Preparations for the announcement of the competition

PREPARATIONS FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF LANDSCAPE-ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION FOR THE FUTURE IMAGE OF THE MEMORIAL IN LETY

The Museum of Romani Culture, in cooperation with ONPlan company, completed a three-month consultation phase of the preparation of an international two-stage landscape-architectural competition “Lety u Písku. The Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia”. The subject of the competition will be to look for the most suitable form of the memorial and the surrounding landscape.

Number of participants were involved in the preparation of the competition. Five working group meetings were held from April to June this year. In addition to the staff of the Museum of Romani Culture, survivors of the camp and experts from various professions were present. The aim of the working group was mainly the preparation of the documents for the landscape architectural competition.

In order to involve as wide range of participants as possible in the preparation of the competition, more than 100 representatives of the survivors of the Lety camp were invited to consult the outputs of the working groups. Representatives of the Roma groups who participated in the building of the memorial or the purchase of the pig farm, associations and initiatives that are committed to Roma and human rights issues, state or state-run organizations, professional and academic institutions, furthermore, project funding partners and non-Roma personalities openly supporting the Roma minority were also invited. The consultations took form of two consultation afternoons, which took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture in Nostic Palace in May and June. The aim of these consultations was to present the present situation of the Lety Memorial, present the details of the intention to build the Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia and the basic contours of the landscape-architectural competition. During  both afternoon consultations, the attendees had the opportunity, after introductory presentations, to have individual consultations with representatives of the Museum of Romani Culture and Onplan company. Suggestions arising from the consultation afternoons included, among other things, the requirements for targeting er the memorial to the young generation, for presenting the stories of individuals, and respecting the culture of the Roma and the Sinti. Discussions about the need to include the names of camp victims in the memorial, and the fact that the list of victims is incomplete were held. The participants were also interested in details of the organization of the competition, or details of the demolition of the pig farm.

In connection with the preparation of the assignment of the competition, a meeting with the inhabitants of Lety and surrounding villages, took place in the social hall of the restaurant in Lety in May. The aim of the meeting was to present the present state of the memorial as well as ideas about its future but mainly  to find out the assessment of the current state of the territory by its inhabitants and to map the expectations and possible concerns of the locals. The locals mostly talked about the surrounding landscape, its picturesque nature, calm, well-preserved roads, but also places around the area connected with the history of the camp. With this also the fear that the competition designs will not respect the local landscape is associated. Of course, it was also said that the purchase of the pig farm, the funds for its demolition and, consequently, the realization of the monument, were several times higher than the budgets of local municipalities. The greatest benefit for us was the opening of the question of possible future cooperation with the municipality Lety, where it is possible to use the municipal social hall for cultural events associated with the activities of the Museum of Romani Culture in this place.

At the same time, individual negotiations are held with the owners of neighboring lands, representatives of neighboring municipalities, or some state administration bodies. Currently, the Museum of Romani Culture and external experts on Roma culture and history work  very intensively with ONplan company to finalize the competition conditions, enter the competition, prepare an accompanying publication and a web presentation. The basis for these documents is, apart from other things, the outputs of the working group or suggestions arising from consultation afternoons and meetings with residents of the surrounding municipalities. The assignment of the competition will be coordinated with the outputs of the next stage of archaeological research, which aims primarily to find the graves of the victims of the Lety camp.

We expect the competition to be announced in September this year, according to the preliminary schedule, the first phase of the competition will be closed in December 2019 and will be followed by the second phase, which will end with the announcement of the results of the competition in spring 2020.