Czech Republic: Commemoration of Romani partisan will plant tree in his honor

A Romani hero of the Czechoslovak resistance during WWII, the partisan Josef Serinek, will be commemorated by an assembly at the end of this month. The event is being organized by the Black Partisan initiative (Černý partyzán), led by former Green Party chair Ondřej Liška, who is currently the country director in the Czech Republic of the Ashoka organization.
The assembly will take place on 30 July 2017 at 14:30 above the village of Spělkov (Vysočina Region), not far from the place where Serinek first found safe haven while engaged in the partisan struggle. Those attending will plant a tree together, which organizers say they want to "commemorate this essential figure of the antifascist resistance and former prisoner of the concentration camp for Romani people at Lety, and to commemorate the men and women of his group and the brave local inhabitants who supported them and worked together with them."
The tree planting is part of an initiative attempting to create a network of trails commemorating the fates and connecting the places linked with Serinek's work, that of resistance groups in general, and their supporters in that region. The next phase of the project will aim to make a map of the entire memorial hiking trail available at www.partyzanskastezka.cz.
Don't miss:
- Director of the Institute of the Terezín Initiative says story of Czechoslovak Romani partisan could raise awareness of Roma Holocaust
- The state is “inadaptable”, not the children
Related articles:
- Romania: 100 Roma demonstrate in Bucharest in front of Russian Embassy with mockup of the tank that Romani Ukrainians captured from the occupiers
- Romani historian condemns racist insults targeting Romani Ukrainian fighters
- Czech mayor thanks young man who came to the aid of a crime victim with a memorial coin and a medal from the police
- Czech activists plant memorial lindens and oaks at places of importance in the life of Romani partisan Josef Serinek
- Romani community members rescue children from apartment fire on Czech housing estate
- Czech town unveils plaque to the "Black Partisan" Josef Serinek
- Željko Jovanović: Roma Resistance Day as a Moral Compass
- Director of the Lidice Memorial in the Czech Republic has resigned
- Documentary film LETY captures the despair and the hopes of those who fought to remove the industrial pig farm from the site of the former concentration camp for Roma
- Czech producer of items with portraits of totalitarians adds war criminals, contemporary figures to product line
- Czech Regional Governor gives award to Romani man who saved toddler's life
- Romafuturismo Library moves to northern Czech town of Most with new name: The Josef Serinek Library