E4 Life in Hiding

In May 1944 the National Socialists organised raids in the Netherlands to round up all the “Gypsies” and take them to concentration camps. Johannes Weisz, known as Zoni, was just seven years old when he lost his whole family. He was not at home when the house was raided but he was caught later and taken to the railway station to be deported as well. But a kind police officer - probably a member of the resistance - helped him escape at the last moment and he went into hiding. Relatives and friends helped him to survive. After the war, Zoni studied horticulture and became one of Europe’s most prominent florists and a leading figure in the struggle of the European Roma and Sinti for equal rights