Explore the roots of antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe.
This interactive timeline is divided into four historical periods and allows you to move through time by scrolling or by jumping to a specific period, filter events by country, and view short descriptions by hovering over each event, with selected entries offering more detailed historical context.
EXPLORE THE PAST
2004 – 2024
The European Union
Across 2004–2024, antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe persisted and adapted despite EU accession, shifting from overt violence toward politicised discourse, institutional discrimination, and digitally mediated hate. While legal frameworks and inclusion strategies expanded, weak enforcement enabled far-right actors, populist narratives, and online networks to normalise conspiracy theories, historical revisionism, and collective blame. Jewish and Roma communities continued to face symbolic attacks on memory sites, segregation in housing and education, police abuse, and renewed scapegoating during crises such as migration, COVID-19, and military conflicts—revealing a persistent gap between formal commitments to equality and lived experience.
2020
2019
2018
2016
2013
2012
Anti-Roma protest in Břeclav after a false accusation
Aš Arson Attack by Blood & Honour and Combat 18 Members
2011
Anti-Roma Riot in Varnsdorf, Šluknov Region
Molotov Attack on Roma Home in Krty
Arson Attack on Roma Flat in Býchory
2009
Arson attack at the Roma in Vítkov: two-year-old girl seriously injured
2008
Mass anti-Roma riots in Litvínov – Janov
Assault in Benešov by a group of young neo-Nazis
Gas-Pistol Attack on Roma Women in Holešov
2006
1991 – 2004
The Time of Democratization
The collapse of state socialism brought democratic freedoms but also enabled the re-emergence of antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe. As economies and national identities were rebuilt, far-right subcultures, nationalist rhetoric, and historical revisionism gained ground, leading to street violence, symbolic attacks, and hostile public discourse. Jewish communities faced vandalism and Holocaust denial, while Roma communities experienced severe violence, segregation, and police abuse amid economic upheaval. Although minority-rights frameworks expanded, inconsistent enforcement allowed racialised exclusion to persist, revealing the fragility of new democracies in protecting vulnerable groups.
2001
1999
Attack on a Roma dance party in České Budějovice by neo-Nazi skinheads
1998
Killing of Milan Lacko in Orlová
Neo-Nazi arson attack on a Roma family in Krnov
1996
Bomb attack on Roma family home in Plavy
Racist speech of far-right politician Miroslav Sládek against Roma in the Czech parliament
1995
Mass violent clash in Broumov between racist skinheads and several Roma
A Romani father was murdered in his apartment in Ždár nad Sázavou while defending his family from racist skinheads
1994
1993
1945 – 1991
The Time of Authoritarianism
After 1945, antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe did not disappear but were reshaped under communist rule through surveillance, repression, and ideological control. Jewish communities faced postwar hostility, obstructed restitution, and later state-led “anti-Zionism” that marginalised Jewish identity, censored Holocaust memory, detroyed careers and forced to emigration[JW1.1]. Roma communities experienced systematic discrimination through forced settlement, cultural erasure, segregated education, and racialised policing, justified as socialist “assimilation.” While regimes proclaimed equality and antifascism, both forms of racism were embedded in state institutions and everyday governance, leaving Jewish and Roma communities silenced, controlled, and vulnerable on the eve of democratic transition.
1991
Murder of Roma man Juraj Šarközy by Czech racist skinheads in Čerčany
Racist murder of a six-year-old Roma boy in Jičíněves, Radek Rudolf
Death of Roma Josef Sztojka in Hradec Králové as a result of an attack by racist skinheads
Killing of Emil Bendik in Klatovy
1990
Attack by racist skinheads on a group of Roma in Děčín and subsequent riots
1986
An explosive device detonated near Roma homes in Prague
The emergence of racist skinheads in Česká Lípa and anti-Roma violence
Action of the secret police StB called “Deflection-Aranka” against the Roma movement
1984
Youngsters in Ostrava beat and obliterate Roma letters under the name “Union of Terrorist Youth”
Neo-Nazi plot against Roma uncovered in Ústí nad Labem
1972
Commencement of construction of a pig farm extending into the area of the former gypsy concentration camp in Lety u Písku
1971
Coerced Sterilisation of Romani Women
Forced police removal of Roma after the Strážnice festival
1965
Forced resettlement of Roma based on the government resolution “on measures to address issues of the Gypsy population”
1960
1958
1956
1954
1948
The acquittal of the former commander of the so-called Gypsy camp in Lety
1946
1939 – 1945
Times of War and Genocide
Between 1939 and 1945, antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe were transformed into state-organised systems of persecution and genocide under Nazi occupation and collaborationist regimes. Jews were systematically stripped of rights, property, and livelihoods before being ghettoised, deported, and murdered in extermination camps, while Roma and Sinti were subjected to forced settlement, labour, internment, mass executions, and deportation as part of the Porajmos. These crimes were enabled not only by Nazi policy but also by local administrations, police forces, and societal participation, embedding racial violence into everyday governance. By the war’s end, Jewish life had been almost entirely destroyed and Roma communities devastated, leaving legacies of loss and trauma that would shape post-war marginalisation and memory across the region.
1944
1942
Himmler orders deportation of Roma to Auschwitz
Order introducing racial segregation of Roma in the Protectorate
Assassination of Heydrich and subsequent reprisals
Regulation introducing preventive police custody for Roma
Labour camps converted into assembly camps
1941
Nazi officials discuss deportation of Roma
Execution of Roma in Brno under martial law
Reinhard Heydrich appointed Deputy Reich Protector
1940
Labour camps established at Lety u Písku and Hodonín u Kunštátu
Gestapo police prison established in Terezín
Order intensifying Roma “settlement actions”
1939
Protectorate bans nomadic life for Roma and Sinti
Protectorate adopts disciplinary labour camp regulation
Konstantin von Neurath appointed Reich Protector
Proclamation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
Government regulation establishing disciplinary labour camps
FROM MEMORY
TO MONITORING
You’ve explored the past – now see how history is connected to the present. View recent incidents of antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe.