Roma in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

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According to some estimates, the Roma ethnic group represent the largest ethnic minority in the Czech Republic and the second largest ethnic minority in Slovakia after the ethnic group of Hungarian origin. The Roma resident here mostly speak the Czech or Slovak language or the so-called central dialect of the Romani language .

history

The first documented evidence of Roma on the territory of the two present-day countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia dates from 1423. It is a letter of protection from King Sigismund , which was issued at Spis Castle . From 1427 the first riots and persecution of Roma are recorded. Some of these have political, economic and ecclesiastical reasons, as one suspected hostile Ottoman scouts in the Roma . 1,627 Roma were in Bohemia for outlaw states which means that they could be murdered with impunity. On the other hand, Roma were often welcomed as skilled craftsmen and musicians who brought new handicraft techniques to remote areas. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria ended the persecution, but planned a rigorous policy of assimilation which, in addition to taking away the children in order to have them re-educated, also included Christianization. The Roma continued to face discrimination. In many cases they became workers in the course of industrialization, as their traditional handicrafts lost importance.

After the First World War

“No entry for wandering gypsies and vagrants”, a prohibition sign in Bohemia around 1920/1930

Even after the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the Roma were the target of assimilation and so-called “civilization” efforts. On July 14, 1927, the government enacted Law 117/1927 Sb. On "Gypsies and Similar Work-shy Vagrants", which was inspired by the French Law on Wanderers of 1912 and the Bavarian Law on "Gypsies and Idlers" of 1926. The measures of the law were directed against all persons who were conspicuous by a vagrant-like way of life, even if they temporarily had a permanent residence (§ 1 of the law). This particularly affected the Roma who were still wandering around at the time. The law made it possible for the Roma to be recorded by the police and administrative authorities, "Gypsy ID cards" were issued and "licenses (permits) to move around" were issued. Regional residence bans could be issued, according to § 12 children and young people under the age of 18 could be removed from the families and given to foster parents or homes for "assimilation".

The plan to put Roma in labor camps was based on the dispute and a petition by two municipalities on February 5, 1939 and was reflected in government order 72/1939 of March 2, 1939. It could not be implemented immediately, but only from July 1940, immediately after Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath, in his order of July 15, 1940, took over the order 72/1939 and ordered the construction of several "gypsy camps", including the Lety and Hodonín concentration camps .

After the annexation of the Sudetenland and the occupation of the " remaining Czech Republic ", the government of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia continued this policy. In the fall of 1939, the forced resettlement of "people traveling around" was ordered; about 7000 people were registered, most of them Roma. Those who refused to accept permanent residence were interned in forced labor camps “for work-shy” from 1940 and later in “gypsy camps”. After the assassination attempt on Heydrich , the repression intensified from the summer of 1942, so that between spring 1943 and July 1944, by order of the Reich SS leader Heinrich Himmler in December 1942, the Roma were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where at least 5,000 of lost their lives. The few Roma who remained in the Protectorate and Slovakia also took part in resistance campaigns.

After the Second World War

Shortly after the Second World War , around 600 Roma were still living in Bohemia and Moravia, out of around 8,000 previously, but their number rose rapidly as a result of the influx from Slovakia and other countries. In the formally independent Slovakia , the Roma residing there were increasingly discriminated against, but the persecution of this ethnic group did not reach the extent that existed under the direct National Socialist sphere of rule.

After the war, Slovak, Romanian and Hungarian Roma and Roma from the Soviet Union in the Czech border areas where until then were propagated German Bohemia and Deutschmährer lived, and in industrial areas, for example in today kraj Ústecký , in kraj Liberecký or kraj Moravskoslezský located to to absorb the population loss. Unlike the Roma who had previously settled here, who were said to have a certain degree of integration in industrialized Bohemia and Moravia, these were groups and families who were characterized by the highly conservative conditions in rural areas of the countries of origin and who had a different cultural and social background . On the one hand, they were needed as labor, on the other hand, society was not prepared to openly resolve the conflicts. The pre-war policy towards the Roma continued. The 1927 law on "Gypsies" was still in effect, and the Ministry of Social Affairs was still preparing a government order in 1947 that Roma should be interned in labor camps without permanent employment; however, this met with protests and was not implemented.

