PHOTO GALLERY: Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti is honored at the Hodonín u Kunštátu Memorial in the Czech Republic

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the mass transport of Romani children, men and women from Hodonín u Kunštátu to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp. Most of those transported there never returned, Karolina Spielmannová, spokesperson for the Museum of Romani Culture, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).

“This year we are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the sad day on 21 August 1943, when a mass transport of almost 800 Romani children, men and women left from here to an all but certain death in Auschwitz II-Birkenau,” Spielmannová said. The camp at Hodonín is, along with a parallel camp in Lety u Písku, yet another place where the Nazis, during the Second World War, forcibly concentrated families of Roma and Sinti from Bohemia and Moravia.

According to the latest research, 207 people died in the Hodonín camp including children. A memorial has been built on the site which is administered by the Museum of Romani Culture and which is being visited more and more – last year more than 1,800 people went to see it.

PHOTO GALLERY

Czech Government Commissioner for Romani Minority Affairs Fuková and others gave commemorative speeches on this occasion. “I see it as important that days like these in the history of the Roma, days which are significant, are included in the subject of history in mainstream teaching in the primary and secondary schools. I call on the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to honor its commitment to include this Romani subject matter in the framework curricula,” she said.

Fuková also stressed that the shunning of various minorities must never become part of political culture. “Today we must never give any space to such views, they could appeal to the masses in such a way as to spread hatred against any minority,” she said.

The tragic fate of the prisoners from Hodonín is a personal matter for the Commissioner. “It is probable that the family of my grandfather, Eliáš Polák, was imprisoned here and then transported to Auschwitz. He never talked about those family members, and to this day I do not know the fates of the members of our family who lived in Moravia during the Second World War. My grandfather lived through the Second World War in the Slovak State. That is the only reason he survived, and if he had not, I would not be standing here today. However, our family members who lived in Moravia seem to have vanished. I have no information about their fates to this day. Thinking about them makes it extremely difficult for me to stand here now,” she said.

After the speeches, those gathered relocated to the burial ground called Žalov. The program culminated with honoring the memories of the children who died in the camp in particular in the cemetery in the municipality of Černovice nearby.

The auxiliary program included a guided tour of the permanent exhibition, “Hodonín u Kunštátu Camp: Intersecting Tragedies 1940–1950. Central Europe.” Another such Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti is also being built at Lety u Písku.

Construction and the installation of exhibits is currently underway there. The Museum of Romani Culture presumes the memorial will open in the first quarter of 2024.