Glossary

Ari­zona – one of Prague’s emer­gency hous­ing set­tle­ments for peo­ple evict­ed for non-pay­ment of rent, start­ed to be built in Jinon­ice in 1930. The thir­ty-five sim­ple wood­en hous­es were demol­ished in 1955.

Auschwitz, Pol­ish Oświęcim — a town in Poland. In 1939 it became part of the ter­ri­to­ry annexed to the Third Reich and the Nazis built a com­plex of con­cen­tra­tion and exter­mi­na­tion camps there. Hun­dreds of Roma and Sin­ti from the Czech lands, most of them men, were deport­ed by the Ger­mans in trans­ports as so-called ​“aso­cials” to the Auschwitz I con­cen­tra­tion camp in 1940 – 1942. Most of the Roma and Sin­ti from the Czech lands, how­ev­er, were trans­port­ed to Auschwitz with their entire fam­i­lies in 1943 and 1944, when a so-called ​“Gyp­sy camp” was built in part of the Auschwitz II-Birke­nau exter­mi­na­tion camp (see ​“Gyp­sy camp in Auschwitz”).

Auschwitz II-Birke­nau, B IIe, see Gyp­sy Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Aux­il­iary Tech­ni­cal Bat­tal­ions – PTP – detach­ments of the Czechoslo­vak Army, which in 1950 – 1954 orga­nized the intern­ment and ​“re-edu­ca­tion” of so-called ​“polit­i­cal­ly unre­li­able” conscripts.

Ban­derites – mem­bers of the Ukrain­ian Insur­gent Army (UPA), an armed unit of the Orga­ni­za­tion of Ukrain­ian Nation­al­ists, or Stepan Ban­der­a’s fac­tion, which was formed in 1942.

Edvard Beneš (1884−1948) — Czechoslo­vak politi­cian. In 1935 – 1938 and 1945 – 1948 he was the Pres­i­dent of Czecho­slo­va­kia, and dur­ing the Sec­ond World War he was Prime Min­is­ter of the gov­ern­ment-in-exile in London.

Bergen-Belsen – a con­cen­tra­tion camp estab­lished in 1943 in the vil­lage of Belsen near the Low­er Sax­on town of Bergen. By 1945, over 100,000 pris­on­ers, half of them Sovi­et pris­on­ers of war, had died of cold, star­va­tion and epi­dem­ic typhus.

“Block senior”, a prison offi­cial who was in charge of one of the blocks in the camp.

Blocksperre (from Ger­man) – a ban on leav­ing the blocks, used in the camps espe­cial­ly when the Nazis need­ed to car­ry out an oper­a­tion with­out wit­ness­es, e.g. to exe­cute a large num­ber of pris­on­ers, to con­duct a selec­tion, etc.

Kle­ment Boda (1908-?) – crim­i­nal inspec­tor 1^st class of the Brno Crim­i­nal Direc­torate. His supe­ri­or was Coun­cil­lor Josef Brixi, but both were under the author­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Ger­man Crim­i­nal Police (Kripo), who super­vised the depor­ta­tion of Roma and Sin­ti and effec­tive­ly decid­ed on how it was con­duct­ed. In this capac­i­ty, Boda orga­nized the trans­ports of Roma and Sin­ti from the Pro­tec­torate to the Auschwitz II — Birke­nau con­cen­tra­tion and exter­mi­na­tion camp; how­ev­er, there are tes­ti­monies of Roma whose lives he helped to save by exclud­ing them from the transports.

Buchen­wald — a con­cen­tra­tion camp built in 1937 near Weimar. 240,000 pris­on­ers, most­ly men, passed through it.

Carpatho-Duk­la Oper­a­tion, Bat­tle of Duk­la – offen­sive oper­a­tion of Sovi­et and Czechoslo­vak troops in south-east­ern Poland and north-east­ern Slo­va­kia in autumn 1944. It was intend­ed to unite the rebel forces of the Slo­vak Nation­al Upris­ing with the Sovi­et armies. After the Ger­mans suc­ceed­ed in sub­du­ing the upris­ing the oper­a­tion was halt­ed and both Sovi­et and Czechoslo­vak troops went on the defensive.

