Czech Romanies commemorate their World War Two victims

Roughly 20 people today attended a commemorative act remembering the tragic fate of the Czech Romanies who died in the local internment camp for them during World War Two.

They laid flowers and lit candles at a cross near a memorial to the victims of the Romany Holocaust.

An Orthodox mass was served by the Orthodox Metropolitan Krystof.

The commemorative act was held on the occasion of the International Day of Romanies on Tuesday.

No prominent personalities, only a handful of Romany families, Orthodox church-goers and the priest came to the event.

Certain Romany organisations have demanded that the pig farm be removed, and the EU has made the same appeal on the Czech Republic twice.

A working group with representatives of the South Bohemian region, the local self-rule bodies, ministries, the Committee for the Compensation to the Victims of Romany Holocaust and South Bohemian Romanies is to submit alternative solutions by the end of the year.

"I see this is as a positive signal. We were insisting on the establishment of the commission for a long time. The pig farm should be removed. There were not only Romanies, but also other people who were forced to die there," Ladislav Bily from the Association of Romany Regional Representatives said.

The commission works on a number of alternatives, including a change in the farm’s business activities. Another alternative is to establish a fund to which domestic and international organisations would contribute and that would finance the removal of the pig farm.

The pig farm’s owner is AGPI company, whose managers say they are ready to move the farm elsewhere in exchange for "appropriate compensation."

The problem started to be dealt with by the former Jiri Paroubek’s Social Democrat (CSSD) government. It negotiated about the purchase of the pig farm. This was also planned by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s government. However, Topolanek said last year there would be no money for it.

According to previous speculations, the price could climb up to a billion crowns. Experts have called the sum excessive.

The Committee for the Compensation to the Victims of Romany Holocaust insists on the removal of the farm. It has called on the government to secure a new site for the farm by a certain deadline. According to it, the cabinet should turn to international institutions asking them for a subsidy and to start negotiating with AGPI about the price.

The interment camp in Lety was opened in August 1940, originally for those who could not prove how they earned their living. In 1942 it was transformed into an internment camp for Romanies. More than a thousand of Romanies were interned there until May 1943, 327 of whom died there and over 500 were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

According to estimates, some 90 percent of Czech Romanies did not survive the Holocaust.