Czech Culture Minister: Govt, stockholders of pig farm negotiating to remove it from Romani Holocaust site

The Czech weekly RESPEKT has published an interview by Kateřina Šafaříková with Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman today. The former Catholic priest, MP for the Christian Democrats and director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes discusses the topic of the pig farm on the site of the WWII-era camp for Romani prisoners at Lety by Písek, the issue of refugees, and his long personal friendships with military official Jiří Komorous and musician Daniel Landa.
Immediately at the outset of the interview the reporter reminds the minister that he was the first member of the Czech Government to ever attend the Sudeten Germans' congress. "It is high time that some such gesture come from the Czech Government after [the Sudeten German organization] made the concession of removing all of their property claims in relationship to the Czech Republic from their statutes," explained Herman, adding that he generally follows the motto of not deviating in the direction of populist steps in politics.
In the next question the reporter reminds Herman that despite the Government's promise to attempt to resolve the question of the pig farm located on places where Romani people were imprisoned during the Second World War, that situation is apparently unchanged, but the minister responded by saying intensive negotiations and the Government's purchase of the farm remain on the agenda. According to Herman, there the Government and the pig farm's stockholders are negotiating in good faith.
The minister indicated that the main obstacle is the price of the complex and that "the ideas [of that price] differ by orders of magnitude right now". A specific amount has not yet been proposed.
When asked whether he has raised the question of the pig farm with Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Andrej Babiš, the Herman answered that he has. The Deputy PM reportedly "expressed preliminary comprehension of the necessity to close the pig farm at that location."
In addition to the option of buying the farm, the Government is also considering the possibility of building a replacement farm for the owners. However, as Herman said, he cannot be any more specific given the ongoing nature of the negotiations.
When asked about the time horizon for this decision, the minister answered that he hopes the solution of the entire question will be achieved by the time the current cabinet ends its allotted term in office. He called the fact of the existence of the pig farm "an enormous failure in our coming to terms with our past post-1989."
In the rest of the interview the reporter also asked him about the radically different approaches taken by Pope Francis on the question of the so-called refugee crisis and by Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka. The Culture Minister expressed comprehension for both sides in his answer.
"In my opinion it is necessary to honor the principle of solidarity and to practice it. If people are willing to risk sacrificing their own lives and those of their loved ones to escape a situation, then that situation must be so terrible that the frightening alternative of traveling across the sea must seem less horrifying than the situation they are leaving," he said.
In the second half of the interview the topic turns to Herman's many years of friendship with the controversial musician/performer Daniel Landa and with Brigadier Genreral Jiří Komorous, head of the Department for the Protection of Constitutional Officials, who is notorious for his former contact with the Czechoslovak Communist State Security Services (StB). "Each one of us is a human being who is constantly developing. We are each on our own path, and I have known many people who have had to reassess certain attitudes during their lives, myself included. I actually appreciate people who are able to admit that, which both of those men have done," the minister said.
The reporter reminded him of the lyrics Landa wrote for his band Orlík during the 1990s, which primitively rail against black people, as well as the band's "famous" song "White Rider". The Culture Minister argued that such lyrics were allegedly a form of Landa's protest against the communist regime, even though the communist regime was no longer in power when that music was released.
Don't miss:
- Czech Republic: Pig farm at Lety will apparently remain on Romani Holocaust site, talks are going nowhere
- VIDEO: Commemorative ceremony at Lety by Písek
- Speech by Miroslav Brož at Lety by Písek
- Czech Republic: "Romani Resistance Days" to involve symbolic blockade of Lety pig farm, protest in Prague
- Czech Republic: Visiting season opens at Lety memorial
- Karel Holomek: Who "discovered" the Romani camp at Lety?
- Czech wartime superhero "returns" to criticize Lety pig farm
- Czech Republic: Lety pig farm remembered at entrance to Terezín
- Former Czech Foreign Minister does not believe his father was involved with the Lety camp
- Czech MP faces first criminal charges over remarks about Lety concentration camp
- Jana Horváthová: Hodonín and Lety functioned as concentration camps
- Czech Republic: Shocking testimonies from the Lety concentration camp
- Czech Culture Minister wants to solve the problem of the pig farm at Lety
- Czech Republic: Activists blockading pig farm at Lety where WWII-era camp for Roma once stood
- European Center of Romani Music production about Lety concentration camp for Romani people
Related articles:
- Office of the Public Defender of Rights finds discrimination against Romani refugees from Ukraine at aid center in Czech capital
- PHOTO GALLERY: Commemorative ceremony at Lety u Písku, Czech Republic 2022
- Renata Berkyová at Lety u Písku: How is the current Romani society living in the Czech Republic to comprehend the open racism toward Romani refugees from Ukraine?
- President of Czech Senate says Lety commemorations are a call for people to treat minorities fairly
- LIVE BROADCAST SUNDAY: President of the Czech Senate to attend commemorative ceremony at Lety u Písku
- Czech ex-lawmaker gets six months, suspended for one year, for his remark about the WWII-era concentration camp for Roma at Lety u Písku
- Annual commemoration at Lety u Písku, Czech Republic, will honor the memory of the Jewish and Romani victims of Nazism on 8 May
- Czech Constitutional Court rejects complaint from man responsible for desecrating memorial to the Holocaust and its Romani victims at Lety
- Former Czech MP faces prosecution for his remarks about a "pseudo-concentration camp" for Romani people at Lety
- Czech MP loses re-election and immunity, police reopen case of his calling Lety a "non-existent, pseudo-concentration camp" for Roma
- At remembrance event, chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust says Okamura is one of the Czech politicians agitating against Romani people
- LIVE BROADCAST TODAY AT NOON: Commemorative ceremony at Lety u Písku