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Lety concentration camp was a
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
internment camp for
Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...
from Bohemia and Moravia during the
German occupation of Czechoslovakia German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
. It was located in Lety.


Background

On 2 March 1939 (two weeks before the German occupation), the Czecho-Slovak government ordered that a correctional facility in the form of labor camp be set up for "people avoiding work and living off crime" (at the time labor duty was mandatory). The construction of a camp in the municipality of Lety (in South Bohemian Region) started on 17 July during the Nazi-German occupation. The location was picked because nearby forests, owned by the
House of Schwarzenberg The House of Schwarzenberg () is a German (Franconian Circle, Franconian) and Czech (Kingdom of Bohemia, Bohemian) aristocratic family, formerly one of the most prominent European noble houses. The Schwarzenbergs are members of the German nobili ...
, had been devastated by a storm. The first twelve prisoners arrived on 17 July 1940. The camp consisted of several large and small wooden barracks surrounded by a wooden fence. Josef Janovský was named commandant. Czech
gendarme A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (). In France and som ...
s guarded the places (service in such camps was considered a disciplinary punishment). Similar forced labor camps existed in Planá, Mirošov, Hradištko and other places; (mostly Czech) prisoners were typically used for hard labour such as
road construction A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. The ...
. In total, around 50,000 people went through such
labour camps A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
during the war. The total number of prisons and camps of all kinds established by Nazis within the boundaries of modern-day
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
was 2,125.


As labor camps

During 1940, 233 persons were sent to Lety, of whom 197 had previous criminal records. During 1941, the numbers were: 537 persons, 498 with previous criminal records, and 45 persons labeled as Gypsies. There were 27 escape attempts with 25 escapees caught. The prisoners were forced to do hard work in a quarry, were treated harshly and the sick lacked medicine. Many guards, including commander Janovský, regularly stole food from the camp stores, further reducing meager rations for the prisoners.


Situation of Romani people during German occupation

Starting in 1940, Romanis were forbidden to travel. In 1942, the measures already in force in Germany were applied in the Protectorate as well and, as an immediate result, a few hundred people deemed "asocial" were deported to
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
. On 24 June 1942, the Protectorate Minister of the Interior, Richard Bienert, ordered the collection of statistics about "Gypsies, mixed Gypsies and people with gypsy style of life". Around 6,500 people were recorded in these statistics (based on older records and often on skin color). On July 10, SS-''
Oberführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberführer'' (short: ''Oberf'', , ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dating back to 1921. An ''Oberführer'' was typically an NSDAP member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geograph ...
'' Horst Böhme, Chief of German Security Police, ordered Romanis to be moved into two camps: Lety for Romanis from
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
, Hodonín for those from
Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...
.


As "Gypsy" camps

All pre-existing prisoners at Lety were released or transferred, except for 19 Romani already imprisoned. On 2 October 1942, the first new internees arrived. The capacity of the camp was soon exhausted. Even though new buildings were constructed, the site continued to be overcrowded. Some internees were able to secure their release by bribing officials in Prague. Internees worked on logging trees, road building and on neighbouring farms. The food was meagre and the rations decreased over time. During winter, internees were not provided sufficient clothing. Brutality on behalf of the guards was common. A
typhoid Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often ther ...
epidemic started in December 1942 and did not recede until the camp was closed in May 1943. Commander Janovský was recalled for inability to deal with the epidemic and replaced by Commander Blahynka. The first transport with 94 people to Auschwitz left on 4 December 1942, and a second followed with 417 people on 14 May 1943. Most of the remaining prisoners were sent to the camp in Hodonín.


Overall numbers

The records are generally considered incomplete and all figures can be considered minimums: * Compilation of existing data gives a total of 1309 prisoners interned in the camp * 326 deaths (estimate), including all c. 30 children born in the camp * Over 500 deported to Auschwitz


Postwar investigations

After the war, several trials of Lety camp personnel began. Commander Janovský was jailed and charged in 1945. The investigation was stopped in 1946 but restarted in 1948. Both guards and former prisoners gave testimony about his brutality and theft, but Janovský was acquitted. Guard Josef Hejduk was accused of
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
, and former prisoners accused him of several murders. He was acquitted in 1947; the witnesses were not deemed trustworthy due to their criminal records. Harsh treatment was explained by the "need to deal with dangerous criminals." Guard Josef Luňáček, also accused of torture, was found guilty of a minor offense and punished with an official warning. The Chief of Police in the Protectorate, Friedrich Sowa, was sentenced to 10 years for crimes that included extermination of Romani. The decision was later overturned, since he was acting on Himmler's orders, and he was expelled from the country.


