Liberec, Czech Republic: Memorial to the children born in the local concentration camp for Roma and Sinti during WWII who died in Auschwitz

The Romani boys were born in the local internment camp for Roma and Sinti and then died after being transported to Auschwitz. “This is dedicated to the children who never knew the world. That motto seemed the best to us because the children were born in one camp and murdered in another, at Auschwitz, so they never knew anything but imprisonment, they never even got a chance to know anything else at all,” Ivan Rous of the Museum of North Bohemia, who has been involved with the creation of the memorial, told the press.

The memorial is on Kunratická Street at the site of the former concentration camp from the Second World War, where more than 130 Roma and Sinti were interned between 1941 and 1943. “Of the children from that camp who later died in Auschwitz, 99 % were born in it,” Rous said.

According to Rous, it is not 100 % certain who was in the camp for the Roma in Liberec because the German occupiers relocated it more than once. It was first opened in a building near the quarry in the quarter of Rochlice.

“Later it was located in a factory near the refugee station, number 120, where they were in shocking conditions. Then the city decided to build a concentration camp for them, literally, that is what the materials on it say. It was built exactly in that corner on Kunratická Street. It was a big wooden barracks with a brick foundation inhabited by more than 130 persons,” Rous said.

According to the historian, the Roma and Sinti lived in the Liberec camp for roughly two years and were then relocated by the Nazis to the Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück concentration camps and murdered in them. “We believe none of those people survived, with the exception of maybe one family who were excluded from the transport, but we do not know much about the reasons why,” Rous said.

The existence of the concentration camp for Roma during the war on Kunratická Street, according to the historian, is something of which people are no longer aware. He believes this is partially because in 1943 the camp functioned as a POW camp for French soldiers, which some eyewitnesses do recall.

“The [local] memory, which mostly relates to the war’s end, is about the French in particular,” Rous said. There were 108 different intervention camps installed around Liberec during the Second World War.

The start was a Romea.cz article about the book by Rous

The memorial is the result of many years of effort and collaboration between many institutions and people who never gave up on their dream of honoring the memory of the local Romani boys who were murdered by the Nazis. “Building this memorial took a very long time. Thanks to news server Romea.cz, I learned of the concentration camp in Liberec when they published an excerpt of the book by Ivan Rous called Tábory a válečná výroba [Camps and Wartime Production]. I borrowed the book from the Liberec Library and read important facts there,” Jan Cverčko of the Association of Romani Representatives in the Liberec Region described the start of the whole initiative to Romea.cz.

“In 2017, the Association of Romani Representatives in the Liberec Region was created, where representatives of the associations Roma Tanvald z. s., Romany Art Workshop z. s., Nabank z. s., Comunites z. s., and Pomoc v nouzi z. s. [Aid in Need] came together as the association led by Iveta Bílková. Back then we divvied up the tasks and Radek Šandor and I were tasked with the memorial to Romani victims of the Holocaust in the Liberec camp,” Cverčko said, adding that the entire team then contacted the leadership of Liberec City Hall.

“Then-Mayor Tibor Batthyány was inclined to build the memorial and negotiations were also undertaken with Deputy Mayor Ivan Langer, who has been and still is on our side,” Cverčko said. The first step was the installation of three Stolpersteine, or “stones of the disappeared”, on Dr. Edvard Beneš Square in Liberec.

The stones bear the names of three Romani victims identified by Rous in his book. The next step was to find more names of victims from the archives at the Auschwitz Memorial.

Several dozen names managed to be found there, predominantly of children who had been imprisoned in Liberec and later murdered in Auschwitz.

In 2019, wooden crosses were erected at the site

“The names of the children, mainly boys who were born in the Liberec camp or who were imprisoned there as toddlers, came to light. That provoked Ivan Rous to do something so the public would learn about this. Crosses were created and installed at the site of the camp,” Cverčko said.

The crosses were ceremonially unveiled in 2019 and commemorate the innocent victims of the Nazi terror. The final step was to create a permanent memorial corresponding to the dignity and the importance of the site.

The process was complicated and protracted, because the plot of land on which the camp had been located was subject to an easement that made it impossible for it to be freely used. For that reason, a compromise solution had to be found that would satisfy all the parties involved.

The compromise was that a base for the Liberec Region’s emergency services will be built on the land to serve the residents of the city and the surrounding area. A memorial will be built in the lower part of the plot that will include a plaque with the names, a reference to the local concentration camp, and a stone symbolizing the victims’ grave.

“I submitted a request in 2022 to the local assembly for the performance of an archeological survey. It was approved and financed by the Liberec Region. The survey was undertaken by the Museum of North Bohemia and different artefacts were discovered which indicated what life in the camp had been like, as was its concrete foundation,” Cverčko said.

In the summer of 2023, representatives of the Association of Romani Representatives in the Liberec Region then agreed with Rous that the memorial should be created as soon as possible and that it was not possible to wait for the lengthy negotiations on the construction of the emergency services base. “Ivan Rous reached an agreement with Governor Martin Půta, who approved the financing for the plaque with the names, referencing the local concentration camp, and the stone, through the Liberec Regional Assembly. The motion was adopted, the stone was supplied and worked by the Ligranit firm, and the plaque was produced by Mr. Gagulak of Brno. On 22 February, Ivan Rous and his colleagues installed the stone on their own and in the afternoon a commemorative ceremony was held,” Cverčko told Romea.cz.

A legacy for the next generation about how dangerous antigypsyism, antisemitism and Nazism are

The building of the memorial cost roughly CZK 100,000 [EUR 4,000]. The memorial is made of granite from Liberec, a six-ton stone almost three meters high.

The children’s names are etched onto a bronze plaque on the memorial. According to Rous, materials which are permanent were selected for it.

“I am involved with the project design for memorial restoration, and my experiences of that have been absolutely simple. If a memorial to the fallen from the First World War was made of concrete or artificial stone or some other material, then it has not survived, it hasn’t lasted,” he said.

The memorial will stay in the same place after the emergency services headquarters is built. “The project designers reached out to us themselves. Their project counts on the fact that this is also a remembrance site, that a camp was here which was one of the worst ever, just because all of its inmates were murdered [after being transported to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück],” Rous said.

“For us and for future generations, this is a legacy of how dangerous nationalism is, in those days it led to the murder of millions of people just because of their origins, for instance Jews, Roma, and others. This memorial should remind everybody that nationalism and neo-Nazism have no place in society and that it is important to combat antigypsyism and antisemitism by any means necessary,” Cverčko told Romea.cz.

“Finally we can honor the memory of these victims. All of our organizations can hold commemorative ceremonies here, mainly on the occasion of 2 August, when the prisoners of the so-called ‘Gypsy Family Camp‘ in Auschwitz-Birkenau II were murdered. We are not completely satisfied, the site has to be cultivated and the preparations for building the emergency services headquarters are still underway. However, we are glad the memorial to these victims is standing,” Cverčko said before thanking everybody who contributed to creating it.

“Great thanks belong mainly to Ivan Rous and his colleagues, to the Museum of North Bohemia, to the Liberec Regional Authority, and to Governor Martin Půta. I also want to thank Michal Hron and Pavel Jelínek from the Jewish Community of Liberec, who have greatly supported us from the start and collaborate with us. Great thanks also belong to everybody in the Association of Romani Representatives in the Liberec Region,” Cverčko told Romea.cz.