Albín Pleva’s had one of the most exciting – and daunting – narratives to track. It took travels across two continents, three countries, and five cities to find her remaining traces. As a Czech Roma Holocaust (Porajmos) victim, she had intersecting elements to her life that divided her records across dozens of institutions.
Albín’s story also takes us the present day, where her concentration camp, Lety, was only recently purchased by the Czech government to pass along to the Museum of Romani Culture. The memorial finally opened in May 2024. The outdoor permanent Trail of Memory exhibition is open and freely accessible today.
Porajmos denial is still common, despite there being hundreds of thousands – if not over a million – murders. Historians do not agree on the correct number, with estimates between 250,000 and 1.5 million.
Unfortunately, there were only a handful of records about Albín they could find in their millions of documents. There are likely more in their archives that have not yet been scanned or counted.
“It is reported that the prisoner Albin Pleva, born on January 20, 1912, was transported to the criminal police in Prague on July 31, 1942. During his stay in the Lety detention camp, he was not ill and therefore did not become a patient in the hospital.”
