27. July 2022

Opening ceremony of the demolition of the former pig farm

The large-capacity pig farm on the site of the former Concentration camp in Lety is going down.

On 22 July 2022, the demolition of the former pig farm in Lety u Písku symbolically began. The act took place in the presence of personalities from political and public life, and was also attended by activists, commemorators and descendants of the survivors of the Concentration camp in Lety u Písku.

The Director of the Museum of Romani Culture, Jana Horváthová, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Martin Baxa, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, H.E. Robert Kvile, and the Chairman of the Committee for the Compensation of the Romani Holocaust, Čeněk Růžička, gave speeches during the ceremony.

During the last guided tour of the pig farm, other personalities who make up the history of this place spoke (activist Jozef Miker, journalist Jindřich Šídlo, head of archaeological research in Lety doc. Vařeka, activist Miroslav Brož).

The event also included honouring the memory of the victims of the Lety camp with floral offerings, symbolically placed in the area of the former pig farm (which by its location directly encroaches on the area of the former so-called gypsy camp and mass graves).

During the symbolic opening of the demolition, the site was handed over to the demolition company AWT Reclamation. The company was the winner of the tender. The site should be demolished by the end of 2022, and construction of Phase I of the new Holocaust Memorial to the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia should also begin this year. The project is the materialization of long-standing efforts by many initiatives to honor the victims of the Concentration camp with dignity. The demolition of the pig farm site is one of the fundamental steps towards achieving this goal.