Infrastructure, Environment and Roma and Sinti Genocide Remembrance in a Post-Holocaust Landscape at the Lety Memorial (Czechia)

This study analyzes the recently constructed memorial dedicated to the genocide of the Roma and Sinti in Lety, Czechia, and demonstrates how non-human actors participate in shaping the memorial through their interaction with maintenance practices. Engaging with a wide range of sources like public documents, interviews, fieldwork, and data from digital platforms for tourists, this study argues that maintenance practices could be examined as a form of infrastructure. It reveals how maintenance of the outdoor area of this "post-Holocaust landscape" interferes with both the surrounding environment and the material remnants of the past. The resulting assemblage leads to changes in the memorial's appearance and also to adjustments in maintenance operations. The study highlights the explanatory value of integrating the environmental history of the Holocaust with infrastructure studies in memory research, arguing that such an approach enables a more comprehensive understanding of how non-human actors co-constitute sites of remembrance.