Commemorative act for the victims of the Romani Holocaust

On Sunday, 14 May 2023, hundreds of people gathered in Lety, including the head representatives of the State (President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel, President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Adamová Pekarová) and other distinguished guests, who also laid flowers at the stone memorial.

The President pointed out the value of human life

“All human lives have the same value. Each of us has their life story, the story of their family, their ancestors, their roots. The value of human life is not based on what ethnicity we are. We all have the same right to live, to change things for the better, and in some cases, to be an example to others,“ said President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel. He was only the second President to visit the commemorative act, the last being Václav Havel in 1995. 

Among those who attended were also the Chief Provincial Rabbi, Karol Sidon, and representatives of Czech churches – Patriarch of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church Tomáš Butta and Synodal Senior of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren Pavel Pokorný, who gave a spiritual address. “Remembering those who were humiliated and tormented in the past is remembering those who find themselves in a similar situation today. When we remember with respect the Roma and Sinti who once suffered here, it should oblige us to respect the Roma, Sinti, and anyone else who is subject to similar discrimination or violence today, here, or anywhere in the world. It would render us untrustworthy and ridiculous if we were to identify with the values of human dignity only in relation to the past and disregard them in the present moment. If that were the case, we could easily lose our future,” said Pavel Pokorný. Patriarch Tomáš Butta continued with a prayer and a blessing.

Between 1939 and 1943, a penal labour camp, later a concentration camp, mainly for Roma and Sinti people, was in operation at Lety u Písku. From there, the prisoners were deported to the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The most massive deportations took place 80 years ago, in the spring of 1943. According to historians, more than 1 300 Romani men, women and children passed through the camp at Lety between August 1942 and May 1943. Due to appalling hygienic conditions, illness and ill-treatment, 327 of them died, and over 500 ended up in Auschwitz. 

The Romani Holocaust is considered one of the most complete genocides of Nazi ideology. Fewer than 600 Romani prisoners, less than 10 % of the original population in the Czech lands, returned from the concentration camps after the war. The total number of Roma victims of the Holocaust is estimated at 300,000 to 500,000.

For many years, however, a pig farm stood at the place where the victims of the Romani holocaust were dying. The decision to purchase and demolish the farm was not made until 2017, and the demolition did not start until August 2022. A dignified memorial is to be bulit on the site of the former pig farm. It will be administered by the Museum of Romani Culture. 
 

Adéla Rozbořilová; photos by Petr Zewlakk Vrabec