Czech pig farm on Nazi Gypsy death camp

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, May 13 (UPI) -- A Czech Cabinet minister said he will try to collect money to pay for the removal of a pig farm from the site of a Nazi camp for Gypsies in World War II.

Michael Kocab, Czech minister for minorities and human rights, Wednesday said he will urge companies to help form a foundation to provide $35 million to relocate the large pig farm at the southern Bohemian town of Lety, Prague Radio said.

In the Lety concentration camp, established by the Nazis in 1942, hundreds of Czech Gypsies, including 241 children, were killed.

Addressing a commemoration at Lety, Kocab said he would like to transform the camp site to a memorial.

In the 1970s, communist authorities of the former Czechoslovakia built the large pig farm at Lety.

The European Parliament and Czech Gypsy rights groups have been unsuccessful for years in urging Prague to relocate the farm. Czech government officials argued they were short of money, the radio said.