Žalov – place of commemoration

Surrounded by a forest, roughly 150 metres from the former camp and present recreation facility “Žalov”, is the location enclosed by a wooden fence in which three terrain undulations are still visible – mass grave of predominantly Roma prisoners.

According to the memories of the contemporary witnesses, a wooden cross was erected at the location of the mass grave already during the existence of the “Gypsy camp” (see photograph). The birch cross was most likely installed in 1946 by MVDr. František Čípek, a veterinary surgeon from the nearby Olešnice and the chairman of the Union of the National Revolution, who was taking care of the small cemetery, held lectures on its history in the nearby schools, acquired photographs of the detained Roma from the official doctor of the Gypsy camp, MUDr. Josef Habanec, and also documented the camp immediately after the war's end (he handed the documentation over to the Museum of Romani Culture).

Probably still during the existence of the forced labour camp (1949 – 1950), a partly worked smaller-sized stone with the inscription “Žalov – a victim of Nazism” was placed in front of the cross. The stone could have been worked by one of the inmates, a stone sculptor. The stone has remained in the cemetery until the present day. During the existence of the Association of Gypsies – Romanies (1969 – 1973), acts of commemoration were held here with the participation of the Roma. After the Association ended its activities, the history of the camp and cemetery fell into oblivion. Although it lies on the cadastral territory of Louka, the municipal office in Hodonín u Kunštátu continued to maintain the forest cemetery at least to some degree.

Even though throughout the 1960s the topic of Roma holocaust and of the Protectorate Gypsy camp in Hodonín u Kunštátu was slowly starting to be openly discussed, only the activity of the first Romani organization, the Association of Gypsies – Romanies, led to a more appreciable progress in this field in the early 1970s.

Already at the constituent congress of the Association in August of 1969, the participating delegates memorialised the Roma murdered by the Nazis. Subsequent activity of the Association included efforts to compensate the Roma victims of Nazi persecution. In August, 1971, the Commission of Former Prisoners of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was constituted at the Central Committee of the Association under the leadership of the chairman, Josef Jelínek, whose task was to assist with applications for compensation for pseudo-medical experiments and with acquiring certificates in line with the Act. No. 255/1946 Coll., on the national liberation struggle. The Commission also cooperated with the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters.
In March 1972, the first commemoration of the Roma victims of Nazi persecution took place in Hodonín u Kunštátu. This event was organized under the auspices of the Association also the following year. Apart from the members and officials of the Association, the historian Ctibor Nečas also participated in the commemoration who must be given the highest credit for having mapped the history of the camp. The Association even planned to build memorials for the Roma victims here and also in the second Protectorate camp in Lety u Písku, but this idea never materialized due to the dissolution of the Association in April 1973, and the issue of Roma holocaust was more or less forgotten for another 20 years.

In 1995, the Museum of Romani Culture (then a civic association operating under the Society of Experts and Friends of the Museum of Romani Culture) paid a respectable tribute to the memory of the Roma who died here at the suggestion of the mayor of the municipality, Miroslav Plíhal. Ever since that first event, the Museum holds acts of commemoration at this location every year. They are always organized for the nearest Sunday to August 21 to commemorate the mass transport of the Roma detainees from the local Gypsy camp to the concentration camp Auschwitz II – Birkenau in 1943.

In 1997, the Museum of Romani Culture, then still a civic association without juridical subjectivity working under the Society of Experts and Friends of the Museum of Romani Culture, initiated and subsequently implemented the memorial – a metal cross by a Romani author, Eduard Oláh – founded from a public fund-raising campaign. The Museum of Romani Culture has been maintaining the memorial and its closest surroundings from its very inception.

A plaque inscribed “To the memory of the Roma who deceased in these places between 1942 and 1943. Ma bisteren! Let us not forget!” was attached to the front part of the pedestal. Right next to the fence of the present recreational facility, a large boulder was placed with an engraved text narrating the history of the camp in Romani and Czech.

In 2007, the Museum of Romani Culture placed a metal information sign of the A4 format attached to a wooden pedestal with a brief description of the place and its history at the burial ground site. Another sign was affixed to the fence enclosing the place of commemoration stating the following: Žalov – memorial to the victims of the “Gypsy camp” (1942–1943).