Cejl Prison – a for­mer prison in the part of Brno called Cejl, near today’s Muse­um of Romani Cul­ture. In 1784 – 1956 it was used as a prison, dur­ing the Pro­tec­torate it was used by the Czech Region­al Court, but part of it was allo­cat­ed to the wom­en’s depart­ment of the Gestapo and lat­er the Ger­man Region­al Court, includ­ing a sep­a­rate Ger­man prison in the rear wing, also oper­at­ed here. It served as a trans­fer sta­tion to oth­er pris­ons or con­cen­tra­tion camps.

Chico­ry – a cof­fee sub­sti­tute made from roast­ed chico­ry root.

Cocoa Army, see Cof­fee Army.

The Cof­fee Army, Cof­fee Com­pa­ny, Cocoa Army, Choco­late Army – an infor­mal name for the com­pul­so­ry replace­ment labour ser­vice for Roma con­scripts in Slo­va­kia dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, refer­ring to the colour of the shoul­der tabs.

Czechoslo­vak State Auto­mo­bile Trans­port – ČSAD, a state-owned enter­prise pro­vid­ing trans­port by bus­es and trucks between 1949 and 1989.

Jaroslav Daniel called Slávek – a prison offi­cial in the so-called gyp­sy camp Hodonín u Kunštá­tu, known for his cru­el­ty. From August 1943 he was interned in the Auschwitz II-Birke­nau camp.

Dora – code name for the Mit­tel­bau I con­cen­tra­tion camp near Nord­hausen. From August 1943 it was a branch of the Buchen­wald camp, in Octo­ber 1944 it became independent.

A town in the Trenčín region of Slo­va­kia. The local muni­tions fac­to­ry helped arm the Ger­man army dur­ing the war. Between 1942 and 1944, a labour camp oper­at­ed in Dub­ni­ca, where Roma were also interned. In Novem­ber 1944, it became a so-called hold­ing camp for gyp­sies, where Roma with their entire fam­i­lies were impris­oned. Its capac­i­ty of 300 peo­ple was more than dou­bled. It served pri­mar­i­ly as a col­lec­tion point, and Roma were deport­ed from there to oth­er camps. As a result of the poor camp con­di­tions, epi­dem­ic typhus broke out. On 23 Feb­ru­ary 1945, 26 sick male and female pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed near the camp.

Arnošt Dubový – crim­i­nal assis­tant to the plain-clothed Pro­tec­torate police. He was accused of cor­rup­tion in con­nec­tion with his assis­tance in the depor­ta­tion of Roma from Moravia to Auschwitz II-Birke­nau, but was acquit­ted in 1944 for alleged lack of evidence.

Bat­tle of Duk­la, see Carpatho-Duk­la Operation.

Ell­rich, in the tes­ti­monies as Ehrlich or Erlich – a sub­sidiary con­cen­tra­tion camp of Mit­tel­bau I (Dora).

Anton Facu­na (1920−1980) – an impor­tant Slo­vak Romani fight­er against Nazism and an activist. After the estab­lish­ment of the Slo­vak state in 1939, he was draft­ed into the Slo­vak army, desert­ed in 1944 and under­went train­ing as a vol­un­teer in Italy with the US army. Under the code­name Anton Novak, he was a mem­ber of a para­troop unit orga­nized by Amer­i­can mil­i­tary intel­li­gence called Oper­a­tion Day, with which he joined the Slo­vak Nation­al Upris­ing in the autumn of 1944. Co-founder and first chair­man of the Gyp­sy-Roma Asso­ci­a­tion in Slo­va­kia (1968−1970).

The 1^st Czechoslo­vak Army Corps in the Sovi­et Union, also known as Svoboda’s Army, was part of the Czechoslo­vak army that fought against the Nazis along­side the Red Army dur­ing World War II. The unit was formed in 1942 and became an army corps in 1944, when it also par­tic­i­pat­ed in the lib­er­a­tion of Czecho­slo­va­kia and took part in the Slo­vak Nation­al Uprising.

Karl Her­mann Frank (1898−1946) – as a mem­ber of the rad­i­cal wing of the Sude­ten Ger­man Par­ty, he was elect­ed to the Nation­al Assem­bly of the Czechoslo­vak Repub­lic in 1935, and in 1939 he became Chief of Police and State Sec­re­tary of the Office of the Reich Pro­tec­tor. In June 1942, after the assas­si­na­tion of Hey­drich, he ordered Lidice to be razed to the ground. After a failed escape from Prague, he was arrest­ed by the Amer­i­cans in May 1945 and hand­ed over to the Czechoslo­vak courts. A year lat­er, an extra­or­di­nary peo­ple’s court sen­tenced him to death for war crimes.

