Plans to remove pigsty on site of former Nazi camp in Czech Republic

The Czech government is working to remove a pig farm from the site of a former Nazi concentration camp for Roma. 

The farm dates back to the Communist era. Roma activists have long demanded the removal of the farm from Lety, 95 kilometers south of Prague, where at least 327 Czech Roma died between August 1942 and August 1943, during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. More than two thirds of them were children.

Other inmates were taken from Lety to the Auschwitz death camp.

Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis, Culture Minister Daniel Herman and Justice Minister Robert Pelikan visited the site earlier this week to honor the victims.

Days earlier, Babis was reported as saying that the site was just a labor camp, not a concentration camp, sparking sharp criticism from politicians, including Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

Babis apologized for his words but said they were taken out of context and misinterpreted. 

Previous governments failed to remove it, citing a lack of funding. Herman said he expected the government to complete a purchase of the farm before next year’s parliamentary elections. “We have never been so close to a solution,” he said.

Only about 10 percent of up to 10,000 Roma living on occupied Czechoslovak territory are estimated to have survived the war. The current 250,000-strong Roma minority in the Czech Republic and Slovakia faces widespread prejudice.