The First Tschecoslovak Republic (1918-1939) made an attempt at resolving "the Gypsy question" in 1927 by issuing the “Law on Wandering Gypsies”. In practice this meant that they all had to apply for identification and for permission to stay the night. The aim was to "civilize" their way of life, but the law so restricted and deprived the Roma of their civil liberties, that it became an expression of the slanderous, defamatory, and vilifying attitude of society at the time towards the ethnic group as a whole.

A sizable number of Roma settled in the Czech Lands or passed through in a semi-migratory way of life. The settlers were mostly bricklayers, tinkers, blacksmiths, trough-makers, road-menders, musicians, and so on, or whatever they received permission from the community to do.

Before WWI, nearly all Roma were illiterate and, faced with the discrimination they felt in the "gadje" society, had no motivation to educate themselves, as even with an education they would have difficulty finding a place in society.


World War II
The first exceptional anti-Roma measure in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the edict of the Ministry of the Interior in 1939, which ordered all Roma to settle down and give up their migratory way of life. Anyone not complying with this edict could be put in to work camps - in Bohemia the camp was in Lety, in Moravia it was Hodonín. With the Decree on the Preventive Fight against Criminality (1942), the Government introduced a police detention along the German Reich model, which took place in detention camps at Lety, Hodonín, Prague-Ruzyne and in Pardubice, or in the concentration camp at Auschwitz I.

According to the census of 2 August 1942, more than 6,500 Roma from the Protectorate were rounded up, of which the smaller part were sent off to the newly opened “Gypsy Camps”, until then work camps, in Lety and Hodonín.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II, Romani were exterminated by Nazi mobile killing units and in camps such as Lety, Hodonín and Auschwitz. 90% of native Romani were killed during the war; the Romani in modern-day Czech Republic are mostly post-war immigrants from Slovakia or Hungary and their descendants.

After the liberation in 1945, only 583 Roma men and women returned to their homes. The original Roma population in the Czech lands was thus almost annihilated during the period of the Nazi occupation. A similar fate befell the Roma in the detached Sudetenland.


Communist era
As Communism came over to Czechoslovakia, a chilling “solution” to the proliferation of the Roma came about: the uninformed and non-consenting sterilization of Roma women, often under the guise of caesarean sections and abortions, and under pressure from social workers who would get their uninformed consent with promises of cash and tangible goods. Though this practice is meant to have stopped with the downfall of the Communist government, there are indices that suggest otherwise. In the eyes of some, the Roma benefited under communism. From a non-Roma point of view, it might have seemed as though life was well under communism, given a strong black market through their cultural ties in neighboring countries, and government funded land to be tilled for the collective. The loss of traditional work in favor of vast Soviet factories however, was considered by some to be a forced assimilation that was not welcome. Within Russia itself they fared little better, even though they fought in the Red Army against Hitler in World War II. In Russia proper the story was the same; marginalized, ridiculed, and abused, their poverty was enforced by the systemic racism surrounding them. In fact, textbooks still exist declaring it a health hazard to touch gypsies. Research has indicated an enduring theme of violence and pervasive bigotry towards the Roma. Initially, researchers hoped they would uncover a lessening of discrimination against the Roma as history unfolded. Unfortunately this has not been the case. They even considered the possibility that things were better under Communism than they are today for Czech populations of Roma. Yet this was not the case either. Although it is true that under Communism the Roma were sometimes allotted lands or funds or social support, they were also coerced to be sterilized in alarming percentages. When considered in conjunction with the forced removal of Roma children to be raised and educated with non-Roma, it begins to have the shape and color of extermination.


Anti-ziganism
According to a 2010 opinion poll, 68% of Czechs have antipathy towards Romani. The survey also found that 82% Czechs oppose any form of a "special care of Roma rights", 83% of Czechs consider Romani asocial, and 45% of Czechs would support the expulsion of Romani people from the Czech Republic.

A 2011 poll, which followed several brutal attacks by Romani perpetrators against white victims, reported that 44% of Czechs are afraid of Roma people. The majority of Czechs (90%) do not want Romani people as neighbors, viewing them as thieves and social parasites. Despite a long waiting list for adoptive parents, Romani children from orphanages are almost never adopted by Czech couples. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 jobs traditionally employing Romani people either disappeared or were taken over by immigrant workers.

The 2019 Pew Research poll found that 66% of Czechs held unfavourable views of Roma.