Kle­ment Gottwald (1896−1953) – com­mu­nist politi­cian, from 1929 until his death Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Com­mu­nist Par­ty of Czecho­slo­va­kia, Prime Min­is­ter in 1946 – 1948 and then Pres­i­dent of Czecho­slo­va­kia (1948−1953).

The so-called ​“Gyp­sy Camp” in Auschwitz, Auschwitz II-Birke­nau, B IIe — from Feb­ru­ary 1943 part of the Auschwitz II-Birke­nau exter­mi­na­tion camp. It was built in response to Himm­ler’s ​“Auschwitz-Erlass”, accord­ing to which all so-called Gyp­sies from the Reich were to be deport­ed to Auschwitz. Approx­i­mate­ly 22 000 Roma and Sin­ti passed through the camp, where the interned fam­i­lies remained togeth­er, most­ly Roma from Ger­many, Aus­tria and the Czech lands. The pris­on­ers were marked with a black tri­an­gle sewn onto their cloth­ing and the let­ter ​“Z” (Ger­man for Zige­uner) tat­tooed on their fore­arms. Only some of the pris­on­ers capa­ble of fur­ther slave labour were trans­ferred from there to oth­er con­cen­tra­tion camps. Thou­sands of oth­er Roma and Sin­ti per­ished either as a result of the appalling con­di­tions in the camp or in the gas cham­bers. Then, on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, the Ger­mans mur­dered in the gas cham­bers the last three thou­sand or so Roma and Sin­ti still liv­ing in the so-called Gyp­sy Camp.

So-called Gyp­sy iden­ti­ty card – an iden­ti­ty card issued by the dis­trict author­i­ties to per­sons on the basis of Act No.117/1927 Coll. on wan­der­ing gyp­sies of 14 July 1927, which was sup­posed to include ​“gyp­sies wan­der­ing from place to place and oth­er vagabonds avoid­ing work who live in the gyp­sy man­ner, in either case even if they have a per­ma­nent res­i­dence for part of the year — espe­cial­ly in win­ter”, but in prac­tice it was also issued to Roma with per­ma­nent res­i­den­cy. Hold­ers of the card were restrict­ed in their civ­il and human rights, e.g. they were for­bid­den to enter a num­ber of towns and vil­lages in Czecho­slo­va­kia (includ­ing Prague or spa towns), their chil­dren could be tak­en away from them and placed in fos­ter fam­i­lies or edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions, they were not allowed to car­ry weapons and they were list­ed by the crim­i­nal police.

Harzun­gen – a sub­sidiary camp of the Mit­tel­bau I con­cen­tra­tion camp (Dora).

Václav Hav­el (1936−2011) – play­wright, essay­ist, dis­si­dent, crit­ic of the com­mu­nist régime, lead­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the so-called Vel­vet Rev­o­lu­tion in 1989. He co-found­ed the Civic Forum, on behalf of which he ran for the pres­i­den­cy, to which he was elect­ed on 29 Decem­ber 1989. After the break-up of Czecho­slo­va­kia in 1992, he resigned and served two terms as Pres­i­dent of the new­ly estab­lished Czech Repub­lic from 1993 to 2003.

Héli (from Romani) – hous­es or set­tle­ment, a term used in West Slo­va­kian Romani (from Hun­gar­i­an hely mean­ing place).

Franz Herzig — Crim­i­nal Sec­re­tary of the Ger­man Crim­i­nal Police.

Rein­hard Hey­drich (1904−1942) – one of the main orga­niz­ers of the geno­cide of Jews and Roma, founder and head of the Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (Sicher­heits­di­enst) and the Reich Secu­ri­ty Office (RSHA). From Sep­tem­ber 1941, when he became act­ing Reich Pro­tec­tor, he pro­mot­ed the plan to Ger­man­ise the pop­u­la­tion of Bohemia and Moravia. He died after an assas­si­na­tion attempt by Czechoslo­vak para­troop­ers on 27 May 1942 as part of Oper­a­tion Anthro­poid, organ­ised by the gov­ern­ment-in-exile in Lon­don. In response to the assas­si­na­tion, the Nazis wiped out Lidice and Ležáky, arrest­ed and exe­cut­ed sev­er­al hun­dred peo­ple and took oth­ers to con­cen­tra­tion camps.

