Commentary: Gala at Prague Castle vs. a smelly pig farm

It cost the Czech Police CZK 10.5 million to keep an eye on security for the event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust that took place on Monday and Tuesday in Prague and at Terezín. How much it might cost to move the pig farm from the site of the former concentration camp for Roma at Lety by Písek is still just being estimated – it could cost dozens of millions, but more likely would cost several hundred million crowns.

That money has been promised by politicians here for 25 years now, and they always discover, again and again, that the state doesn’t have it. Really?

Certainly the state had to provide security for the guests at the conference commemorating the Holocaust and the liberation of Auschwitz that took place at Prague Castle, just as they had to provide security for the commemoration at Terezín. According to the Czech News Agency, the protective services focused mainly on 24 individuals.

In addition to the Czech head of state, Miloš Zeman, these included the Presidents of Bulgaria and Slovakia. "From a threat level standpoint, increased attention was also paid to the president of the European Jewish Congress and the chair of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament," said Jiří Komorous, head of the Department for the Protection of Constitutional Officials.  

A total of 500 guests from abroad gathered for the events in the Czech Republic, including, for example, more than 30 chairs and vice-chairs of legislatures. Naturally the event was significant – intellectuals and politicians gathered to commemorate the Holocaust in the context of current problems and Czech President Zeman gave a speech about the need to fight the Islamic State.

Nevertheless, the question remains:  Is it dignified for the state to invest CZK 10 million into such an event while simultaneously claiming it cannot find one single crown to resolve a disgrace the entire world is criticizing us for? Doesn’t that fact give our commemorations of the Holocaust an overtone of awkwardness, of tragicomedy?  

It’s as if commemorating the Holocaust were only for select company. Up at the Castle there is a gala with selected guests who are submerged in addressing global problems with grand visions, and in between their sophisticated dishes they repeat to one another, with conviction, that we will never permit a new Holocaust, that we must not allow it, and they explain how to achieve it.  

Meanwhile, down below the Castle, the common people wade through a world of disinterest, humiliation, mud and stench. The odor is just not strong enough to disturb all those great ideas taking flight.