Forgotten and rediscovered history

After the war, the existence of Romani Nazi camps was practically forgotten outside the Romani community, except by specialized historians. The whole community of Czech Romani was annihilated and the new ones, who came from
Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
and
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
, had no knowledge of this tragedy. During the 1970s, a large factory pig farm was constructed near the site of the Lety camp. A tourist hotel has been built on the site of the Hodonín camp. In the 1970s and 1980s, Czech historians, notably Ctibor Nečas, researched and described the persecution of Roma during the Nazi occupation, including the camps in Lety and Hodonín. The late 1990s saw heated discussions in the Czech Republic about Czech relations to the Romani and their history, partly caused by two books published during that time. In 1998 the book '' Black Silence'' by Paul Polansky compiled historical records and testimonials of survivors. Meanwhile, 1997's ''And No One Will Believe You'' by Markus Pape caused one reviewer to note:
Previous studies of the Romani Holocaust in Czechoslovakia have, as Pape suggests, rejected survivors’ memories of extermination, executions, murders and rape carried out by the commandant and his guards, and have claimed that the camp did not function as an extermination camp. Such claims are joined to the assertion that survivors have, with the passing of time, confused what they saw with their own eyes in the camp. At the same time, previous studies have concluded that state documents exclude the possibility of such crimes having been committed. Pape succeeds, with this volume, in demonstrating that the state documents themselves not only support, but actually go further than, the eye-witness accounts; the idea that Lety really was an extermination camp is the first of the two main theses of the book... The second thesis of the book is that the camp at Lety operated with a certain independence from the Reich and erratic control from Prague.


Political symbolism

The existence of the camps (or, more precisely, that they were guarded by
protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over ...
policemen and the existence of the privately owned pig farm near Lety) quickly became a very powerful symbol in Czech politics. The issue started to attract minor political groups seeking to receive media attention. Romani activists picked the pig farm as a symbol of the Czech stance toward the Romani, insisting it is a source of shame for the country internationally. They have repeatedly asked the government to relocate the farm. Their efforts gained further attention by a resolution of the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
in 2005 asking the Czech Government to remove the farm. Opponents have criticized the massive cost of the farm's relocation, and insisted it has no impact on the actual life of the Romani people. They claim that the real intention of the activists is to extort money from the state and that the farm's removal would lead to a worsening of already tense relations between ethnic Czechs and Roma. In both 2005 and 2006, the Czech government announced its intention to buy and liquidate the farm, but later decided against it. In 2005, an exhibition of historical photographs and documentation entitled "Lety Detention Camp: History of Unmentioned Genocide" was held in the European Parliament and toured cities in Europe. More recently, organizations in the Czech Republic such as the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust, Dzeno Association, and Romea are working to keep the issue alive and defend the site from right-wing extremist political demonstrations. In 2017, the Czech government finally decided to buy the pig farm from company AGPI for 450 million Czech crowns (around 17.5 million EUR). The government will also pay 100 million Czech crowns for demolition of the farm. In the area it will build a heritage site managed by the Museum of Romani Culture. As 2020, the demolition was postponed because of the
coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. In early 2021, a winner of the architectonic competition was announced. Demolition of the farm began on 22 July 2022.


Lety Stone

A commemorative stone, with a plaque, was erected by the small far right party the National Party at the site of the former Lety concentration camp to reflect its opinion that it was a labour camp. The stone and plaque were immediately removed by the local authorities.


See also

* Hodonin concentration camp * Porajmos


Notes


External links

(texts in Czech)
Details of Lety camp, bibliography



Lety: short overview, schema of the camp, photo

Hodonín: short overview, schema of the camp, photo
(texts in English)
"Government not to liquidate pig farm in Lety"
��Dzeno Association News

Paul Polansky, ''Black Silence: The Lety Survivors Speak'' (New York: Cross-Cultural Communications, 1998) {{Authority control Antiziganism in the Czech Republic Lety History of the Romani people during World War II Písek District Romani genocide