Conference on the Romani Holocaust held in the Czech lower house

Yesterday at 15:00 CET the Catholic community of Sant´Egidio held a conference entitled “The Romani Holocaust – Why Have We Forgotten?” in the Czech lower house. The conference was held to commemorate the recent anniversary of the first transport of Romani people to Auschwitz from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1943.

“This has been largely forgotten. The discussion held in society on the topic of Romani people and their coexistence with the larger society in the Czech Republic often concerns current events. However, there is no doubt that current events have their roots in the past. It seemed very important to us to remind people that members of this particular ethnic group have lived through a very difficult past not only in recent years, but over the course of many centuries,” Kristina Koldinská, an organizer of the conference, told news server “Christian Today” (Křesťan Dnes).

Emílie Machálková, the last survivor of the Romani Holocaust still known to be living on Czech territory, attended the conference. The meeting was also attended by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and Greek Catholic Exarch Ladislav Hučko, who is responsible in the Czech Bishops’ Conference for pastoral care of the Romani community. The conference was held under the auspices of the chair of the lower house, Czech MP Miroslava Němcová.