Čeněk Růžička
Jury Member
He comes from a family of original nomadic Czech Roma. His parents only met after nearly all members of their families had been killed in the concentration camps during the war. He grew up in an environment where the suffering of his parents and other Roma families during the war was much talked about. In 1991, he took charge of his parents' claims for political prisoner status. In 1997, he was entrusted by the Council of Elders of the Traditional Czech Roma and Sinti to enforce the legitimate claims of former Roma prisoners of concentration camps and families of victims. He is a co-founder of the civic association, the Committee for the Compensation of the Holocaust of the Roma in the Czech Republic, of which he is the chairman. He was a leader in the struggle for the removal of the pig farm in Lety and a dignified reminder of the victims of the so-called Gypsy camp in Lety.
