Czech Police propose indicting two men who desecrated memorial to Holocaust victims of Romani origin
Czech detectives have filed a motion to indict two men who put up signs with insulting messages about Romani people on the grounds of the memorial to Holocaust victims of Romani origin at Lety u Písku. A concentration camp used to imprison Romani people was located there during the Second World War.
A 22-year-old man and a 35-year-old man have been accused by detectives of denying and approving of genocide. Police spokesperson Kamila Čuřínová Ingrišová informed the Czech News Agency ČTK on 18 February of the development.
“Detectives filed their motion on 12 February. Now it’s up to the state attorney to decide,” the spokesperson said.
Czech Television reported the news on 18 February. The signs with insulting inscriptions were discovered by others on the grounds of the memorial at the close of May and beginning of June last year.
News server Romea.cz reported on the case at the time, noting that the signs read: “This memorial is dedicated to the historically last Romani people to ever work on the territory of the Czech Republic.” Romea.cz reported that the signs had been posted by the nationalist group “Us Against All” (My proti všem).
“All I can say is that both of the accused are members of a certain movement, but we will not be releasing those details,” the police spokesperson said previously. The concentration camp at Lety, according to historians, imprisoned a total of 1 308 children, men and women from August 1942 until May 1943, 327 of whom died there and more than 500 of whom were sent to Auschwitz.
Fewer than 600 Romani prisoners returned to Bohemia and Moravia from the concentration camps after the war. According to expert estimates, the Nazis murdered 90 % of the Romani inhabitants of Bohemia and Moravia.