During communist rule

After the communist seizure of power in 1948, Roma became “de iure” members of society with equal rights, which the constitution guaranteed. However, the real situation has not changed. The 1927 law on gypsies remained in effect and was not repealed until 1950. In 1952 an ordinance was passed with the aim of "re-education and the gradual elimination of backward effects on the gypsies as the heir to capitalist society". On October 17, 1958, Law 74/1958 was passed on the compulsory permanent settlement of Roma under threat of imprisonment of up to three years for failure to comply with the measure (Section 3). In 1959 it was realized through police actions: the Roma camps were occupied in a raid-like manner , the bikes were dismantled and destroyed from the cars, the Roma then had to forcibly move into the accommodation offered to them in the next village.

In 1962 an article appeared in the magazine “Demografie” with the conclusion “The question is not whether the Gypsies are a nation, but how they should be assimilated”. This concept of assimilation completely ignored the traditions of the Roma; they were dismissed as retarding relics and henceforth systematically suppressed - which went as far as recommendations from school staff to parents not to speak to their children in Romani.

While the efforts of state-controlled assimilation had so far aimed at cultural and educational issues, after 1965 a phase followed in which the Roma were to be dispersed from communities or areas where they were concentrated by resettlement. The Roma population was not viewed as an ethnic, but as a socio-pathological group, which therefore has no right to its own cultural, ethnic and other specifics. By government order 502 of October 13, 1965, a “Government Committee for the Issues of the Gypsies” ( Vládní výbor pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva ) was established with the aim of harmonizing the socio-economic level and the full integration and assimilation of the Roma population. In particular, this should be achieved through permanent work and the dissolution of streets and communities that were predominantly inhabited by the Roma population. The ethnologist Jana Horváthová believes that the destruction of Roma identity was greatest at this time.

A brief, temporary improvement in the situation of the Roma occurred during the Prague Spring 1968. On August 30, 1969, the Svaz Cikánů-Romů (Association of Gypsy Roma) was founded in Brno , on which a preparatory committee was already working from May 1968. One of the committed initiators was the Indologist and founder of Czech Romance Studies Milena Hübschmannová , who has been promoting the language and culture of the Czech and Slovak Roma since the late 1950s.

The association published the magazine Romano ľil (Roma newspapers), participated in the preparations for the establishment of the International Romani Union and took part in the World Congress of the International Roma Civil Rights Movement in London in 1971. Overall, the association worked to improve the situation of the Roma based on the principles of equality. However, this was not acceptable for the normalization policy of the Communist Party and the association disbanded "voluntarily" on April 30, 1973 under pressure from state and party organs. The policy towards the Roma practiced in the 1970s and 1980s was not as rigorous as it was in the past, but it continued the oppression with somewhat different means. Decisive were the proposals of the new "Commission of the Government of the ČSR for the Issues of the Gypsy Population " ( Komise vlády ČSR pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva ), which was launched on November 25, 1970.

The opposition civil rights movement Charter 77 issued in December 1978 the extensive declaration No. 23 “On the question of the Gypsy Roma in Czechoslovakia” ( O postavení Cikánů-Rómů v Československu ), in which the previous policy of oppression of the Roma population in the Czechoslovakia has been well described and criticized.

After 1990

A Roma settlement in Spišské Vlachy (Spišská Nová Ves County), Eastern Slovakia

After the end of communist rule in 1989, the Roma organized themselves more and more in clubs and associations, while social discrimination persisted. Roma were the preferred targets of neo-Nazi groups, for example in March 2010 in Vítkov in Moravian-Silesia , where a two-year-old girl suffered life-threatening burns in an arson attack. In the Czech Republic, the politically insignificant but offensive neo-Nazi party Národní strana around Petra Edelmannová repeatedly came up with the demand for a “ final solution to the Gypsy question”, meaning a deportation to India. In Ústí nad Labem (Aussig), a wall was built on October 13, 1999 in Matiční Street, which is mostly Roma. After protests and the promise of financial support for the purchase of three single-family houses from old people and for social programs, the wall was dismantled after a few weeks on November 24th. In March 2010, 85,000 people supported a campaign against voluntary Romani schooling in individual Czech schools on the facebook internet network . In the past there have been reports in the press of the sterilization of Roma women who mostly disagreed with this procedure or had not been informed about it in advance; these practices continued after the end of the communist era. There have also been repeated reports of asylum-seeking Roma migrating overseas, particularly to Canada . This was the reason why there was a visa requirement for Czech citizens to enter and stay in Canada from July 2009 to November 2013 .

