The pig farm in Lety near Písek is set to begin demolition in the summer according to the Museum of Romani Culture

Lety - The demolition of the pig farm in Lety near Písek is expected to begin this summer, according to the Museum of Romani Culture. A memorial to the Romani Holocaust is scheduled to open there next year, provided there are no complications. Jana Horváthová, the director of the Museum of Romani Culture, stated this today during a commemorative event in Lety near Písek in response to a query from ČTK. The pig farm stands on the site of a concentration camp for Roma during World War II.

The Museum of Romani Culture has received 17 offers for the demolition of the pig farm. They are currently evaluating them. The museum hopes to start the demolition in the summer, and two months later, it intends to announce a tender for the company that will build the Memorial to the Roma and Sinti Holocaust in the Czech Republic at the site of the pig farm. If everything goes smoothly, they aim to open it in 2023.

"We believe it will be successful. There is great financial strain; we are really lacking many financial resources. The state is covering the demolition, while the construction of the memorial and educational activities are mainly funded by Norwegian funds. It is a project of global significance. It will be a very unique memorial, which has been a long time coming. For thirty years, there has been a struggle, especially by the civic part of the public (for the removal of the pig farm), so I think it is worth bringing this to a successful conclusion," said the director. She did not specify how much money is still needed for the construction.

During World War II, there was a concentration camp for Roma on the site. Later, a pig farm was established there. The state purchased it in 2018 for 450 million crowns from the company Agpi, which had 13,000 pigs on the site. The state allocated 110 million crowns for the demolition of the pig farm. Estimated costs for the memorial's construction have exceeded 30 million crowns, but the Museum of Romani Culture expects that, considering rising material prices, this figure will likely increase. Part will be covered by grants from Norwegian funds, and part by the state budget. According to previous information, the museum had been promised one million euros (about 25 million crowns) from Norwegian funds for the memorial's construction and half a million euros (13 million crowns) for exhibitions and activities.

Historically, 1,308 Roma - men, women, and children passed through the camp in Lety from August 1942 to May 1943; 327 of them died there, and over five hundred ended up in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Less than 600 Romani prisoners returned from the concentration camps after the war. According to experts' estimates, the Nazis exterminated 90 percent of the Czech and Moravian Roma. Archaeologists have discovered that the largest part of the concentration camp for Roma in Lety was located within the premises of the former pig farm.