Text on the information sign:
Žalov – memorial to the victims of the “Gypsy camp”
The place of commemoration where the victims of the Protectorate Gypsy camp are at rest in mass graves is covered by three still visible terrain undulations. Between August 1942 and August 1943, entire Roma families from many parts of Moravia were imprisoned in the camp. Over 200 prisoners did not survive the forced detention due to the deplorable living conditions and hard labour. The Roma were buried first in the cemetery in the nearby Černovice and after the outbreak of typhoid fever, the dead bodies of 121 Roma men, women and children were “buried” at this location.
Those who survived the internment were deported in several transports into the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. The last mass transport set out from Hodonín on August 21, 1943. Every year, on a Sunday nearest to this date, an act of commemoration takes place here to remind us of the camp and the lives of all the people who went through it.
After the liberation, an infirmary for sick Red Army soldiers was established at the site. Shortly afterwards, it operated as a collection centre for those German inhabitants who were not suited for immediate expulsion due to their physical condition. After 1948, a forced labour camp for “re-education” of the enemies of communism operated here.
In 1946, a simple wooden cross with a crown of thorns, later to be complemented by a stone engraved with the inscription “Žalov - a victim of Nazism”, was erected at the site. The stone was carved by one of the prisoners of the forced labour camp. The current memorial, a metal cross with Romani symbols – a torso of a wheel of a horse-drawn travelling wagon and a horse collar - was erected in 1997 by the Museum of Romani Culture and the Municipal Office of Hodonín. Its author is Romani sculptor Eduard Oláh.

Between 2004 and 2008, also the Endowment Fund for Victims of the Holocaust was providing financial assistance for the reconstructions, maintenance and organization of acts of commemoration by the Museum of Romani Culture.   

Since 2009, the care for this site by the Museum of Romani Culture, a state allowance organization, has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of the CR and it could be intensified from that time on. On September 15, 2009, the Society of Friends of the Museum of Romani Culture (a minor modification of the title occurred) which is the current owner of the memorial to the Roma victims in Žalov, the carved stone with information at the site of the former camp (the work of sculptor Eduard Oláh) and a memorial plaque at the municipal cemetery in Černovice (by sculptress Božena Přikrylová) – see photograph, donated these three objects to the Museum of Romani Culture, a state allowance organization which has been officially in charge of them since.

The premises of the former camp – at present a recreation facility – are currently managed by a private owner. The memorial lies on the territory belonging to the municipality of Hodonín u Kunštátu.
The ground plan of the camp's premises has been almost completely preserved, but only two of the original buildings are still standing – the prison house and the administrative building.

Hodonín and Černovice

The municipality of Hodonín u Kunštátu is located roughly 10 km from Kunštát. The actual site then lies near the road connecting Rozseč nad Kunštátem and Hodonín u Kunštátu.

In 1998, the Museum of Romani Culture unveiled the first memorial plaque in the municipal cemetery in nearby Černovice. It is affixed to the cemetery wall at which over 70 detainees of this camp, mainly Roma children, were buried at a spot for infidels and suicides. The author of the original ceramic artwork for the production of the plaque is the blind Roma artist Božena Vavreková-Přikrylová and the plaque was cast in metal by the sculpture workshop of Štěpán Axman. Part of this commemoration arrangement at the location is a symbolic fireplace.

The Museum of Romani Culture holds commemoration acts at this site every year. They are always taking place on a Sunday closest to August 21 to pay tribute to the mass transport of the Roma that deported the majority of the prisoners of the so-called Gypsy camp to the concentration camp Auschwitz II – Birkenau in 1943. The programme of the commemoration acts always includes a religious service (in Hodonín u Kunštátu by the chapel at the village green; in 2009 the service was held directly on site of the camp for the first time) followed by speeches of the guests and participants at the mass grave and by laying wreaths and flowers. The commemoration proceeds at the local cemetery in Černovice where the buried detainees of the camp are piously remembered. The entire act is accompanied by musical performances.

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