In general, Roma live in a worse-off environment than the average dominant society. Some of them were settled in the cities with other financially weak residents, creating poor urban residential areas such as Košice – Luník IX , Most -Chanov or Litvínov - Janov . On the other hand, better-off members of the majority society are moving out of the low-income areas. In Slovakia there is an increasing number of rural settlements with characteristics of slums, e.g. B. in eastern Slovakia Svinia .

There is still an above-average number of Roma children assigned to special schools, which means that they lack the chance of higher professional qualifications. The Roma are not represented in the Czech or Slovak parliaments, which is also helped by the fact that group cohesion is not very strong. The implementation of minority rights such as mother tongue school lessons, language use by authorities etc. has not yet been fully implemented in the Czech Republic.

The lack of social programs in the 1990s supported the emergence of socially disadvantaged areas in poorer areas of the Czech Republic, particularly in northern Bohemia and northern Moravia. In recent years there have been more conflicts with a social and racist background, for example in 2011 in the Schluckenauer Zipfel or in Krupka .

numbers

The Roma minority in Slovakia (2001 census)

According to the 1980 census, there were 288,440 Roma in Czechoslovakia, 88,587 of them in the Czech Republic. According to the former National Committee, 399,654 Roma were living in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989, of which 145,711 (36.5%) were in the Czech Republic and 253,843 (63.5%) in Slovakia. In the 2001 census, only 11,746 people in the Czech Republic claimed to be Roma. The remaining ethnic Roma viewed themselves as Czechs or as members of other nationalities, or stated that they were of a different nationality for fear of possible negative effects. The population group of ethnic Roma in the Czech Republic is estimated at 250,000 to 300,000 people. In Slovakia it is assumed that there are around 520,000 Roma (around 10% of the population).

The largest group of Roma living in the Czech Republic are the Roma who immigrated from Slovakia after the Second World War with around 75% to 85%, then the so-called Wallachia Roma (Olašští Romové / Olašskí Rómovia) with around 10% Immigrated from Romania in the middle of the 19th century.

In addition to discrimination in the social field and as an ethnic group, there are also numerous educational policy aspects that make the integration of the Roma more difficult. In the declaration of Charter 77 from 1978 it was pointed out that the proportion of Roma children attending special schools is 20 percent, while it is 3 percent for the rest of the population. For the 1990s and later there are very fluctuating estimates, between 30 and 80 percent for Roma children and 2 to 3.2 percent for children in the rest of the population. A study commissioned by the Ombudsman for the Protection of Civil Rights Pavel Varvařovský and published in 2012 assumes a share of 33 to 35 percent for Roma children. As a result, this leads to a high illiteracy rate, which was 30 percent in the 1970s; 10 percent of male 30-year-old adults have never attended school, only 50 percent attended school for five years or less, 15 percent finished nine-year elementary school, only half a percent of them achieved technical or technical college education, and there was one in all of Czechoslovakia in the 1970s only 50 Roma with a higher education.

In the report of the ombudsman from 2012 it is assumed that the enrollment of Roma children in the special schools takes place without a relevant reason, although the basic education plays a key role in access to further education, in the elimination of unemployment and crime, but especially in social integration the Roma. This educational discrimination often only happens as a result of an unfavorable, poor social background, without the children showing any mental backwardness.

Structures and media

In Czechoslovakia there were no organized associations or representations of the Roma until the late 1960s after the war. First shortly after the Prague Spring , and then only after 1989, some organizations were established that were active in this field.

  • Svaz Cikánů-Romů (SCR, Association of Gypsy Roma), the establishment of which was initiated during the Prague Spring of 1968, existed 1969–1973; he made many demands, including the question of ethnic emancipation, and was forced to disband by the CPC. After the change of power in 1989 efforts were made to revitalize the SCR association, but this failed due to the fragmentation of the Roma activists.
  • In 1989 the Romská občanská iniciativa (ROI, Roma Citizens' Initiative) took on the pioneering role, but distanced itself from the SCR association. It saw itself as a non-partisan association. With a changing number of members, it also took part in various, mostly local elections on other electoral lists, including right-wing extremist party approaches. In 2009, ROI was wound up in court due to persistent financial irregularities.
  • In March 1998, the Demokratická aliance Romů (DAR, Democratic Alliance of the Roma) was founded, which wanted to support the interests and claims of the Roma in many areas; It was therefore not an association of the Roma minority like the SRC earlier.

