ROB CAMERON

The Rudolfinum concert hall witnessed a rare event this weekend – a group of Romani musicians paired with a Czech choir. The Frankfurt-based Roma and Sinti Philharmonic Orchestra was in Prague to perform Requiem for Auschwitz, by Swiss-born Roma composer Roger Moreno. He told me the piece was dedicated to all who passed through the gates of Auschwitz.

A class photo from a primary school in the northern city of Teplice led to a torrent of abuse and even death threats. The photo, of first graders at ZŠ Plynárenská primary school, showed rows of happy, smiling children with one difference – only a handful of them were white. Teplice is home to a large Roma minority, and also has many immigrants from Vietnam and Gulf states.

Pope Francis has begun a four-day visit to Slovakia, the first papal visit to the country in 18 years. Typically, he’s going out of his way to embrace the most excluded members of society. He’s spending 70 hours in Slovakia, after just seven in Hungary, and commentators believe Francis was sending a very subtle message to Viktor Orban in Budapest.

Demolition work is to start on a Czech pig farm built on the site of a Nazi-era concentration camp for Roma. It ends decades of often bitter dispute between the farm’s owners, the government and Roma rights groups. The camp was staffed by Czech guards, rather than the Nazi SS, and none of them were convicted after the war.