To whom it may concern:

We would like to inform you that the National Fund of the Republic of Austria has adapted its guidelines for the support of victims of National Socialism.

In the attached PDF document you will find all the important information.

You are invited to an international online conference for teachers "Facing Holocaust Today", which is held on 9th - 11th September 2021. The conference is held on the 80th anniversary of the Jewish codex (anti-jewish laws) in Slovakia.

For twenty years, the non-profit organization Institute of the Terezín Initiative (ITI) has been creating a unique database of 175,000 Czechoslovak Holocaust victims. In addition, IT organizes a well-known annual nationwide event – the Public Reading of the Holocaust Victims` Names – Yom Ha-Shoa. This event was probably the reason for the dismissal of director Tereza Štěpková. The Board of Directors removed her from day to day without giving a valid reason. The chairman of the board, Pavel Štingl, appointed a lawyer, Martin Thiel, to replace her. ITI staff fear that the victims' database and other projects will be suspended or cancelled.

We would like to invite you to partake in the 16th edition of the Public Reading of the Holocaust Victims' Names - Yom Ha-Shoah on April 8, 2021 from 2 pm to 5 pm.

As in the years before, we participate with our reading of names in the honouring of the heroes and victims of the Holocaust, called Yom Hazikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) that reminds us of the day the Jewish prisoners of the Warsaw Ghetto stood up against their oppressors. As in the years before, we will read out the names of those persecuted and killed by the Nazis during WWII just because of their origin.

Unfortunately, like in the last year, we will only be able to meet online.

We have added the data of 329 victims of the national socialist persecution of people labelled as “gypsies” on the grounds of today’s Czech Republic to the database of victims on our website holocaust.cz. All 329 people died in the so-called “gypsy camp” in Lety u Písku. The national socialist persecution of people labelled as “gypsies” hit most of the Roma and Sinti present on the territory of today’s Czech Republic during World War II. The public part of the database contains basic data of those who died during the whole period the camp existed, from August, 1942 till August, 1943: Name, date and place of birth, duration of imprisonment and date and place of death. Furthr data on prisoners of this camp are available only to registered users of the database due to privacy reasons. Questions concerning the database or individual victims can be addressed directly to ITI staff at database@terezinstudies.cz.
 

The highlight of this 15^th year of the Public Reading of the Holocaust Victims Names – Yom ha-Shoah will be identity – of our towns and villages, communities and ourselves, everything what it is being created and influenced by.
As our identity is being influenced by a situation so far unexperienced, we were forced to decide that due to all the measures related to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) epidemics, that this years Public Reading – Yom Hashoah 2020 will not be taking place in real public space of 28 cities that had joined the event this year.

The date remains. On April 21^st 2020 a website will be opened, which would be accessible to all those interested in reading the names online in a live stream, between 2 and 5pm. In order to make the process smooth, we kindly ask you to register for the reading in advance at jomhasoa@terezinstudies.cz. Each participant will be then given detailed instructions how to proceed.

We apologize to our readers using the English version of the web holocaust.cz - the changes made within the last days aren't visible for you yet. Still, we thank you very much for your patience and understanding. Within the next weeks and months, also the English version of our website will undergo changes and in a short while, new content and a more understandable structure will be available also for you!