Hlin­ka Guards – a para­mil­i­tary organ­i­sa­tion of Hlinka’s Slo­vak Peo­ple’s Par­ty, formed in 1938. After the estab­lish­ment of the Slo­vak state, they became part of the secu­ri­ty appa­ra­tus and active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the depor­ta­tion of Slo­vak Jews, the expul­sion of Roma from vil­lages and their lynch­ing. Dur­ing the Slo­vak Nation­al Upris­ing, they took part along­side Ger­man troops in actions against the insur­gents and the civil­ian population.

Hodonínek, see Hodonín u Kunštátu.

Hodonín u Kunštá­tu, in the tes­ti­monies as Hodonínek – a vil­lage in Moravia in the dis­trict of Blan­sko, where a so-called Gyp­sy camp (Zige­uner­lager II) was estab­lished on 2 August 1942 with a capac­i­ty of 800 per­sons, but where approx­i­mate­ly 1 400 Romani men, women and chil­dren, most­ly from Moravia, were interned. Most of them were deport­ed to the Auschwitz II-Birke­nau exter­mi­na­tion camp. As a result of the slave labour and inhu­man liv­ing con­di­tions, approx­i­mate­ly 200 peo­ple per­ished in the Hodonín camp and were buried in near­by Čer­novice and in the for­est near the camp at a place lat­er called Žalov; only few of the internees were released after the camp was closed in 1943.

Tomáš Holomek (1911−1988) – Romani lawyer (he com­plet­ed his stud­ies before the war in 1946), active mem­ber of the Gyp­sy-Roma Union (1969−1973), father of Karel Holomek, anoth­er promi­nent mem­ber of the Union and co-founder of the Muse­um of Romani Cul­ture in Brno.

Rudolf Höss (1901−1947) – the first chief com­man­dant of the Auschwitz con­cen­tra­tion camp.

Gustáv Husák (1913−1991) – Slo­vak com­mu­nist offi­cial, in 1975 – 1989 Pres­i­dent of the Czechoslo­vak Social­ist Republic.

Kapo – in a Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camp, a guard appoint­ed from among the pris­on­ers, in charge of a work unit. The word prob­a­bly comes from the Ital­ian capo (head, but also boss or foreman).

Katyusha (from Russ­ian) – a type of rock­et launch­er pro­duced by the Sovi­et Union dur­ing World War II.

Kennkarte (from Ger­man) – the basic iden­ti­ty doc­u­ment of cit­i­zens of the Third Reich, includ­ing on the ter­ri­to­ry of the Protectorate.

Václav Klaus (1941) – econ­o­mist and politi­cian. In Decem­ber 1989, he became Min­is­ter of Finance and then Deputy Prime Min­is­ter of the Czechoslo­vak Gov­ern­ment, from 1992 to 1998 he was Prime Min­is­ter of the Czech Repub­lic and from 2003 to 2013 Pres­i­dent of the Czech Republic.

Josef Korčák (1921−2008) – politi­cian, mem­ber of the Com­mu­nist Par­ty of Czecho­slo­va­kia. Until 1968 he was a mem­ber of par­lia­ment and a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, dur­ing the nor­mal­i­sa­tion peri­od he served as Prime Min­is­ter of the Czech Social­ist Repub­lic and Deputy Prime Min­is­ter of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment from 1970 to 1987. He was also a mem­ber of the Pre­sid­i­um of the Cen­tral Com­mit­tee of the Com­mu­nist Par­ty of Czecho­slo­va­kia and Chair­man of the Cen­tral Com­mit­tee of the Nation­al Front.

Kos­tivár­na – a tem­po­rary hous­ing estate also called U kos­tivárny was built grad­u­al­ly near the spodi­um fac­to­ry in Brno-Cer­novice. Accord­ing to the 1930 cen­sus, it con­sist­ed of 25 emer­gency dwellings with 103 inhab­i­tants, most­ly Roma. In 1943, the local Roma were deport­ed to con­cen­tra­tion camps.

Ele­na Lack­ová (1921−2003) – a promi­nent Romani writer, play­wright, and cul­tur­al and social work­er. In 1948, she wrote a play called The Burn­ing Gyp­sy Camp, in which she depict­ed the expe­ri­ence of the Roma dur­ing World War II and with which she toured through­out Czecho­slo­va­kia. She raised five chil­dren and, at the age of 42, enrolled in dis­tance learn­ing at the Fac­ul­ty of Jour­nal­ism and Edu­ca­tion at Charles Uni­ver­si­ty, from which she grad­u­at­ed in 1970 as the first Romani woman from Slo­va­kia. Her best-known auto­bi­og­ra­phy is I Was Born Under a Lucky Star.

