European Roma and Travellers Forum expresses support for Czech NGOs seeking to fly the rainbow and Roma flags at Terezín

The European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) has sent Jan Munk, the director of the Terezín Memorial who also chairs the Commission for the Preparation of the Terezín Commemoration, a letter expressing its agreement with the 14 nonprofit organizations who asked that both the LGBT community's rainbow flag and the international Romani flag be flown during the commemorative ceremony at Terezín this year. Munk rejected the request at the beginning of May for the flags to be included alongside state flags during the 15 May event.

Agnes Daroczi, director of the ERTF and an expert on the Romani Holocaust, asks the following in her letter, which was sent on 11 May:  "If victims from one particular state can be honoured by a flag why cannot half a million Roma from all over Europe not receive the same honour?" In his rejection letter, publicized on 5 May, Munk invited people to bring their own flags and fly them from the audience during the ceremony, which some did.

The commemorative ceremony at Terezín this year was also controversial because of the bigoted and politicized nature of the speeches given by two of the invited speakers. Jewish representatives from around the country protested those speeches and a member of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union issued a public statement rejecting the speech given by the national chair of that organization.