Construction of Roma Holocaust memorial in Czech Republic delayed

Five years ago, the Czech Government approved almost CZK 70 million for the construction and operation of a memorial to the victims of the Roma Holocaust at Hodonín by Kunštát, but almost no work has been done on the piece of land known as Žalov, where the memorial is to be located. The municipality must first modify its land-use plan before work can start.

Žalov was a concentration and labor camp for Romani people during the Second World War. Many people imprisoned there ended up in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Under the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the site of the camp was used as a recreation center. The state has now purchased the land for the purpose of building a memorial.

“We have started demolition there. We tore down the old fence and now we are waiting for instructions from the ministry,” Mayor of Hodonín Lubomír Štarha said. The Czech Education Ministry has entrusted the National Pedagogical Museum in Prague with managing the project.

Žalov at Hodonín by Kunštát and Lety by Písek were two “Gypsy camps” administered directly by Czech guards during the war. Romani people from Moravia were deported to Hodonín, while those living in Bohemia were deported to Lety. Hundreds of them met their deaths in both camps, particularly due to typhus. According to some of the survivors, executions were also carried out at both camps. Most Romani people from both camps were eventually transported to Auschwitz. Only 600 people from the original, settled Romani families of Bohemian and Moravia survived the Holocaust and returned home.

An industrial pig farm still stands today on the site of the former camp at Lety. Maintenance of the monument there has been entrusted to the Lidice Memorial, which is supposed to build an educational walking path there.

The memorial at Žalov has been delayed. All of the parties contributing to the project formed an expert commission on the memorial last month. Members include the mayor of Hodonín, the acting director of the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno, and the director of the National Pedagogical Museum. “The commission hasn’t met yet. I don’t even know who all of its members are. We last met with ministerial officials in our capacity as municipal leadership at the end of June,” Vice-Mayor of Hodonín Zdeněk Bubeník said.

Hodonín town hall representatives presume the commission will be coordinating all of the details of the construction. The municipality’s task is to change the land-use plan for the memorial site. “The land where the memorial is to be built is still zoned for recreation. We must change it into a memorial site, but we are still waiting for the commission to meet,” Bubeník said.

The commission, however, does not have to meet on the issue of modifying the plan, as that is solely in the management of the municipality. Forward movement on the site has been at a standstill for some time.

“The commission’s letter of appointment does not expressly state that it is of an advisory nature, but I presume it will be,” said Jana Poláková, acting director of the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno. Her impressions have been confirmed by the director of the National Pedagogical Museum in Prague, Marcela Pánková, who is managing the Hodonín memorial project. “The commission really does just make recommendations,” Pánková said.

The Hodonín town hall, however, believes it is obliged to take the commission’s conclusions into consideration. Thanks to the information that the municipality does not have to wait for the commission’s consent, things have now been set in motion again. “We contacted the management of the Pedagogical Museum and clarified the situation. We’ll start discussing modifications to the land-use plan at our next town hall meeting on 8 August,” Bubeník said.

Despite this forward movement, construction of the memorial will not be able to start yet. “The land-use plan cannot be changed overnight. We have to elaborate a project which all of the parties affected by the modification will have an opportunity to comment on, such as the electricity and gas people and forest management, since the site is adjacent to the forest,” Bubeník said.

Once all traces of the recreation area are removed, archeologists will visit the site. Construction will only start after they have inspected it and the construction has been thoroughly planned (including land-use modifications). No one presumes to guess when that might be.

The memorial is meant to familiarize visitors with the conditions under which Romani people lived there during the Second World War. Replicas of the barracks that were once in place at the camp are supposed to be erected there.