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Třebíč, Czech Republic commemorates anniversary of Holocaust transports from there

31.5.2018 6:38 A prayer procession past seven recently-installed Stones to the Disappeared (also called stolpersteine) was how the Holocaust memorial event in Třebíč, Czech Republic began on 28 May. Those attending remembered the Holocaust and its victims and the transport of Jewish residents from Třebíč in May 1942.  full story

Czech Republic: Names of Holocaust victims to be read at 13 different towns on the occasion of Yom Hashoah

24.4.2017 11:33 Today in Prague on Jiřího z Poděbrad Square and in at least another 12 towns of the Czech Republic there will be public readings of the names of victims of the Holocaust. As is traditional, the ceremony is happening on the occasion of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.  full story

Germany: Researchers find there were more victims of the Holocaust than previously believed

3.1.2017 8:46 The number of victims of the Holocaust from the Jewish communities living on the territory of the German Reich is approximately 15 000 more than has heretofore been reported. According to the German news server Spiegel Online, researchers from Germany's Federal Archive announced the findings on the basis of a detailed study of the fates of individual Jewish people living in Nazi Germany.  full story

Czech court overturns fine against attorney who objected to expert by alleging he was Jewish

7.12.2016 14:08 The attorney Petr Kočí has successfully appealed a fine against him for alleging court expert Michal Mazel was of Jewish origin. The attorney was defending a member of an ultra-right party and claimed Mazel's alleged origin would bias him against the defendant  full story

Czech children's sports team called "Cyklon B" played a Romani team last weekend, organizers apologize

6.10.2016 16:14 The first Saturday of October in the Ládví neighborhood of Prague saw a sports tournament held for children living in state-run children's homes. Second place in the category of children aged 13 and older went to a team from the Dolní Počernice Children's Home who called themselves "Cyklon B", the Czech translation of Zyklon B, the brand name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s and infamous for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately one million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.  full story

Czech religious representatives fly Roma flag in honor of Holocaust victims

3.8.2016 16:19 Yesterday in Prague the Roma flag was flown together with the flags of three religious societies in the Czech Republic in honor of the victims of the Roma Holocaust. From 2 August to 3 August 1944, almost 3 000 Roma and Sinti were murdered in the concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and 2 August is therefore commemorated as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day throughout Europe.  full story

Members of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union distance themselves from national chair in petition, leadership defends his speech at Terezín

19.5.2016 15:27 The Central Committee of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) has expressed its agreement with the speech given by its chair, Jaroslav Vodička, at this year's commemorative ceremony at Terezín. Critics of the speech have called him xenophobic because of the remarks he made about refugees.  full story

Analysis: Refugees, the past, Chairman Vodička, and the Russian path of the Czech Fighters' Union

19.5.2016 13:03 Jaroslav Vodička, chair of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) caused a certain amount of disarray - as well as an engaging, spontaneous reaction of rejection from Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon - when he gave a speech at Sunday's commemorative assembly in Terezín that included generalizing, xenophobic blather about refugees. Because Mr Vodička echoes [Czech President] Miloš Zeman (whom he supported during his presidential campaign and with whom he has exchanged medals), and because recently the ČSBS has been joined not just by the President, but also by several other bizarre figures in public life here (the group's cell in Lidice is led by Jana Bobošíková, presidential spokesperson Ovčáček has joined, etc.), the impression might arise that the Union has only now, during these new conditions of rule by [Czech
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister] Babiš and Zeman, been infiltrated by nationalist/populist "elements" who have stolen it from the anti-Nazi resistance fighters and are now abusing it.  full story

Member of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union says chair did not speak for her during the Terezín commemoration

17.5.2016 15:02 As a member of the Founding Organization of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) in Kladno, I must respond to the speech given by the chair of the ČSBS, Jaroslav Vodička, on behalf of all the members of the ČSBS during the official speeches at the Terezín commemoration on 15 May 2016. Speaking as a representative of the ČSBS, Vodička called for protecting our borders against refugees and for the protection of our culture.  full story

