Matěj Šarközi

* 1948

  • "My parents found it hard to tell the story about Roma people being groundlessly beaten by the Revolutionary Guards. Just like that they went behind the village where Roma people were living and started beating them. That white guy was frustrated and so he vented it on the Roma. I grew up in the narrative that all wrongoings were conducted by Germans but my parents knew another story. My mother said: 'I had no flour, soap, salt.' She went to the Germans and they gave her some. I don't know, everyone says all the bad things were done by Germans but those Germans were good to us Roma people. Up until the point when they found out that they supported the partisans. The local Roma people gave partisans a whole book to use for rolling cigarettes. My mummy went to scrounge when there was no food and when she got lucky she gave some of the food to the partisans who'd pick it at night. We were living below the forest and would give them whatever we had - bread, bacon..."

  • "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."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Písek, 10.11.2016

    (audio)
    délka: 01:06:13
  • 2

    Hroznová, Praha 1, 25.11.2016

    (audio)
    délka: 01:43:54
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

They asked me whether I was a communist and I told them I wasn‘t and that I had no intention to become one

Matěj Šarközi as a nominee of the Civic Forum for the local assembly in Písek
Matěj Šarközi as a nominee of the Civic Forum for the local assembly in Písek
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Matěj Šarközi was born on 2 December 1948 in a Roma settlement near the village of Čaradice in mid-western Slovakia as the eighth of nine children. His father was a renowned musician while his mother took care of the household and worked for local farmers. His parents and older siblings faced persecution during WW II from the hands of the Hlinka Guard. After the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising they had to hide in forests to avoid reprisals by the German army which was legitimately suspecting them of supporting the partisans. Despite his parents being illiterate, only speaking Romani at home, and walking several kilometers to school, Matěj Šarközi finished both elementary and a higher agricultural school. He then worked at the Single Agricultural Cooperative in Čaradice after which he undertook compulsory military service in Písek, Bohemia. There he had met his future wife and decided to stay. Up until 1989 he worked in blue-collar jobs. He also chaired a Roma children choir and at the turn of 1960s and 1970s was head of the inspecting committee of the local branch of the Union of Gypsies-Roma. Multiple times he declined an offer to join the Communist Party. After 1989 he worked as an Roma advisor and as field social worker in People in Need. He took part in the first congress of the Roma Civic Initiative in Prague and as a Civic Forum representative was co-opted to the municipal assembly of Písek. From 1997 till 2004 he was a member of the governmental body dealing with Roma issues. There, he advocated for an amendment of the Citizenship Act as well as for compensation of Roma victims of WW II.