Legionary (from Latin) – a mem­ber of an army unit, the so-called legion. In the con­text of the First World War, the Czechoslo­vak Legions in Rus­sia, vol­un­teer mil­i­tary units on Russ­ian ter­ri­to­ry in 1914 – 1920, which fought first against the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an and Ger­man armies in the Ukraine and then togeth­er with the White Guards and for­eign inter­ven­tion­ists against the Red Army. One of the main com­man­ders of the legions in Rus­sia was Radola Gajda.

Lety u Písku — a vil­lage in the dis­trict of Písek, where the so-called Gyp­sy camp (Zige­uner­lager I) was estab­lished on 2 August 1942. In addi­tion to Roma and Sin­ti, most­ly from Bohemia, sev­er­al dozen peo­ple who were not Roma but were con­sid­ered ​“gyp­sies” by the state admin­is­tra­tion were interned there. Of the approx­i­mate­ly 1,300 internees, approx­i­mate­ly 320 peo­ple, most­ly chil­dren, did not sur­vive the ter­ri­ble con­di­tions of the camp. They were first buried in the ceme­tery in neigh­bour­ing Mirovice, and lat­er in a makeshift bur­ial in the woods near the camp. Most of the pris­on­ers were deport­ed in May 1943 to the Auschwitz II-Birke­nau exter­mi­na­tion camp, only some of the internees were released after the camp was closed in 1943.

Maria-Lanzen­dorf – a vil­lage in Low­er Aus­tria, where one of the many sub­sidiary camps of the Mau­thausen con­cen­tra­tion camp was located.

Josef Men­gele (1911−1979) – a Ger­man SS offi­cer and doc­tor nick­named the Angel of Death, respon­si­ble for pseu­do-med­ical sadis­tic exper­i­ments on pris­on­ers in Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camps, espe­cial­ly Auschwitz. He sent 400,000 pris­on­ers to the gas chambers.

Mit­tel­bau I, see Dora.

Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni (1883−1945) – Ital­ian prime min­is­ter, politi­cian and dic­ta­tor, founder of the Fas­cist Party.

Musul­mann, musul­man, muzl­man (from the Ger­man Musel­mann or Musel­man, mean­ing in a sit­ting posi­tion, falling for­ward in exhaus­tion – as a Mus­lim in prayer) – in camp jar­gon, a pris­on­er at the lim­it of their phys­i­cal and men­tal capac­i­ties, exhaust­ed by pro­longed star­va­tion and toil; dull, apa­thet­ic, ema­ci­at­ed to the bone.

Ján Nálep­ka (1912−1943) – as an offi­cer in the army of the Slo­vak state he defect­ed to the Rus­sians on the East­ern Front and became com­man­der of the 1^st Czechoslo­vak par­ti­san unit in the USSR. He was killed in the bat­tle for Ovruč. In memo­ri­am pro­mot­ed to brigadier general.

Natzweil­er-Struthof – a Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camp near the French town of Natzwiler (Ger­man: Natzweil­er) in Ger­man-occu­pied Alsace. From May 1941 to Novem­ber 1944, approx­i­mate­ly 52,000 pris­on­ers from all over Europe passed through the camp. About 22,000 of them died or were mur­dered there.

Nord­hausen – town in Thuringia. In the for­mer Luft­waffe bar­racks was one of the largest camps for forced labour­ers who assem­bled jet engines for the Junkers com­pa­ny. In Jan­u­ary 1945, part of the site became a branch camp of the Mit­tel­bau con­cen­tra­tion camp for dying and sick pris­on­ers unable to work, where three thou­sand pris­on­ers died over the next three months on the floors of con­crete sheds with­out any facilities.

Oberkapo (from Ger­man) – chief kapo in con­cen­tra­tion camps appoint­ed from among the prisoners.

Ober­lan­drat (from Ger­man) – an admin­is­tra­tive unit of the Ger­man occu­pa­tion admin­is­tra­tion with­in the Protectorate.

Bedřich Pešek — super­vi­sor of the so-called ​“Gyp­sy Camp I” in Lety u Písku, in charge of super­vis­ing the camp kitchen (Küchenauf­se­her).

