Ceske Budejovice, South Bohemia, April 9 (CTK) – About 300 people gathered in the central square of Ceske Budejovice on Monday to pay respect to the victims of the Lety concentration camp for the Roma that had operated during World War Two, about 80 km northwest of the city.
The event’s organiser, Tomas Trantina (TOP 09), said he does not like the latent racism and xenophobia in Czech politics.
He said 240 children under the age of 14 died in the Lety camp. “This is something that must not be downplayed,” he added.
Trantina said the gathering wanted to show that people from the South Bohemia Region were aware of what the Lety camp was about.
The participants in the gathering carried sheets of paper with the names of the victims and their dates of birth and death.
Trantina said these sheets would be sent to the lower house groups of the ANO movement, the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Communist Party (KSCM).
ANO, the SPD and the KSCM elected SPD leader Tomio Okamura lower house deputy chairman. Earlier this year, Okamura made statements in which he played down the suffering of the inmates of the Lety camp. Some politicians labelled his words Roma Holocaust denial and called for Okamura’s dismissal from the senior parliamentary post. Okamura partly apologised for his statements and the above three parties supported him in the post.
From August 1942 to May 1943, a total of 1308 Roma people gradually stayed in the Lety camp, where 327 of them died and over 500 ended up in Auschwitz.
In 1973, a large pig farm was built on the site of the former camp. Last year, the Czech state bought the farm from its operator Agpi, which handed the premises to the representatives of the state last week. The pig farm is to be pulled down this year and a Roma Holocaust memorial will be built there instead.
