"Hate and lies are winning supporters" - sharp warnings from diplomats and other speakers as Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust are honored in Lety u Písku, Markus Pape receives the For Humanity award

More than 300 people died in the Lety concentration camp, most of them children. A memorial has been open to the public at the site of the former concentration camp since last year.

According to Vystrčil, the memorial now exists thanks to the fact that people such as the late Mr. Čeněk Růžička were not indifferent to this site of human tragedy. Růžička, who passed away in 2022, was a co-founder of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust and fought for the removal of the pig farm that was built on the site of the former concentration camp in the 1970s.

Mr. Růžička’s brother Jan recalled that their mother had been imprisoned in the Lety concentration camp. His wish is that as many members of the younger generation as possible visit the memorial.

“It’s all in the children, and chiefly the family. Children behave according to how they are treated in the family. As long as their subconscious continues to work in a racist way, nothing will change. They don’t show this normally, directly, openly, but in their subconscious it keeps working. We can’t do anything about that, and that is exactly why schools should come here. Young children especially,” the Czech News Agency (ČTK) heard from Jan Růžička.

FULL VIDEO OF THE COMMEMORATIVE CEREMONY

The commemorative ceremony was opened by the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust, Jana Kokyová. She welcomed those attending with the message that they were gathering “near the Burial Ground of the concentration camp in Lety, which was intended for the Roma and Sinti indigenous to Bohemia.”

Kokyová recalled that of the more than 300 prisoners who died in the concentration camp, “most were young children who died in horrifying conditions and who were not entitled to a dignified burial.” She also stressed that the site is a “reminder of how one group of people can be stripped of their dignity and their rights just because of who they are, how they were born,” and that it is also a symbol of persistence and hope to her personally.

Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková reminded those present that the opening of the Lety memorial last year sparked a wave of hatred on social media and that it became, according to monitoring undertaken by the ARA ART organization, “the most frequent source of anti-Roma hatred in the first half of 2024.” At the same time, she appreciated that the Czech Republic has officially adopted a definition of antigypsyism.

“By doing so, we have clearly said, as a state, that anti-Romani attitudes still exist in our country and we must not ignore them,” Fuková said. She emphasized the necessity of education on this subject that will not just stick to the facts, but will also teach people “how to respond to the prejudices children bring from home” and how to come to terms with racist remarks in the classroom.

Fuková also expressed appreciation for the progress that has been made in compensating illegally sterilized women and appreciation for the creation of a new award for companies supporting diversity. “Today we are here 80 years after the end of the Second World War. We are living in a world that is being shaken once again. We are living in a time when fighting is raging beyond our borders once again. That makes it all the more important to recall the values our society is built on: humanity, compassion, respect, democracy,” she said in her speech.

Lawmaker Ivan Bartoš reminded those present that authoritarian regimes are gaining strength in the world today which suppress human dignity and the truth. He warned that we should not allow “hatred and lies to win supporters again” and told the public that “we must not allow the building of imaginary pig farms on a site of living memory of the struggle for truth, justice and humanity”.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said that “the camp was directed by the Protectorate authorities and guarded by Czech gendarmes.” According to him, it is essential to name this historical truth, to recognize it, and to keep reminding ourselves of it.

“The debt does not disappear with this memorial. We still have a duty to cultivate this memory. We still have an obligation to clearly say hate and discrimination have no place in our society,” Lipavský said.

Human rights activist Miroslav Brož used his speech to appeal to Romani voters not to let themselves be abused by extremists and populists: “I know various groups and individuals who until recently have been waging racist campaigns and holding marches against the Roma are now swarming the Roma as if they were their greatest friends and promising them the moon in exchange for their political support.” He then said: “Please, dear Romani men and women, get a grip, don’t fall for this. Think of your children.”

Hana Voráčová of the Museum of Romani Culture spoke and said a total of 2,600 Romani and Sinti people passed through the Hodonín and the Lety concentration camps, and that during the 11 months they were open, 335 prisoners, most of them children, died in Lety. She recalled the history of the site after the war when, instead of commemoration, the site was replaced in the 1970s by an industrial pig farm, stressing that demolition of that facility and the building of a dignified memorial did not happen until 2022.

Ambassador of France Stéphane Crouzat told those assembled that France, too, has undergone a long path toward recognizing its co-responsibility for the crimes of the Second World War. He said: “Our duty never to forget is essential. Here and now we are restoring the Romani community and their history to their rightful place.”

