Holocaust Survivors Protest Czech Government

Various International organizations that protect Holocaust victims and survivors have resubmitted their complaints against the Czech government with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolenek renewing their dismay that the Czech government has allowed a pig farm to stay in place on land that was once a Nazi internment camp for Romanies (colloquially known as Gypsies).

The pig farm in question is located in southern Bohemia in the town of Lety near Pisek, where according to the historical data, 1308 people were imprisoned, of which 327 died and another 500 were transported to the Nazi camp at Auschwitz. At the time, the government of Czechoslovakia had been ousted by Hitler, and the area was formally declared the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and governed by the Nazi party.

German and Polish organizations representing the survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, as well as the Central Council of German Romanies and Sints have taken their complaints to German Chancellor and presiding European Union president, Angela Merkal, in hopes of pressuring the Czech government to act. They have been joined by Cenek Ruzicka, who is the head of the Czech Committee for the Compensation of the Romany Holocaust Victims.

"Shameful" was the word they used to describe the fact that a modern democratic country could allow such hallowed land to be used as a pig farm. Guenther Pappenheim called the situation "scandalous and untenable."

In 2005, the European Parliament passed a resolution regarding the pig farm requesting that the Czech govermnet abolish it, but like most resolutions of its kind it was merely dismissed without comment by the Czechs.

Which is not to say that the Czech government has not looked into the matter. It has, and the initial cost of merely removing the pig farm has been estimated as starting at $500,000. And there is not a single political party in the Czech Republic who believes that the Czech government has $500,000 to spend on cleaning out a pig farm.

Also, politically, there is not a single politician in the Parliament that feels any pressure to take up the cause of removing the pig farm. In a recent survey, the Czech people, in very significant numbers, said that they would not want to have a Romany family as a neighbor.

There is also another factor at play. Most Czechs have had either direct or indirect experience with the nationalization of private property during the days when the Communists nationalized Czechoslovakia after WWII. And as result, Czechs today are very leery when the government moves against the interests of property.

The inferred attitude of the Czech government is that the removal of the pig farm and the construction of a memorial to the Romany victims of the Nazi Protectorate is a private affair, which should be paid for privately.