COURAGE

Свързване на колекции

Michael Bourdeaux, with help from Sir John Lawrence, Leonard Schapiro and Peter Reddaway, founded the Centre for the Study of Religion and Communism, forerunner of the Keston Center profiled in this registry. When the group purchased vacant property in Kent, England in 1974, the institution was renamed the Keston College. Active during the last two decades of the Cold War, the Keston College and Keston Institute (renamed 1994) called themselves as the “voice of the voiceless” and defenders of the faith. Dissemination of information on religious life in the Soviet countries was a crucial pillar of the institution’s mission. Thus, the staff committed personnel and resources to obtaining information on religious dissent and other oppositional movements on the part of repressed religious minorities. 

The Constituent Congress of the Roma-Gypsy Union was held in Brno on 30^th August 1969. There were 176 delegates from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia with a majority of them being men. The downing session was opened by Antonín Daniel, a member of the Central Committee. Representatives of various ministries and state and party bodies attended the congress. After the initial welcome, the participants of the Congress greeted Roma victims of Nazism. The key speeches were the speech by Tomáš Holomek and Miroslav Holomek. Tomáš Holomek started the meeting and according to him the history of the Roma was characterised by "... oppression, persecution, racial discrimination and attempts to assimilate violently, with tendencies of physical liquidation and genocide." The period after the war saw a new hope for the Roma. According to Tomáš Holomek, the Union should become a means of "self-realisation of the Roma, of whom almost a third were illiterate, and most of them lived in difficult social conditions." After the opening speech of Tomáš Holomek, a discussion took place, where more than 20 delegates made their contributions. The final speech was given by Miroslav Holomek, who summed up the discussion and also characterised the future activity of the association and its focus. He outlined the most serious problems that the Roma community faces and identified them as priority tasks. These include, for example, health, social, educational, housing, etc. He also addressed the issue of the Roma community as well as the importance of promoting and creating Roma pride. This contribution ended the first congress of the Roma in the Czech lands.