State Secretary Maria Varteressian’s speech at the opening of The Lety u Písku Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia

Your Excellency President Pavel,

Members of the Czech Government,

Distinguished Guests,

Dear Descendants of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust Victims,

I am both honoured and touched to represent the Norwegian Government here in Lety today.

For many of you, the opening of a Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia has been a 30 year-long struggle. At times, your prospects to succeed must have looked bleak. You have endured numerous setbacks and attempts to belittle the Roma and Sinti’s sufferings during the war.

Let me therefore express my admiration to those brave people who never abandoned the dream that the Lety Memorial would become reality.  

Their persistence proves the truth of Václav Havel´s words: Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. 

Let me also express my gratitude to the politicians who supported the construction of the Lety Memorial. Commemorating the Roma and Sinti Holocaust with the respect it deserves is important.  Not only for the victims’ families, but for the population at large. Only by acknowledging the terrible deeds of the past, can we prevent wrongdoings in the future. 

Norwegians were also affected by the Roma Holocaust. In 1934, Norwegian Romas fleeing from Hitler Germany were stopped at the border by our border guards. Most of them later perished in gas chambers in Auschwitz and other concentration camps.  

In 2015, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg extended an official apology to Norway’s Roma minority for the way they were treated. She descried the years leading up to the second world war as a dark chapter of our history.

The Lety Memorial is dedicated to the Roma and Sinti Holocaust victims in Bohemia. But these terrible acts also happened elsewhere in Europe. Because of this, I also see the Lety Memorial as a commemoration to the Norwegian Roma Holocaust victims.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If we are to build just and stable societies, spreading knowledge about the historic injustice against Romani and other minorities is essential. And also about the injustice and discrimination still taking place today. 

Standing up for tolerance, equal rights and non-discrimination is more important than ever. This is especially apparent when strong forces try to undermine our democracies by promoting polarization, social friction and outright hatred. 

The Holocaust memorial will play an important role in increasing the understanding of Roma and Sinti history in Bohemia. It will also contribute to awareness of their current situation in the Czech Republic.

I am grateful that Norway Grants had the opportunity to support this landmark initiative.

I would like to sincerely thank and congratulate the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno, who has been the project lead. Let me also thank the Norwegian project partner, the Falstad center, and Norway Grants’ program partner, the Norwegian Directorate of Cultural Heritage.

Together, you have created a project of international significance. We cannot fight injustice in the future, if we cannot acknowledge what happened in our past.  

I wish you the best of luck in your future work.

Thank you.