Roma memorial in Lety to open in February

The new memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in the Czech Lands, which is on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma during the Second World War in Lety, South Bohemia, will open on February 3, 2024, the Czech News Agency reports. Trees were planted on the site on Monday, with the newly planted forest, which will contain almost 14,000 trees, intended to symbolise the lost Roma communities.

The majority of the seedlings for the forest were donated by the Orlík Castle estate of the recently deceased Karel Schwarzenberg, who supported the construction of the memorial, and his son Jan. The crowd held a minute's silence for Schwarzenberg.

The site where hundreds of Czech Roma perished during World War II became the centre of international controversy over the past decades due to the pig farm that was built on the site after the war. The farm was eventually demolished last year.