Phleg­mon – a med­ical term describ­ing an inflam­ma­tion of soft tis­sue that spreads under the skin or inside the body.

Plaveč – a vil­lage in the Stará Ľubovňa dis­trict in Slo­va­kia, where a labour camp oper­at­ed from the sum­mer of 1944 until the end of the year. In addi­tion to pris­on­ers of war, many Roma also par­tic­i­pat­ed in dig­ging trench­es and build­ing for­ti­fi­ca­tions for the defence of the Ger­man army.

Primáš – the first vio­lin­ist of a folk band.

Rajsko, Ger­man Raisko – a vil­lage near Auschwitz, where the Ger­mans set up a sub-camp of the Auschwitz con­cen­tra­tion camp.

Ravens­brück – a vil­lage in north­ern Ger­many, near which a Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camp, pri­mar­i­ly for women, oper­at­ed between 1939 and 1945.

Roma head­man, see vajda.

Joseph Vis­sar­i­onovich Stal­in (1878−1953) – Sovi­et dic­ta­tor, Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Com­mu­nist Par­ty of the Sovi­et Union in 1922 – 1953.

Stuben­di­enst (from Ger­man) – in a con­cen­tra­tion camp, a prison offi­cial in charge of a sec­tion of a block, usu­al­ly one room.

Sude­ten­land (from Ger­man) – a term refer­ring to the ter­ri­to­ries in north­ern, west­ern and south­ern Bohemia, Sile­sia and north­ern and south­ern Moravia, annexed by Ger­many after the Munich Agree­ment in Sep­tem­ber 1938. Orig­i­nal­ly, these were areas where the major­i­ty of the pop­u­la­tion spoke Ger­man. The Sude­ten­land was not part of the Pro­tec­torate and were rein­cor­po­rat­ed in Czecho­slo­va­kia in 1945. Fol­low­ing a pres­i­den­tial decree of August 1945, per­sons of Ger­man nation­al­i­ty were deprived of Czechoslo­vak cit­i­zen­ship and the gov­ern­ment decid­ed to expel them. More than three mil­lion peo­ple were thus dis­pos­sessed and expelled. The sub­se­quent short­age of labour in the bor­der areas meant that the inhab­i­tants of oth­er parts of Czecho­slo­va­kia were — some­times forcibly — relo­cat­ed there. Sev­er­al thou­sand Roma from Slo­va­kia and the Czech inte­ri­or also end­ed up in the for­mer Sude­ten­land after the war.

Lud­vík Svo­bo­da (1895−1979) – Czechoslo­vak sol­dier and politi­cian. He was cap­tured as an Aus­tri­an sol­dier on the East­ern Front in World War I and then fought as a legionary. In 1939 he escaped to Poland. Released from intern­ment in in the Sovi­et Union after the Nazi inva­sion, he grad­u­al­ly orga­nized a Czechoslo­vak field bat­tal­ion from offi­cers and vol­un­teers, the 1^st Czechoslo­vak Inde­pen­dent Field Bat­tal­ion, , the nucle­us of 1^st Czechoslo­vak Army Corps in the USSR, which he com­mand­ed. From 1968 to 1975 he was Pres­i­dent of Czechoslovakia.

Svoboda’s Army, see First Czechoslo­vak Army Corps in the Sovi­et Union

See There­sien­stadt

There­sien­stadt, Czech Terezín – a town in the Ústí nad Labem region. In 1941, a so-called ​“Jew­ish ghet­to” was estab­lished here and the orig­i­nal inhab­i­tants of the town had to leave Terezín. The ghet­to served as a col­lec­tion camp for Jews before depor­ta­tion to the exter­mi­na­tion camps, but also as an ​“old-age” ghet­to for elder­ly Jews from Ger­many or Aus­tria or for Jew­ish nota­bles, promi­nent inter­war politi­cians, sci­en­tists, etc. About 155 thou­sand peo­ple passed through the ghet­to, of whom almost 120 thou­sand did not sur­vive the war. Through­out the war, the Terezín Small Fortress was a Gestapo prison where some Czech and Mora­vian Roma and Sin­ti were interned.

