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Talking PointThe Roma Holocaust

When we hear the term holocaust, we immediately think of the plight of the Jews during WWII. However, many of us forget - or are unaware - that hundreds of thousands of members of a different community also fell victim to the persecutions during the Second World War. Today, we'll visit a conference, which took place under the Khamoro World Roma Festival and discover the unknown holocaust of the Roma.  More

Current AffairsKhamoro: establishing the facts of the "unknown Holocaust"

Every year, for the last five years, the Khamoro festival has brought the vibrant culture of the Roma to the streets of Prague. It's a festival dominated of course by the exhilarating and heart-rending music of the Roma. But there's also a serious side to the festival, as Rob Cameron now reports.  More

ArtsThe incredible story of the opera written at Terezin concentration camp

This Saturday, March 15, London's Opera Up Close company is holding the premiere of their production of "the Kaiser of Atlantis" ("Der Kaiser von Atlantis"), which was written by Viktor Ullmann with a libretto by Petr Kein. A Vienna-born Jew, Viktor Ullmann later took Czech nationality, and was already well-known as a composer before being sent to Terezin concentration camp in September 1942. It was there - in the most incredible circumstances - that he wrote "the Kaiser of Atlantis", before meeting his death in Auschwitz in October 1944. When I spoke to Opera Up Close director Russell Plows in London last week, he told me Viktor Ullmann was just one of many leading Czech Jewish artists and musicians imprisoned at Terezin.  More

Current AffairsTerezin boy who dreamt of flying to Moon to escape horrors of Earth

It's six days now since the Columbia disaster, a tragedy which has affected many people around the world. Among the mourners are the people of Israel, who had sent their first astronaut - Ilan Ramon - into space. Among the few possessions Ramon chose to take with him was a drawing entitled "Moon Landscape" - a view of the Earth as seen from the Moon. The picture was drawn by a 14-year-old Jewish boy from Prague called Petr Ginz, most probably during his imprisonment in the Terezin ghetto. One of Ginz's closest friends at Terezin was a boy called Kurt Kotouc, who shared his passion for science and space travel. The friendship came to an end in 1944, when both boys were sent to Auschwitz. Petr Ginz was killed immediately, Kurt Kotouc survived. Now an elderly man, Kurt Kotouc recalled their friendship with my colleague Rob Cameron.  More

Current AffairsHolocaust 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.  More

Current AffairsMiddle Europe's Mecca

Terezin - the place that became infamous as a Jewish ghetto in the Second World War - is another historic Czech town that experienced this year's disastrous floods. Among the cultural treasures of Terezin that were severly damaged was Mecca, the Middle European Colony for Contemporary Arts. Although a relative newcomer to the town's cultural scene, Mecca nonetheless plays a very important role in revilitasing Terezin's culture.  More

NewsTerezin WW2 memorial to open for visitors

Czechs in HistoryJosef Horak, a twentieth century Czech hero

I was recently involved in making a film about Lidice, the Czech village that the Nazis wiped off the map in June 1942. In the course of my research I met many people from and connected with the village, including relatives of Josef Horak, one of only two men from Lidice to survive the Nazi massacre. The following programme tells his story.  More

WitnessRuth Rulcova: the shock of an English cup of tea

A few days ago - for the first time - Ruth Rulcova had the chance to meet the man who saved her life in 1939. In that strange time between the German occupation of Prague in March and the outbreak of war in September, Sir Nicholas Winton was a British diplomat in Prague. He decided to help Czech Jewish children to get out of Prague while there was still time. In all he arranged for 700 children to be taken in by families in Britain. Their parents and relatives who stayed at home nearly all perished in the gas-chambers of the east. Ruth Rulcova was one of those children. Here she remembers her first impressions on arriving in England.  More

MagazineNicholas Winton in Prague

One of the most interesting events at the recent Karlovy Vary film festival was the premiere of a documentary film about Sir Nicholas Winton. He was the British diplomat who in the spring and summer of 1939, just after Nazi Germany had occupied Bohemia and Moravia, helped to save the lives of at least 700 Czech Jewish children, by sending them to families in Britain. The film, "Nicholas Winton - the Power of Good" is made by Matej Minac, who also recently made a very popular feature film, "All My Loved Ones", about Sir Nicholas's work. "All My Loved Ones" portrays the agonizing decision of the parents of a Jewish girl, who decide to send their daughter to England, knowing that they will probably never meet again. Today Sir Nicholas is an energetic 93-year-old and last week he was in Prague to meet some of his "children" - who themselves are now nearly all in their seventies. David Vaughan was at the event and brings this report.  More