EJP | News | Czech gypsies urge action to stop memorial at WWII camp
Representatives of the Czech Republic’s gypsy community Friday demanded the government and police stop the far right National Party from erecting its own "monument" at the site of a WWII camp where around 300 gypsies died.
...
Some 326 of the 1,300 men, women and children who passed through the camp between August 1942 and May 1943 died due to the atrocious conditions. 500 were sent on to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

A large pig farm was later built on the site under the communist regime. Gypsies have been trying for years to get it removed.

The governement promised them last year to find funds for the farm to be moved so that a proper memorial could be built to its victims but so far nothing has happened.

Not a proud moment in Czech history is threatening to turn into a very embarassing moment in Czech future. Czechs have been mistreating the Roma both practically and symbolically (particularly in recent years) often as part of well-intentioned efforts at integration. Moving a pig farm and building a monument may seem like being fairly low on the list of priorities but that would be to forget that symbolic action is often a necessary (if by no means sufficient) prerequisite for effective practical action.