The romove.radio.cz portal of the Czech Radio provides information about numerous other organizations, aid groups and the like, often with a local or thematically restricted character .

In addition to the Roma portal on the website of the Czech Radio (Český rozhlas), there is a program O Roma vakeren (Roma speak) prepared and broadcast by the station's Roma editorial team . It is the only program for the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, regular television programs (on Slovak TV STV) for Roma are operated by the Roma media center ME.CEM. The twice-yearly magazine Romano džaniben , the only specialist magazine for Romistics in the Czech Republic, is also of importance.

Culture

World Roma Festival (“Khamoro”) in Prague 2007

As early as the 1960s there were some very well-known artists on the music scene such as the singer Antonín Gondolán , who first played in Gustav Brom's big band and accompanied Karel Gott and then led his own, very popular group from around 1967, the Skupina bratří Gondolánů . Well-known Roma artists in today's Czech Republic include, for example, the singer Věra Bílá or the hip-hop group Gipsy.cz . The Romathan Roma Theater is located in Košice. In 1999, Roma intellectuals founded the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno , which has been a state-sponsored institution since 2005.

Since 1999, one of the largest Roma festivals, the so-called Khamoro , has taken place annually since 1999 in Prague, with many offers from culture, music, exhibitions, art and specialist workshops, film presentations and other events on Roma issues with the participation of many artists from abroad. Former President Václav Havel was one of the supporters .

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the Czech Republic: for students with below average intelligence

