Pig Sick

They say that history is written by the winners, but Paul Polansky simply refuses to accept it. For decades his work as an author and activist has highlighted every wrong committed against the Romany people. But no place better symbolises his refusal to let the losers story remain buried than the Romany holocaust camp at Lety in the Czech republic.

Just one of the many Lety victims.

As a Czech American he went there looking for records of his ancestors, but found that a nearby slave labour camp played a key role in the annihilation of 99% of the Czech Romany community. When he arrived in Lety the site, the story and history was buried and covered up. He found to his disgust that the very barracks the victims had lived in now housed 20,000 pigs.

A pig farm remains on the site of the holocaust camp

Over the decades he has shamed the Czech government into remembering the atrocities committed at Lety, but says the greatest insult remains – the pig farm. In a new film produced by British filmmakers Ioana Contaninesco and Huw Powell called Let Lety Be, Polanksy revisits Lety and goes after the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenburg whose father started and operated the camp.

 Winners may well write the history books, but Polansky breathes life into an old African proverb. “Until the lions speaks the hunter’s tale is always glorified.” And this lion is roaring louder than ever.  

A statement from the Czech Ambassador Michael Zantovsky will be added to this page just as soon as he has time to respond to the allegations Polansky has made about the Czech Republic.

Last week as he passed through London, Travellers Times Online spoke to him about his campaign.