Equality and Representation

This book challenges the notion of Roma as mere victims of human rights violations in 20th century Europe and as another collective victim of Nazism and Stalinism. Focusing on post-war Czechoslovakia in the first 20 years of its existence as a communist state, the book explores various spheres of public life in which it is possible to trace the agency of Romani individuals and collective initiatives. As citizens and Holocaust survivors they fought for equal rights, social and political participation under conditions which appeared to be a dramatic reformulation of the state’s approach to Roma under communist rule. The book offers a collection of texts, a unique selection of historical sources of predominantly Romani provenance, and commentaries that contextualise these sources within the history of post-war Czechoslovakia and the local nascent Romani movement.