For more than half a million Roma in Czechia and Slovakia , October 15, 2026, marks an important milestone.

That day, an exhibition on a largely forgotten chapter of Czech history opened at the Museum of the Romani National Revival in Prague. The exhibit explores the role of Czech and Slovak Romani resistance fighters during the Nazi German occupation and the dismantling of Czechoslovakia from 1938 to 1945.

Until now, Czech and Slovak Roma appeared in the history of World War II almost exclusively as victims of the Holocaust against Roma and Sinti. In the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Nazi Germany murdered approximately 90% of the Czech Roma during World War II.

However, what is less well known is that a large number of Czech and Slovak Roma fought against the German occupiers as partisans in resistance groups and as soldiers in the Czechoslovak Underground Army, or Defense of the Nation, ON.

The organizers of the exhibition hope that people will bring their children and grandchildren to…