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History and origins of the Roma , report by the own Roma editorial staff of the Radio of the Czech Republic radio.cz, online at romove.radio.cz / ...
  2. ↑ What is antigypsyism? , Report of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung portal, online at: rosalux.de / ...
  3. ^ The working group “For Peace” and the Sinti and Roma , paper of the working group “For Peace” and the Sinti and Roma of the University of Oldenburg, online at: oops.uni-oldenburg.de / ... , p. 171
  4. ↑ Zákon č. 117/1927 Coll. Of July 14, 1927, online at: www.psp.cz / ...
  5. ↑ a b c Jana Horváthová, Kapitoly z dějin Romů [Chapter from the history of the Roma], Člověk v tísni, společnost při ČT, ops, Lidové noviny 2002, chap. 11: Genocida, p. 43ff., Online at: www.pf.jcu.cz/.../13.pdf
  6. ↑ a b c d Jana Horváthová, Kapitoly z dějin Romů [Chapters from the history of the Roma], Člověk v tísni, společnost při ČT, ops, Lidové noviny 2002, chap. 12: Státem řízená asimilace, p. 50ff., Online at: www.pf.jcu.cz/.../14.pdf
  7. ↑ Zákon 74/1958 Sb. - Zákon o trvalém usídlení kočujících osob, online at: www.zakonyprolidi.cz/
  8. ↑ Kristýna Frydrýšková, Romové pod vlivem komunismu , online at: www.romanovodori.cz / ...
  9. ↑ Demography , year. 1962, No. 4, pp. 80f.
  10. ↑ a b Kristina Axmanová, Řešení romské problematiky v ČSR v 70. letech 20. století ve světle činnosti tzv. Komise vlády ČSR pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva , Historical Institute of the Philosophical Faculty of the Masaryk University of Brno, 2012, online at: is.muni.cz/…
  11. ↑ Výstava Svaz Cikánů-Romů 1969 - 1973. Z historie první romské organizace v Československu v Muzeu romské kultury , online at: www.romea.cz / ...
  12. ↑ a b c HISTORICKÉ OKÉNKO: Document Charty 77 "O postavení Cikánů-Rómů v Československu", z prosince 1978 (text of Declaration No. 23 of December 13, 1978), online at: www.romea.cz/…
  13. ↑ Patrick Gschwend: Another arson attack on Roma family. March 16, 2010, accessed September 5, 2014 .
  14. ↑ Před 10 lety postavili zeď v Matiční. Domy, kvůli nimž vznikla, zbourají. In: iDNES.cz. October 11, 2009, Retrieved September 5, 2014 (Czech).
  15. ^ Rob Cameron: 85,000 join Facebook campaign against voluntary Romani lessons in schools. Radio Praha , March 30, 2010, accessed on September 5, 2014 (English).
  16. ↑ Till Mayer: Roma sterilization in the Czech Republic: "You have taken a piece of my womanhood from me". In: Spiegel Online . March 31, 2009, accessed September 5, 2014 .
  17. ↑ January Korselt, Jana Mlčochová: Czech Republic objects to Canada visa move. Reuters Canada, July 14, 2009, accessed September 5, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Canada lifts visa requirement for the Czech Republic. Government of Canada, November 14, 2013, accessed March 25, 2017 .
  19. ↑ List of declarations relating to Treaty No. 148 - European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe , accessed on September 5, 2014 (“[…] the Czech Republic therefore declares that it considers the Slovak, Polish, German and Roma languages ​​as minority languages ​​which are spoken in its territory […]”).
  20. ^ Karl-Peter Schwarz: Roma in the Czech Republic: Dispute in the Zipfel , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 1, 2011.
  21. ↑ Vadim Strielkowski: Roma migrations . Lulu.com, 2012, ISBN 978-80-87404-14-0 ( Google Books Chapter 5 History of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe ).
  22. ^ Czech Republic ( Memento from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 1, 2010
  23. ↑ European Roma Rights Center, cited. to Současná romská komunita v Evropě (Current Roma Community in Europe). Radio Praha , February 26, 2000, accessed on September 5, 2014 (cz).
  24. ^ Raphael Vago : The roma in central and eastern Europe: The plight of a stateless minority. In: Antisemitism Worldwide 2000/1. Tel Aviv University , archived from the original on June 4, 2011 ; accessed on September 5, 2014 .
  25. ↑ Jana Horváthová, Kapitoly z dějin Romů [Chapters from the history of the Roma], Člověk v tísni, společnost při ČT, ops, Lidové noviny 2002, chapter 14: Struktura romského společenství u nás, p. 63ff., Online at: www. pf.jcu.cz/.../16.pdf
  26. ↑ Stanislav Holubec, Teorie vzdělanostních nerovností a romské prostředí , online at: userweb.pedf.cuni.cz/paideia / ...
  27. ↑ (European Roma Rights Center), A Special Remedy: Roma and Schools for the Mentally Handicapped in the Czech Republic , chapter 3: Roma in Remedial Special Schools in the Czech Republic, online at: unpan1.un.org/
  28. ↑ Activist: Začlenění Romů do běžných škol ušetří státu miliardy , online at: www.denik.cz ...
  29. ↑ a b Třetinu žáků ve zvláštních školách tvoří romské děti, tvrdí ombudsman , news portal Týden.cz from June 6, 2012, online at: www.tyden.cz/
  30. ↑ a b c Organizace zabývající se romskou menšinou [Organizations that deal with the Roma minority], a comprehensive overview, online at: www.romove.cz / ... ( Memento from May 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ Organizace zabývající se romskou menšinou [organizations that deal with the Roma minority], a comprehensive overview, online at: www.romove.cz/.../roi ( Memento of May 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  32. ↑ Pavel Pečínka, Rozlety a pády romské politické lobby v ČR , in: Britské listy September 2, 2010, online at: www.blisty.cz/
  33. ↑ Pavel Pečínka, Romská občanská iniciativa v České republice , in: Středoevropské politické studie 2-3 / V / 2003, online at: 2003 www.cepsr.com / ...
  34. ↑ Organizace zabývající se romskou menšinou [Organizations that deal with the Roma minority], a comprehensive overview, online at: www.romove.cz/.../dar ( Memento of May 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  35. ↑ Demokratieická aliance Romů ČR / DAR ČR / , online at darcr.cz
  36. ↑ O Roma vakeren , online at: rozhlas.cz / ...
  37. ↑ me.cem - O organizácii , online at: mecem.sk / ... ( Memento from May 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  38. ↑ Romano džaniben , online at: dzaniben.cz
  39. ↑ Mgr. Antonín Gondolán - skladatel, zpěvák, hudebník , online at: romove.radio.cz / ...
  40. ↑ Khamoro, online at: www.khamoro.cz/

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