The demolition of the former pig farm in Lety in Písek, where a Romani concentration camp stood during World War II, will begin on July 22. A Holocaust memorial will be built on the site.
The cost of demolishing the former pig farm should not exceed CZK 110 million, Karolina Spielmannová, spokesperson for the Museum of Romani Culture, said.
The museum will construct a Holocaust Memorial to the Roma and Sinti of Bohemia on the vacated site. The construction of the memorial will cost tens of millions of crowns, part of which will be paid for by the state and the function of which will come from Norwegian funds.
According to historians, 1,308 Roma men, women, and children passed through the camp at Lety between August 1942 and May 1943, 327 of whom died there, and more than 500 ended up in the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
The piggery on the campsite was built in the 1970s and operated until 2018 when the state bought it for CZK 450 million from the Agpi company, which raised about 13 000 pigs there.
Seventeen bidders submitted bids for the site’s demolition, and the contract was awarded to AWT Reclamation, with whom the contract will be signed. The site is scheduled to be handed over at 13:00 on July 22. On that day, Spielmann said, people could also see the pig farm site for the last time in the presence of memorials and activists.