Government to back Romany Holocaust remembrance day

The Czech government is going to back a motion in the lower house to establish a remembrance day of the victims of Romany Holocaust, the news agency ČTK reported on Saturday citing government documents. A group of MPs from several parties want to introduce March 7 as the Remembrance Day of the Victims of Romany Persecution during WWII; on that day in 1943, the first transport of Bohemian and Moravian Romanies was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp. In total, nearly 9,000 Romanies were murdered in the Holocaust, nearly 90 percent of their pre-war population.

All ministries have expressed consent with the idea; however, the Foreign Ministry noted Holocaust victims are remembered on January 27. Should a special day be established to honour Romany victims, the ministry said, it might be necessary to also remember victims from other ethnic or social groups persecuted during the war.