Karel Holomek was a prominent Roma activist, publicist and politician. He was born on 6 March 1937 into a family of indigenous Moravian Roma who settled in Moravia at the end of the 17th century. Like his father, Tomáš Holomek (the first university-educated Romani person in Czechoslovakia) graduated in mechanical engineering from the Military Academy in Brno and worked there as an assistant for several years.
Because of his opposition to the occupation of Czechoslovakia, he was expelled from the faculty. He was active in the first Czech Roma organisation: the Union of Gypsies-Roma. From 1982 to 1989 he worked for a samizdat publishing house, and in the post-Soviet period he served as a member of the Czech National Council for the Civic Forum. In 1991, he was a founding member of the Museum of Romani Culture and the non-profit organization Community of Roma in Moravia / Romano jekhetaniben pre Morava (providing social and legal counseling and outreach programs in Romani localities, publishing the Romano Hangos, a Romani-Czech fortnightly). Karel Holomek has received a number of important awards, including the Medal of Merit for the Czech Republic from President Václav Havel, the Roma Spirit Award, and the Museum of Romani Culture Award for his many years of tireless work on behalf of the Roma ethnic group and for the significant role he played in establishing and building the Museum.
He remains one of the most important Romani personalities.
Image : Karel Holomek photographed by Chad Wyatt