Jozef Tiso (1887−1947) – Catholic priest, mem­ber of par­lia­ment and min­is­ter of the Czechoslo­vak gov­ern­ment, prime min­is­ter of the Slo­vak autonomous gov­ern­ment and the gov­ern­ment of the Slo­vak state, supreme com­man­der of the Hlin­ka Guards and the Slo­vak army, Pres­i­dent of the Slo­vak state in 1939 – 1945. In 1947 he was sen­tenced to death in Bratislava.

Tri Duby – the his­tor­i­cal name of today’s Sli­ač air­port in the Ban­ská Bystri­ca district.

The Union of Gyp­sies-Roma – the first offi­cial­ly autho­rized Romani orga­ni­za­tion in the Czech lands. It oper­at­ed from 1969 – 1973, after which the Com­mu­nist author­i­ties banned it. It sought to improve the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic sta­tus of Roma and Sin­ti and was also involved in cul­tur­al, sport­ing, social and com­mem­o­ra­tive activ­i­ties. By the end of its exis­tence, it had brought togeth­er some 8,500 people.

The Unit­ed Nations Relief and Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Admin­is­tra­tion, or UNR­RA – oper­at­ed from 1943 to 1947 as an inter­na­tion­al relief orga­ni­za­tion for vic­tims of World War II under the con­trol of the Unit­ed Nations. It coor­di­nat­ed and pro­vid­ed assis­tance rang­ing from pro­vid­ing food, med­i­cine and raw mate­ri­als to rebuild­ing infra­struc­ture, and played a key role in repa­tri­at­ing dis­placed per­sons dur­ing and after the war.

V1, V2 – Ger­man so-called retal­ia­to­ry weapons (Vergel­tungswaf­fen), which were intend­ed to reverse the course of the Sec­ond World War. Their ser­i­al pro­duc­tion began in 1944 and by June the first V1 was launched at Lon­don. Besides Lon­don, the most com­mon tar­gets for V1 air-launched mis­siles and V2 bal­lis­tic mis­siles were Antwerp and oth­er Euro­pean cities.

Vaj­da – a Romani leader, who usu­al­ly act­ed as a medi­a­tor between Romani peo­ple and the sur­round­ing majority.

Jaroslav Vedral-Sáza­vský (1895−1944) – sol­dier, staff offi­cer and mil­i­tary teacher. Dur­ing the First World War he was tak­en pris­on­er by the Rus­sians on the East­ern Front and fought as a legionary. After the Ger­man occu­pa­tion, he orga­nized an exile army in France and Lon­don and left for the East­ern Front in 1944 at his own request. He was one of two Czechoslo­vak gen­er­als killed in the Bat­tle of the Duk­la Pass when his car hit a Ger­man mine on 6 Octo­ber 1944.

Videoton – a Hun­gar­i­an com­pa­ny nation­al­ized after World War II spe­cial­iz­ing in the pro­duc­tion of elec­tron­ic equip­ment. It had an office in Prague.

Vlaso­vites – mil­i­tary units of the Russ­ian Lib­er­a­tion Army (ROA). Dur­ing World War II, they were recruit­ed from Russ­ian pris­on­ers of war, defec­tors, for­mer emi­grants and oppo­nents of the Sovi­et régime who vol­un­teered to fight against the Sovi­et Union on the side of Nazi Ger­many. The term Vlaso­vites derives from the name of Gen­er­al Andrey Andreye­vich Vlasov, who, as a promi­nent Russ­ian pris­on­er of war, orga­nized the ROA and was appoint­ed its first commander.

Volkssturm – Ger­man Peo­ple’s Mili­tia, which was formed by order of Adolf Hitler on 25 Sep­tem­ber 1944. Volkssturm — civil­ians, men aged 16 – 60 armed with light weapons, were sup­posed to pro­tect rear posi­tions, but from Jan­u­ary 1945 they also fought on the front line.

Vorar­beit­er (from Ger­man) – in the con­cen­tra­tion camps, a fore­man, a sub­or­di­nate leader of a work unit in charge of about ten prisoners.

Har­ald Wies­mann (1909−1947) – nick­named the God of Klad­no — crim­i­nal com­mis­sion­er and SS-Haupt­sturm­führer, from Octo­ber 1939 to Sep­tem­ber 1943 head of the Klad­no sta­tion. He was respon­si­ble for the anni­hi­la­tion of Lidice. Exe­cut­ed in Prague in 1947.

Wit­ten­berge – a town in Bran­den­burg. In August 1942, the first sub-camp of the main camp Neuengamme was estab­lished here, which oper­at­ed until Feb­ru­ary 1945.