After a long fight with his illness on November 2, 2020, at the age of 73, one of the greatest activists and fighter for Roma rights, Prof. Dr. Rajko Djuric, died.
Prof. Dr. Rajko Djuric was born on October 3, 1947 in the town of Malo Orasje, Serbia. He graduated in philosophy in 1971 at the University of Belgrade (Faculty of Philosophy). In 1985 he received his doctorate in sociology. He was a collaborator at the Serbian Academy of Sciences - SANU, who published the book "Strangers for the Roma". In the collection of SANU, several of his texts on the culture and the Holocaust of the Roma have been published. Djuric is the author of numerous books, scientific works and publications that have been published in the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, Austria, France, Croatia, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Macedonia. Germany, Poland, Romania, USA, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Great Britain. Among the scientific works, "History of the Roma", "History of Roma Literature" and "History of the Roma Holocaust" take a special place. He also wrote "Grammar of the Romani language" and the study "Romani verbs, their origin and meaning", which is actually the first scientific-research work of this kind in the world. He was an expert collaborator and translator in Sasha Petrovic film "Skupljaci perja", as well as a collaborator and co-writer in Emir Kusturica's film "Hanging House", where he was also an expert collaborator and translator.
He has been a lecturer at many European universities. He has won many domestic and foreign awards. At the fourth congress of the IRU in 1990 in Poland he was elected as its president. He was also a member of the Serbian Parliament. Also, last year, Prof. Dr. Rajko Djuric was part of the documentary of SP BTR "Sky, Bike, Earth" where in his part he shared his knowledge of Roma history.
