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Lety Camp; Roma Holocaust

January 21, 2011

English article

On thursday, may 13, the Servitus office manager as well as a current and a former Servitus/ASF-volunteer joined the commemoration ceremony held for the Roma victims that suffered and died in concentration camps during the Nationalsocialists´ occupation of the Czech lands.

Between 1942 and 1943, there were two Nazi concentration camps for Roma in Bohemia and Moravia. One in Hodonín and one in Lety. From an estimated amount of 8000 Roma inmates in those concentration camps only about 600 returned after the war.

In 1995, a memorial commemorating the Roma victims was erected in Lety/Southern Bohemia. Since 1998 there have been yearly commemoration ceremonies taking place in and around Lety.

Laying wreaths at the memorial for the Roma victims of the former Concentration camp in Lety.

The elderly man in the second row (2. picture) was born in the concentration camp.

The main organizer of this event is Čeněk Růžička, the president of the committee for compensation of the Roma Holocaust. Mr. Růžička survived the Porajmos which is the Romanes term for the extermination of Roma during World War II. This year, he said, was the first time he was satisfied with the outcome of the ceremony, because this year, more than 500 guests attended the ceremony. That was a big success compared to the last year´s 50 guests.

In the Czech Republic, where racism against Roma is an everyday life phenomenon, and in Lety, where one nowadays finds a pig farm where once stood barracks, there commemorating the Porajmos is defenitly not a normality. Mr Růžička emphasized the importance of respect towards the past of the Roma community and calls for a normality of respect in his country.

At the grave of about 200 murdered Roma. The public cemetery is situated in the neighbouring village Mirovice. Mr. Růžička telling us about the site. In the foreground you see a harmed wheel sympolizing the harmed nation of Roma. The complete wheel is the official symbol of the wordlwide Roma community.

All photos by former volunteer Hannes Westphal.

Find a well done english overview of Roma history here.