In the Czech village of Lety a pig-farm exists upon the site
of a concentration camp where hundreds of the country's Roma and Sinti minority
- men, women and children - were murdered. It was established in 1939 by the
Czechoslovak government shortly before the country was occupied by Nazi
Germany. Initially, it served as a forced labour camp for so-called
'unadaptable', 'anti-social' citizens, both ethnic Roma and Czech men. But by
1942, it had become a concentration camp exclusively for the Roma. Apart from a
small, forlorn memorial opened by former President Vaclav Havel in 1995, there
is little else to hint at the atrocities that took place here.
326 Roma who died from abuse, neglect and hunger, 241 were
children. Countless others were deported to Auschwitz or other extermination
camps. In 1973, the Communist Party regime constructed a pig farm here and all
talk of the horrors of war were hushed up, leaving the survivors and their
families alone with their memories. Lety was not merely a "transit
camp", nor did people just simply die from disease, and that it was
staffed not by Germans, but by Czechoslovaks. For years the country maintained that
the prisoners of the camp were victims of Nazi aggression. But, the Czech
people were agents in this tragedy is a truth uncomfortable for many to
confront
Cenek Ruzicka is the chairman of the Committee for the
Compensation of the Romani Holocaust in the Czech Republic. Ruzicka's mother
was interned at Lety for three years, one of the few from his family to
survive, despite suffering a miscarriage while in the camp. She kept her
internment a secret from her son until the 1990s when the grim truth began to
seep back into public consciousness.
"It was the worst day of my life. I went to Lety, stood
in front of the gates then went home and asked my mother why she never told me.
She replied that she was worried that the communists would kill me because she
knew I would speak up and try to get justice," Ruzicka told Al Jazeera. Ruzicka
proposes establishing a Roma-led foundation that decides on the site's future,
respecting the wishes of the victims' families. "To have a pig farm on the
site of a concentration camp is a symbol of how Roma are treated in the Czech
Republic and all of Europe. When I speak to some Czech people about what
happened at Lety, they are unable to look me in the eye," he said.
The far-right Dawn of Direct Democracy party led by Tomio
Okamura denied that anyone was killed at Lety but rather the victims died of
diseases caused by their "travelling lifestyle". Other politicians
have made similar statements. The belittling or denial of the Roma holocaust,
which the Roma call 'porajmos' - the devouring - is symptomatic of the wretched
human rights situation for the country's minority. The scapegoating of Roma
provides a useful valve to release uncertainty and tension for the population. Many
Roma and Sinti children are put into schools for the mentally disabled and this
de facto segregation further perpetuates their inability to integrate.
The United Nations and the European Parliament have called
on the Czech government to close the farm. Jarmila Balazova, spokeswoman for
the Czech Ministry of Human Rights and Equal Opportunities says “The farm in
Lety is privately owned and the government has no chance to force them to do
something." However, the Czech Republic has signed and ratified an OSCE
agreement to "preserve and protect … sites of remembrance, most notably
extermination camps". The Czech Parliament can decide by legislative measures
that Lety is a place of public interest, thus it could be expropriated in case
the current owner is not willing to sell it.
From here
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/03/pig-farm-takes-center-stage-battle-roma-history-150330053845532.html
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