Dušan Holý, Ctibor Nečas: Žalující píseň (The Song of Lament)

The book Žalu­jící píseň, writ­ten by Dušan Holý and Cti­bor Nečas, deals with the fate of the Roma and Sin­ti in Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camps. The book is divid­ed into six chap­ters. The first chap­ter, titled ​“Why I Sing This Song,” con­tains a tran­scrip­tion of the song ​“Aušvi­cate hi kher baro,” per­formed by Růže­na Danielová, along with com­men­tary by eth­no­mu­si­col­o­gist Dušan Holý. Next is a his­tor­i­cal reca­pit­u­la­tion of the events that led to the estab­lish­ment of camps for Roma and Sin­ti. The authors inter­sperse the chap­ter with quotes from eye­wit­ness­es, pho­tographs, and oth­er visu­al mate­ri­als. The third chap­ter, ​“About Růže­na Danielová — Z‑8529 and the Peo­ple Around Her,” sum­ma­rizes her life in detail and quotes her mem­oirs as well as the mem­oirs of oth­ers who were interned with her. This chap­ter is rich­ly illus­trat­ed with pho­tographs from Danielová’s life. ​“Tes­ti­monies and Accu­sa­tions” begins with an intro­duc­tion sum­ma­riz­ing the fate of a Romani pris­on­er who, as a camp func­tionary, was tried after the war for his treat­ment of Romani pris­on­ers. (In con­trast, none of the Czech gen­darmes from the camps for Roma and Sin­ti were ever tried for mis­treat­ing Romani pris­on­ers.) The chap­ter presents twen­ty-five tes­ti­monies from indi­vid­u­als who tes­ti­fied against the Romani func­tionary in court. The fifth chap­ter, ​“Songs,” con­tains a tran­scrip­tion and analy­sis of the song ​“Aušvi­cate hi kher baro,” per­formed by Růže­na Danielová. It also dis­cuss­es the role of singing and music in the Auschwitz camp, as well as the song ​“Oda Kálo Čirik­lóro.” In addi­tion to the usu­al list of ref­er­ences, the book con­cludes with a list of singers, col­lec­tors, and tran­scribers of songs.