Norwegian Chargé d’affaires Kristian Ødegaard reminded listeners of the tragic fate of the Norwegian Roma who were rejected by Norway in 1934 when they fled Germany and later died in the gas chambers. He underscored the importance of memory: “Thanks to you all, we cannot pretend we do not know what happened here in Lety during the Second World War.“

Rudolf Murka, a descendant of survivors, was unable to attend the commemorative ceremony for health reasons. His speech was read by Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková.

In his remarks, Murka praised the Romani partisans and told the story of his uncle, Antonín Murka, who escaped the Hodonín u Kunštatu concentration camp and took up arms to fight for the liberation of the republic. At the same time, he emphasized that “it is a shame these stories of brave Romani people who fought for their country are not commemorated in the places where their children died.”

Zdeněk Daniel, another descendant of the survivors, recalled how important it is to pass these experiences on to the next generation. He thanked his parents for telling him about these horrors, stressing: “Let’s appreciate what we have and not take any of this for granted.”

Historian Kateřina Čapková called for greater recognition of the Romani and Sinti survivors’ voices: “It is outrageous that they died before their suffering could be fully recognized, that they were not treated with respect.” She warned that without Romani and Sinti testimonies, Europe’s memory of the Second World War is incomplete: “Let’s listen to them, value them, and aid them with getting their perspective into textbooks and the public space.”

In her closing speech, Jana Kokyová warned against the return of hateful rhetoric today, recalling her family’s personal experience with the Lety concentration camp and the fact that her grandmother was imprisoned there. “Once again, they are saying the Roma, the migrants, the Ukrainians are to blame for our problems. This is the same rhetoric that was used when they took my grandmother and grandfather to the concentration camps,” she said.

Markus Pape receives the For Humanity award

Part of this year’s commemorative ceremony was the bestowing of the For Humanity award, which the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust gives out on a regular basis. Kokyová announced that the award this year went to the German commentator and journalist Markus Pape.

The committee appreciated Pape’s many years of involvement in the struggle to remove the industrial pig farm from the concentration camp site in Lety, his research and journalistic work, and his aid to those who are seeking justice. In a brief statement, Pape thanked the committee and referenced the earlier remarks of Senate President Vystrčil about indifference, telling those who were present that “euphoria was the basis of our victory”, in other words, the joy and enthusiasm he said accompanied people like the late Čeněk Růžička, emotions which were, despite the many years of struggle, crucial to achieving the aim of demolishing the farm and building a dignified memorial at the site of the concentration camp for Roma.

The Lety u Písku Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in the Czech Republic was opened by the Museum of Romani Culture in April 2024. According to the director of the museum, Jana Horváthová, the indoor exhibition of the memorial was visited by about 10,000 people during its first year.

Horváthová stressed that numerous school field trips were among the visitors. “However, the Museum of Romani Culture cannot be the only one working on [education]. Statewide education policy is essential. It is absolutely essential that the subject of the history and culture of the Romani people be included in the framework curriculum and that it be taught at least from upper primary school. For the time being, it is not,” she said.

History of the camp in Lety: Site of tragedy and struggle

According to historians, 1,294 Romani people passed through the camp in Lety u Písku from August 1942 to August 1943, at least 335 of whom died there, 241 of them children younger than 14. Another 540 of them were forcibly transported to Auschwitz.

In 1973 an industrial pig farm was installed over the site of the former concentration camp and was in operation for 45 years. Although during socialism some of the survivors’ descendants endeavored to commemorate the fates of the Romani people who passed through the camp, its public commemoration did not start until after the fall of the communist regime in 1989.

In 1995, when Czech President Václav Havel unveiled the first monument (today’s Lety Cultural Heritage Monument) to the concentration camp victims, the discussion of building a dignified remembrance site started. Two years later, the ministers Jan Ruml (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) and Pavel Bratinka (Civic Democratic Alliance – ODA) announced they would propose the Government buy out the farm, demolish it, and build a dignified memorial to the Holocaust and its Romani victims.

It took 20 years for the buyout to happen. It was not approved until 2017.

The Czech state paid CZK 372.5 million [EUR 15 million] before VAT to the owners and handed the facility over to the Museum of Romani Culture in 2018. After an international architecture competition and two years of demolition and construction work, the new memorial was ceremonially opened to the public in April 2024.

The museum runs the memorial, part of which is an outdoor place of reverence as well as a Visitors’ Center housing the permanent exhibition.