Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorated
As in many other countries around the world, Holocaust Remembrance Day was yesterday commemorated in the Czech Republic. In recent years the day has been marked in a different way here, where it is now characterised by special cooperation between the Jewish and Roman communities.
A Roma children's choir sang at the commemoration, as did a choir of Jewish children. The Jewish and Roma communities have since last year commemorated the day together, reflecting the common tragedy that their communities suffered during the Second World War, when the Nazis tried to annihilate them both. Tomas Jelinek, the chairman of the Jewish community in Prague, explains how cooperation between the Jewish and Roma communities was initiated:
"One should look for the real roots of it in the conference "The Holocaust Phenomenon," which was organised under the patronage of President Havel in 1999. And it was the first event where Jewish history and Roma history during the protectorate were studied. And in the comparison, one could see that the fates of the Jews and the Roma in what is today the Czech Republic were so similar. It struck me personally - and at the time I worked for President Havel - that there should be a very natural way to cooperate. And basically through contact with people like Mr Holomek and Mr Ruzicka, who were cooperating at this conference, we organised the first commemoration in 2002."
And the tradition of commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Czech Republic will indeed continue: Ms Buzkova and Mr Pithart stated that it should soon become an official day of commemoration in the Czech Republic, once parliament approves an amendment to the law on national holidays. Holocaust Remembrance Day already has this status in many other European countries, where it is also a day when the fight against xenophobia, racism and antisemitism is especially promoted.
