Czech Police do not find politicians' remarks about Romani genocide site to have been criminal

The remarks made earlier this year by the chair of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" movement (SPD), Czech MP Tomio Okamura, and by his party colleague Czech MP Miloslav Rozner about the WWII-era concentration camp for Romani people at Lety u Písku have not been found to be criminal. The Czech Police have shelved the case.
Blanka Valsamisová, the Prague 4 District State Prosecutor, has confirmed the findings to Czech Television. Police have now shelved all of the criminal reports filed with them in these matters, including the reports filed by the surviving relatives of the Romani victims of the camp.
Speaking in January, Okamura erroneously stated that the camp at Lety had not been fenced and that the inmates and been free to come and go. He later apologized for claiming there had been no fence, but alleged that nobody had guarded the facility most of the time and that the inmates had enjoyed freedom of movement within it.
When Okamura was accused of denying the Holocaust and the suffering of its Romani victims by making these remarks, he called the accusations a campaign against the SPD. He also said that while he did not doubt people had suffered at the camp, he has reservations about the way the remembrance site there is being addressed.
Czech MP Rozner (SPD) criticized the state's decision to buy out the pig farm at the site of the former camp and used the phrase "non-existent pseudo- concentration camp" when referring to the Romani genocide site. A criminal report against both SPD politicians was filed in February by the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (VPORH), Čeněk Růžička, with the Prague 1 District State Prosecutor.
A group of about 10 surviving relatives of the camp's victims sought compensation for moral damage as a result of the remarks. In their view, both politicians had broken the law against publicly denying the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis against the Roma.
At the time, Růžička said he believed he would have more success with this accusation against Okamura than he previously had in 2014, when police shelved a complaint he filed after the politician cast similar doubts on the historical facts of the Romani genocide. The VPORH chair believes a clear signal must be sent to Czech society that it is not possible to tolerate such attempts to belittle the suffering of those imprisoned in Nazi camps.
Růžička also said Okamura's apology early this year was not sincere. "Okamura manages to apologize just to the degree he thinks necessary," the VPORH chair said in February.
Okamura's remarks were also criticized by the Jewish Community of Prague, by the Museum of Romani Culture, and by the management of the Lidice Memorial. Another criminal report against Okamura was filed by the Konexe association.
The Social Democratic Youth and Czech Senator Tomáš Czernin (TOP 09) also filed criminal reports against Czech MP Rozner (SPD). Then-Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán also expressed his concern over Okamura's remarks at the beginning of this year.
MPs for the Christian Democrats wanted to hold a vote on whether to remove the SPD chair from his post as Vice-Chair of the Chamber of the Deputies because of the remarks, but the lower house never held that vote - MPs never approved the program of the extraordinary session convened to discuss the issue on 7 March. As for the facts about the camp at Lety, historical research shows it was first built in 1940 as a disciplinary labor camp for men who were unable to document to the authorities how they made a living.
Persons living itinerantly were also meant to be interred in that particular kind of camp. In 1942 Lety was turned into an internment camp exclusively for Romani people and officially called a "Gypsy Camp".
A total of 1 308 Romani children, men and women passed through the camp at Lety, 327 of whom died there, and more than 500 of whom were transported to Auschwitz from there. The Nazis, according to expert estimates, murdered 70 % of the Romani people living in Bohemia and Moravia during their reign.
Don't miss:
- Czech Government releases funds to demolish pig farm on Romani genocide site, archaeological survey will happen
- Czech Museum of Romani Culture still waiting for funds for demolition of pig farm on genocide site
- Czech institutions designing memorial about the genocide of the Roma are inspired by Norwegian remembrance sites
- Week-long education event at Terezín also honors genocide of Roma with concert and flag
- Nationalists desecrate Czech memorial to genocide of the Roma
- Czech Police apprehend youth who desecrated Romani genocide memorial with pig's head
- Czech Constitutional Court: Complaint against decision to buy pig farm on Romani genocide site is inadmissable
- Demolition of pig farm on Romani genocide site in Czech Republic could provide jobs for long-term unemployed
- Czech Republic will not finance new memorial at Romani genocide site, funds will come from Norway
- Czech MP Karel Schwarzenberg will attend public discussion of the future memorial at Romani genocide site in Lety
- Norway confirms it will give EUR 1 million to create memorial to Romani genocide at Lety
- Gallery in Czech capital to host discussion about new memorial commemorating the Romani genocide
- Czech state is now the official owner of the former pig farm at Lety on the Romani genocide site
- Czech demonstration against doubting the genocide of the Roma, hatred and racism
- Czech Republic: Pigs finally leave Romani genocide site
- Czech Republic: Last pigs to leave farm on Romani genocide site 14 March
- Czech capital sees public discussion on future form and role of the Lety memorial to the genocide of Roma
- Czech memorial to Romani genocide desecrated with pig's head
- Czech lower house refuses vote about denier of Romani genocide as vice-chair, Christian Democrats call for extraordinary session
Related articles:
- Czech court upholds fine for nursery school employee whose company published the so-called "Bible" of Holocaust deniers in Czech translation
- Czech mayor makes openly racist statement that her town just wants "white" refugees from Ukraine, not children and women of Romani origin
- Czech intelligence report on extremism mentions welfare chauvinist party as a populist, xenophobic entity once more, COVID-19 was the main focus of 2021
- Czech theater ensemble producing project about children's extremism and radicalization, "Commander"
- 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
- Poland: Refugees from Ukraine join March of the Living event at the memorial for the former Nazi death factory at Auschwitz
- Czech town unveils 15 "Stones of the Disappeared" to honor Holocaust victims
- Czech Police charge bodybuilder for praising Russia's invasion of Ukraine and expressing desire for a war in which he could kill anybody
- 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
Tags:
Extremism, Holocaust, koncentrační tábor, Lety u PískuHEADLINE NEWS