Czech Jewish Community says speeches at Terezín commemoration were anti-German, nationalist and xenophobic

17.5.2016 11:38 Jewish communities in the Czech Republic say the speech given by the chair of the Czech Senate, Milan Štěch (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) during Sunday's commemoration at Terezín was anti-German and nationalist. Likewise, the speech given by the head of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union, Jaroslav Vodička, was xenophobic because of the remarks it included about refugees.  full story

Chair of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union makes anti-refugee speech during Terezín commemoration, Chief Rabbi objects on the spot

17.5.2016 8:16 On 15 May, participants in the Terezín Commemoration Ceremony remembered the victims of Nazi persecution at the National Cemetery in front of the Small Fortress at the Terezín Memorial. The chair of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (Český svaz bojovníků za svobodu - ČSBS), Jaroslav Vodička, gave an anti-refugee, xenophobic speech, to which Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon gave an emotional response.  full story

As politicians mark International Holocaust Remembrance day, Czech extremists deny it

28.1.2016 18:02 Yesterday, 27 January, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 2005 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed it as such, a motion supported by a total of 91 of its member states.  full story

Commentary by Petr Uhl: "The Jew Hilsner from Polná was unjustly convicted of the murder of the Christian, Hrůzová"

7.1.2016 23:03 I have borrowed the headline for this commentary from yesterday's news reports published by several Czech media outlets. The full headline was: "Leopold Hilsner, a resident of the Jewish ghetto in Polná, was unjustly convicted of the murder of the Christian, Hrůzová."  full story

Czech Police stop marking refugees' arms after critics call it reminiscent of the Holocaust

3.9.2015 20:07 The Czech Aliens Police has been using markers to write identification numbers on the arms of refugees detained in Břeclav in a way that critics say recalls practices used during the Holocaust. "The published footage does not represent the standard procedure of the Czech Police, this procedure occurred due to the time pressure under which the police were at that moment, primarily because they did not want children to become separated from their parents in such a large group," the Czech Interior Ministry explained today.  full story

Czech event brings atheists, Christians, Jews and Muslims to the same table

28.8.2015 6:06 On 18 August, 30 people of various minority and religious backgrounds gathered in Prague to eat breakfast together. Those participating in the event wanted to show that people from different backgrounds, cultures and religions are able to understand one another.  full story

Eva Clarke, born at Mauthausen when the Third Reich collapsed

11.5.2015 10:58 Eva Clarke and her mother Anka Bergman escaped the gas chamber at the Nazi concentration camp of Mauthausen in the nick of time. Eva was born there on 29 April 1945 when the Third Reich collapsed.  full story

Czech Republic: Hundreds protest anti-Semitism in Prague

24.4.2015 4:07 On Sunday, 19 April, hundreds of people participated in the 12th annual Good Will March (Pochod dobré vůle) in Prague. The event took place under the slogan of "Culture against Anti-Semitism" in the center of the capital.  full story

Commentary: Invisible Romani victims and an anti-Muslim crusade

Prague, 28.1.2015 21:47, (ROMEA) This year's anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz seemed like a delayed whipping up of a call to arms. The alarm was sounded without a clear enemy.  full story

Czech Republic: Auschwitz survivor alive today due to human error

Czech Republic, 26.1.2015 17:52, (ROMEA) Dagmar Lieblová survived her internment in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz at the age of 15 because a clerical error labeled her as older than she really was and she was able to
leave the death camp to work in Germany. Lieblová, who is the chair of the Terezín Initiative, which endeavors to preserve awareness about the Holocaust and aid survivors, told the Czech News Agency today that her survival was an accident.  full story

Czech Republic: Local theater company stages German play about brutal neo-Nazi murder

Ústí nad Labem, 14.1.2015 22:54, (ROMEA) The Činoherák Ústí theater club is producing a play entitled "The Kick" by Andres Veiel and Gesine Schmidt, based on the true story of the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy in the East German village of Potzlow. The ensemble will hold a preview performance at the Činoherní studio (Drama Studio) in the Střekov quarter on Friday.  full story