PRAGUE, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The Czech government on Tuesday has officially acquired 7.1-hectare land of a former pig farm located on the site of a WWII concentration camp in Lety in Pisek, a town 100 km south of Prague.
The Museum of Romani Culture, a Czech-based state-funded organization, confirmed the handover on Tuesday on behalf of Jana Horvathova, the museum director.
Horvathova said the representatives of the museum signed the required transfer protocols and started to take over the premisses on Tuesday from the previous owner AGPI, a company specialized in the production of pork, fresh chicken eggs and others
She said that the pig farm shall be completely demolished by the end of the year. A monument to the Romani Holocaust will be created on the site later this year.
She added that "the cooperation with AGPI went very well, the area is prepared for disposal now, everything should go smoothly."
According to the AGPI vice chairman Jan Cech, the state offered the installment payment plan, which includes the first 80 percent of the purchase price of 450.8 million crowns (21.88 million U.S.dollars) to be received by April 16, the next 10 percent - within 30 days of Tuesday's handover, and the remaining 10 percent be transferred as soon as the land is completely unoccupied.
According to Horvathova, the demolition of the pig farm will cost the state additional 110 million crowns (5.3 million U.S.dollars), as well as 1.5 million crows (72,800 U.S.dollars) for a required archaeological site survey to be carried out by the end of June.
The memorial is planned to include a visitor center with an exhibition with archaeological findings, and a lectures hall for the group visitors. The form and symbols of the memorial will also be discussed on April 25 at a public meeting in Lety. Most likely, as Horvathova said, the Memorial to the Romani Holocaust could include a replica of the original barracks, alleys, or a mound with a cross.
The camp in Lety was opened in August 1940 as a working camp under the protectorate of Nazi Germany during the WWII. Since May 1943, over 1,300 Romani had passed the camp, and 327 of them died. (1 U.S. dollar = 20.6 Czech crowns)
