Matěj Šarközi

"It happened in Kremnička that they burnt the Roma down. In Žarnovec - an old Roma man told me that - they flocked the Roma into one house, poured gasoline around it, put in on fire and shot dead anyone who ran out. It was sufficient that the local mayor stated that the Roma were not good. I want to underline that in our village, Roma people weren't forced to steal. My daddy, his brothers and his uncles lived at our place. They were musicians and blacksmiths - so 'no-Romas'. When I worked in the agricultural collective they showed us chains and plow blades they produced. I couldn't believe how skillful they were. Our no-Romas said that the Roma were good, that they didn't steal and when they had nothing, they'd come and ask for something. When they had the money they'd even pay and when they hadn't, they'd work it off at the farmers'. Nobody gave anything out for free - same as now."

"Today, Roma who are forty or fifty years old - not all but many - can't even read and write properly. They attended so-called special schools where they learned nothing. What did it lead to? Them working in auxiliary jobs, as diggers, cleaning ladies. Roma people only with a broom. This isn't the worst part - it's their children who also attend special schools and their parents aren't able to help them out because they don't know anything themselves. How should they help them? But nobody minds. They say - Roma people don't want to study. But how should they if their parents attended special schools? They only put Roma kids there because they were Roma. Thus they sentenced them to the worst of jobs. At present we don't even have those. If Romani people wanted to make progress and be at least a bit as the majority society they'd need their children to attend and study at normal schools. Special schools are for children who are handicapped but Roma children are healthy - it's just that their parents aren't able to study with them the way other children's parents are if they want them to be succesful in life. And those other parents can help out because they studied good schools but how should the Roma people do it? I'm sure they knew that we were only good for the worst jobs."