INTERVIEW WITH KAREL SCHWARZENBERG

The Václav Havel Scholarschip is suported by Karel Schwanzenberg for a long time. We are very grateful for his moral and financial support; it is important and bounding for us.

Our students had the honour of doing an interview with Karel Schwarzenberg on the topic of Roma integration in the Czech Republic. We found out why, why the Lety memorial, in particular, is so important to him.

Karel Schwarzenberg is a very inspiring person so we recommend you read his views on the Roma question in this interview.

What do you think of discrimination against the Roma people in the Czech Republic? 

I spent a lot of time on it. During my whole life. I grew up in Orlik and Cimelice. Five kilometres from Orlik there is a village called Lety. And in Lety there was a Roma concentration camp. I had a very unusual childhood experience there. 

When I was a child we used to ride in carriages or we would ride horses because our cars got confiscated by the Nazis. I was a total freak for horses. The best thing for me was when I would drive the carriage myself and control the horses. My dad taught me all this. My father was not allowed to go to Orlik during the Protectorate era. He was banned from there. We were evicted. Right after the war, we were allowed to go to Orlik once again. And so we drove, and I remember how excited I was. Suddenly, an uneasy feeling hit me. It was so terrible that even though I was a nine year old boy I remember it to this day. Terrible anxiety. I turned to my father and asked him what was there. Dad looked at me with a serious face and said: "Awful things happened here. I will explain it to you when you grow up. " That was when we were driving past the Lety camp. And that influenced me. I still remember how some of the prisoners from Lety worked on the future Zdar bridge which was being built at that time, before they got transferred to Osvetim. That was when I first saw our policeman not only with a gun but also with a fixed bayonet on him. 

When I was elected as the head of the Helsinki Federation for Human rights, news was reported about what was happening with the Roma people here. Well, that communist regime for example sterilized women violently without asking them. It just robbed them of their ability to have children and things like that. We behaved cruelly. And it turned out accordingly. 

Barely the old regime fell and the citizens and towns, especially from the south, agreed on moving out Roma people from the centre of the city and settle them in neglected buildings on the outskirts of the city. They created a ghetto. And ghetto is always a way down. Many problems occurred from this: criminality, drugs, whatever you want to say. We have treated the Gypsies unacceptably and even worse very terribly. And that is why it ended the way it did.

And do you think that the Vaclav Havel Scholarship at our school which is for a Roma student is a step in the right direction?

Of course. They can be very successful if they have an opportunity to study. I am glad. Do you know who is Miss Czech Republic now? She is a Roma, who studied! And she is proud to be a Roma. That is the future! They achieve such things when they are fully integrated. And she is studying, her father also studied. Look at this.

So you think that studying is the foundation?

Always school, Always school. If you don't go to school you won't get a reasonable job. They are not smarter nor dumber than us. So they have the right to get as good of an education as we do.

And do you think that Roma people have the same access to quality education as others?

No, the children have never been put to the same school with other children. Instead, they were put into a special school. And that is how it started. The discrimination began at school age. Hardly one of them got into a gymnasium because of this and so on.... Whether they are blacks in America or Romas here, it is the same thing.

Why do you think that Czechs behave towards Romas in this way? Prejudices for centuries, prejudices for centuries.

And how can we overcome these prejudices? What should we do?

Enlightenment and Roma. As soon as they become lawyers or doctors it will stop. Also, the awareness of the so called whites. That is the most important thing. And talking about the issue. Talking about it openly at school. The most important thing is to address the problems.

Thank you for the interview.