Pandemic has increased deprivation and stigmatisation of continent’s largest minority are being particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic in many countries because they face a combination of health risks economic deprivation and increased stigmatisation Around 80% of Europe’s 10 million Roma live in densely populated neighbourhoods and overcrowded houses, and many do not have access to running water This means the basic distancing and sanitary measures required to combat the spread of the virus are more difficult In some countries this has already led to scapegoating of Roma communities as potential illness hotspots “This disaster will not only affect the Roma but also mainstream societies, economies, and politics, and heighten inter-ethnic conflict to a level not seen in the last three decades,” according to a recent report by the Open Society Foundations on the impact of coronavirus on Roma in six countries with sizeable communities: Bulgaria Roma neighbourhoods in Bulgaria and Slovakia have been cordoned off amid fears of the virus spreading Police checkpoints were introduced outside two large neighbourhoods in Sofia and people were only allowed to leave the area if they could show a work contract or prove another urgent reason for doing so “I would say that coercion is needed in certain situations there because we are obliged to protect the rest of the population,” Bulgaria’s interior minister said when the measures were introduced in March The controls on the Sofia neighbourhoods were lifted in late April but on Monday a number of streets in the Roma neighbourhood of the town of Sliven were blockaded after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases there five Roma settlements were put under quarantine in early April in a move that rights activists decried as discriminatory Four of the settlements have since had the quarantine lifted “Even if there was some justification for concern the security measures have not been followed up by proper health measures and social aid measures A lot of people were left without water and medication,” said Zeljko Jovanovic the head of the Open Society Roma initiatives and one of the authors of the report an anthropologist specialising in Bulgaria’s Roma community said pointing the finger at Roma people was the latest example in a long history of minorities being blamed for spreading disease and of the Roma being blamed for state failures “The idea of who is a likely vector of contagion is racialised and the blame is shifted from state structural issues to the people themselves saying ‘these people aren’t clean’,” she said Police check a woman’s papers in the largest Roma neighbourhood of Sofia Photograph: Dimitar Kyosemarliev/ReutersMany Roma people work in grey market day-to-day jobs meaning they were laid off as the pandemic hit and may not be eligible for state compensation schemes Others returned to central and eastern European countries from jobs in western Europe at the start of the pandemic often because their income sources had dried up because work was cancelled they often have no health insurance and few safety nets Many families either have no internet connection at home or do not have enough devices for all children in the household “Coronavirus is changing these conditions from bad to a catastrophe,” said Jovanovic Populist politicians have targeted Roma communities across Europe in recent years A far-right party in Slovakia launched uniformed patrols on trains to seek out “gypsy criminality” and far-right militias in Ukraine have carried out numerous attacks on Roma settlements appeared to use the country’s Roma community as a scapegoat in a campaign earlier this year the head of the local Roma community body in Gyöngyöspata before the introduction of coronavirus restrictions lives in an area of ramshackle bungalows beyond a foul-smelling stream where the sewage from the rest of the town is pumped Many communities in Hungary and across the region have similarly segregated living conditions as well as difficulties accessing quality education and the labour market “What happens at school leads to inferiority complexes as adults and then the whole cycle continues,” said Csemer Coronavirus threatens to aggravate all of the pre-existing problems of poor quality housing associated health problems and ensuing discrimination some cases of people challenging the stereotypes who is running the state’s coronavirus response shut down a question about how many Roma people were infected with the virus by asking the journalist which century they were living in said there are also some signs that the pandemic has made authorities realise that Roma problems cannot be simply ignored “State institutions started to realise that they need to help these people Institutions don’t like to go to Roma neighbourhoods and work with people there but now maybe some of them understand it’s their obligation,” she said Lale Sokolov fell in love in the concentration camp; only those close to him knew his story was a skilled trader – and maybe this is what saved his life Ludwig “Lale” Eisenberg grew up in a Jewish family in the eastern-Slovak town of Krompachy but by the time World War II started he was managing a department store in Bratislava It was there that he learned about the plan to deport all the Jews from his hometown So he returned to Krompachy and offered himself to the authorities as young and able to work in order to save his ageing parents from deportation did not talk about his experience of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz for more than 50 years He feared that he would be perceived as a collaborator and a traitor a book describing his fate by Heather Morris a tattooist at the most infamous concentration camp guarded his secret in the mistaken belief that he had something to hide,” said Heather Morris who spent three years recording Lale’s story before he died in 2006 It was not easy to win his trust - Lale thought it would protect his family if he kept silent in one of the first transports and was immediately tattooed on his forearm with the number 32407 All prisoners arriving between autumn 1941 and spring 1943 underwent such registration and those who had numbers might consider themselves lucky as the others were sent straight to the gas chambers This was just one in a series of humiliating and dehumanising things that happened on the arrival to a camp head of the Auschwitz Museum research Centre said for the BBC about the process of tattooing It was painful and people understood that in that moment prisoners did not officially use their names Lale later became the person to tattoo these numbers on other prisoners’ forearms for more than two years He was given this work after he contracted typhoid possibly also thanks to him speaking several languages This work helped him not only to survive but unlike other prisoners he also had certain privileges – he slept in a separate room ate in an administrative building and even had some free time This did not mean however that he did not fear for his life used to select patients for his experiments from the transports and they came to Lale Mengele started terrorising Lale loudly: “One day I will take you – one day,” he said Morris also describes the fateful love story of Lale and Gisela (Gita) Fuhrmann Lale tattooed the number 34902 on her forearm but he was attracted to the young girl and despite the harsh regime “As I tattooed her number on her left arm she tattooed her number in my heart,” Lale told the writer The letters got to her thanks to his personal guard The tattooist tried to help her with extra rations of food When the Russians came close to the camp in 1945 Gita and many other prisoners had to leave Lale was first moved to the Mauthausen camp but he managed to swim across the Danube and return to Slovakia the Auschwitz Tattooist did not know whether he would ever see his love again or whether she was still alive He left Krompachy for Bratislava in a horse-driven carriage where he waited for Gita for weeks at the train station The trains brought back survivors from the transports He was sent to look for her at the Red Cross headquarters she suddenly appeared in front of his carriage they married and started a textile business saving and collecting money to support the new state of Israel that combined with the change of regime to a communist government which nationalised their business When he received a weekend permit to leave he fled from Czechoslovakia with his wife; first to Vienna then to Paris and eventually they ended up in Australia Lale only started to talk about his extraordinary experiences after Gita died in 2003 The research into the documentation for the book helped to uncover the fact that Lale’s parents had died in Auschwitz one month before he arrived Lale died in 2006 before he could learn about this When the writer asked him how it was possible that he was so positive even in the darkest moments A BIG protest started by wives of local ironworks employees 95 years ago got out of control cost six lives and caused a massive rebellion and harsh crackdown The reduction in meal vouchers for employees of the Krompachy ironworks was the imminent cause for a rebellion a dissatisfied crowd of women gathered in front of the Krompachy Hornád-region Stock Company (Krompašská pohornádska účastinná spoločnosť) then the biggest metallurgy plant in Slovakia The director of the company tried to explain that the vouchers had been decided upon by the Grain Institute in Bratislava but the heated crowd’s emotions escalated even anti-Czechoslovak invectives in Hungarian were heard after false rumours spread that one of the works delegates was beaten and imprisoned the head of gendarmes order shooting and four men were killed The workers managed to invade the building and killed the deputy director and the main clerk martial law was imposed and 64 workers were detained who were later sentenced to several years in prison A general strike began to support the protesters in Krompachy – who continued until March 17 – in municipalities like Slovinky Banská Bystrica and other towns and bigger cities A parliamentary investigation committee was established afterwards and the case came before the Supreme Court in Brno (the now Czech city of the then common Czechoslovak State) which was the biggest ironworks in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire at the break of the 19th and 20th centuries this event is commemorated at the Memorial of the Krompachy Rebellion near local railway station POLAND: Tali Shalom Ezer has chosen Heather Morris' acclaimed novel 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' for a screen adaptation Sharing the same name, the upcoming historical drama series will showcase the life of Lale Sokolov a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II 'The Irishman' (2019) fame Harvey Keitel has been cast in the lead to portray the Holocaust survivor accompanied by Jonah Hauer-King to play the younger Sokolov.  take a look at the true story of Lale Sokolov that inspired Heather Morris to pen a novel and Tali Shalom Ezer to adapt it into a six-episodic series As per The Guardian Lale Sokolov was a Jewish businessman born and raised in Krompachy when he learned that the Jews in Krompachy were to be rounded up in camps he willingly surrendered himself to the local authorities as a young and healthy male more useful for work rather than his ageing parents Sacrificing himself for the safety of his parents he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland He was initially given the task of constructing housing blocks for the expanding camp However, he soon became ill with typhoid. According to BBC French academic named Pepan took care of him and later set him to work as his assistant he was made the main tattooist where his job was to tattoo identification numbers on fellow prisoners’ arms He was provided with extra ration and was allowed to sleep in a single room He was even granted with some free time unlike other prisoners He was also involved in trading contrabands with inmates and SS officials Two days prior to the Russian army's approach to Auschwitz crossing the Danube amidst German and Russian gunfire he found Gita and reunited with her in her hometown They got married in October 1945 and established a silk fabric business in Bratislava when the communists nationalised all private business his factory was confiscated and he was imprisoned he was set free through his judicial contacts on a condition that they would have to leave Slovakia immediately The couple then settled in Australia and opened a factory of women clothing in Melbourne They were blessed with a son named Gary in 1961 He spent his life in a suburb of Melbourne with his wife Gita until her death in 2003 Sokolov was initially hesitant to share his story fearing that he would be viewed as a Nazi collaborator it was after Gita's death that he unburdened himself telling the tale of epic survival and love Heather Morris spent three years recording his tale until he died in 2006 due to age related issues Lale Sokolov's extra-ordinary tale is coming to life in 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' The series directed by Tali Shalom Ezer will consists of six episodes It will air on Peacock on May 2 it will broadcast on Sky Atlantic on the same day