chavorenge and members of the Czech Philharmonic to perform in UK
13.09.19  Archaeologists discover graves of Roma persecuted during WWII in Lety camp
02.06.19  Ida Kelarová and her Romany children’s choir Chavorenge
29.05.19  Two Roma activists to receive Charter 77’s František Kriegel Award
07.04.19  Romany music from the Czech Republic
13.03.19  Czech singer Věra Bílá, dubbed the Ella Fitzgerald of Gypsy music, dies days before her comeback tour
21.11.18  Roma social worker from Ostrava listed on BBC 100 Women list
12.10.18  Why are there so few Roma politicians?
17.09.18  Virtuoso pianist Tomáš Kačo: When I tell somebody I’m a Gypsy in the US, they’re excited about it
06.06.18  Study indicates ethnic hate is contagious
Archive of the section

Most popular articles
3153053   26.02.00 Some Basic Information about the Roma Population in the Czech Republic
290319   27.01.05 The 'Devouring': A look at the Romani Holocaust
184516   26.02.00 The History and Origin of the Roma
141463   26.02.02 The Language of the Roma
107706   13.06.00 The History of the Roma Minority in the Czech Republic
105260   26.02.00 The Traditional Family Life of the Czech Roma
103929   02.06.03 The Roma Holocaust
88238    World famous Roma Personalities
88174   21.02.04 Extreme right activists demonstrate for skinhead in jail
74801    Photographs by Romani Children
Copyright © Český rozhlas / Czech Radio, 1997-2023
Vinohradská 12, 120 99 Praha 2, Czech Republic
E-mail: info@romove.cz