The Hodonín u Kunštátu Memorial will not open now, preparations have stopped

Prague - The memorial in Hodonín near Kunštát in the Blanensko region, located at the site of the Protectorate concentration camp for Roma, will not open yet. It was supposed to start functioning in July, but preparations have been paused. The reason is unclear regarding who will operate the exhibition and how it should look. This arises from statements by the Ministries of Education and Culture and the government council for Romani minority affairs. The establishment of the memorial is the responsibility of the pedagogical museum of the Ministry of Education, but the government council is requesting the cabinet to transfer the site to the Ministry of Culture and its Museum of Romani Culture.

"The pedagogical museum has suspended work on the exhibition because these are targeted funds of about 95 million crowns being spent on the construction of the memorial. The opening date was planned in accordance with the completion of the exhibition. The opening is related to the role of the administrator," the Ministry of Education stated. If the site is transferred, the Ministry of Culture will have to agree on the opening date with its Museum of Romani Culture.

The construction has been completed for a year. The exhibition was to be finished by the end of this June. Testing operations were to begin in July, and in August, the memorial was to open to the public.

In the so-called Gypsy camp in Hodonín near Kunštát, the Protectorate authorities gathered Moravian Roma from August 1942 to September 1943 before their transport to Auschwitz. A total of 1,396 children and adults passed through the facility, of which 207 died there. Later, the camp served as a hospital for Red Army soldiers and then as an internment center for the expulsion of Germans. In the 1950s, there was a forced labor camp for two years. During socialism, a recreational area was developed at the site.

In 2009, the then Minister for Human Rights, Michael Kocáb, reached an agreement with its owners for the purchase. The Museum of Romani Culture was to establish an educational center for the Romani Holocaust at the site. The Ministry of Education then purchased the area, and the task of establishing the Romani Holocaust memorial was assigned to its pedagogical museum by the government. The government council for Romani minority affairs criticizes the fact that the term "Romani Holocaust" was omitted from the name. The facility should also commemorate the internment center for Germans and the forced labor camp. The council demands that "the central theme" remains Romani history.

"The government council acted without knowledge of the scenario, and therefore there was a misunderstanding on their part, as the exhibition is 90 percent dedicated to the Romani theme and the Romani Holocaust," stated the Ministry of Education.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the memorial should be transferred to the Museum of Romani Culture by January 1, 2018. "The financing of the memorial's operation must primarily be resolved," the Ministry of Culture stated, noting that it is currently calculating the operating costs. According to its press department, the Ministry of Education has had a completed material for the further operation of the site for a year and has handed it over to the second ministry as a basis, but it now needs to come up with its own proposal.

According to a government report on the status of the Romani minority, the Ministry of Education had approximately 98.6 million crowns available for its establishment. By the end of last year, it had invested 85.7 million, of which 20 million was used to purchase the site.

The government should decide on the transfer and its procedure. It is not yet clear when the issue will be discussed.