[This is a transcription of a sequence in a videotape shot in the police station in Terezin, Czech Republic on 18 September 2000 during the Stories Exchange Project workshop ARTS OF TOLERANCE. It is included in the second video documentary about the project: "MY WAY AND HIS WAY: The Stories Exchange Project”]Cenek RuzickaDirector Romany Holocaust […]
John Erwin
It was full of joy
Tereza RehakovastudentJan Patocka Grammar SchoolPrague This is my only experience with Roms. It happened when I was less than five years old. I lived in Smichov, where there were a lot of Roms. No Roms lived in our house, but the house across the road was full of them. Like all children I was inquisitive, […]
They shouldn’t have been forced to assimilate
Filip CapandastudentJan Patocka Grammar SchoolPrague Roms are a minority in the Czech Republic. According to them, they are discriminated against. I think that is true.But what if so-called discrimination is only an excuse for their slow integration into our society? Roms came here a long time ago. They led a nomadic style of life, and […]
There are good and bad people in every society
Lucie MatuskovastudentGymnazium Jan PatockaPragueI don’t have much experience with Roms. I think they are not all to blame; we make mistakes too. A friend of mine who is very dark told me about her stay in a hospital. She was not able to move. Her parents would bring fruit and put it on her bedside […]
I hope that my generation will overcome
Mariana WesleyovastudentGymnazium Jan PatockaPrague Roms should be looked at as individuals, not judged in terms of a whole ethnic group.The behavior of young Roms is shaped by their living standards, their interests, their environment etc. There are some who feel that they are different, that they are an ethnic group, that their social status is […]
Foreigners enrich our culture
Mateja SegistudentGymnazium Jan PatockaPragueRoms are citizens of the Czech Republic as much as anyone else. The problem is that most Roms are not educated – so it is hard for them to find work. Then they do nothing, and expect the state to help them. There are many cases of uneducated parents who don’t want to send […]
I mustn’t become white
Zdenka SvobodovaJuly 2000Milan H. is a tall and well-built young Romany man. He is twenty-six, and works as a policeman in a town in Central Bohemia. I recorded this story while we were sitting in the kitchen of the council flat where he lives with his wife, who is white. At his request I am […]
I have a heart, and it’s not Czech
Hanka KozurikovaLibice nad CidlinouI was born in Kolin in 1966 to Anna and Koloman Conka. They had already had two boys; I was their first daughter. My mom was from the vicinity of Poprad in Slovakia. The village where she was born is called Lucivna. A Czech historian of the Roms, Milena Hubschmannova, has written […]
The totalitarian regime left its mark on me
Eva RidajováNové StrasecíThe totalitarian regime left its mark on my childhood. I come from a Romany family, and the totalitarian system aimed at eradicating Romany culture. As far as our large family is concerned, they very nearly succeeded. Our parents assimilated. They brought us up in the Czech way, as the regime prescribed. They wanted […]
We don’t understand that our indifference is racism
Katerina SidonovaPrague I have been interested in the Romany problem for more than twelve years. My friends and the people around me don’t understand why. Most Czech people tend to look at the Roma as something unpleasant. They always say, "I am no racist.” And “Yes, Roma are people too.” But: “I don’t like Gypsies. […]
Recent Comments