Lety survivors outraged by "official" commemoration Monday - Czech PM attending

On Monday another commemorative ceremony will be held in honor of the victims of the Romani Holocaust at Lety by Písek. The event has been convened by the Lidice Memorial in collaboration with the Office of the Czech Government and will be attended by Czech PM Petr Nečas.

The gathering will be the second this year to be held at the memorial to the Romani victims of the concentration camp at Lety. The first took place on 13 May as is traditional and was organized by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (VPORH v ČR).

VPORH chair Čeněk Růžička is criticizing Monday’s upcoming ceremony. “It’s meaningless. No one contacted us about it. We did not collaborate with them on organizing it at all. All they did was send us an invitation,” Růžička told news server Romea.cz.

The 13 May ceremony was attended by approximately 250 people. No Czech Government representatives attended, but the ceremony was attended by Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková, Czech Senator Tomáš Tőpfer (Civic Democrats – ODS), Green Party chair Ondřej Liška (Strana zelených), and Michaela Marksová Tominová, the Czech Social Democratic Party’s Shadow Minister for Human Rights and the Family.

Program of Monday’s event:

Place: Memorial to the Victims of the Gypsy Internment Camp at Lety

09:00 – Laying of wreaths at the memorial to the Victims of the Gypsy Internment Camp at Lety

09:10 – Welcome from the director of the Lidice Monument

09:15 – Speech by Czech PM Petr Nečas

09:25 – Tour of the Lety Cultural Memorial exhibition and educational hiking trail