Jana Horváthová et al. (eds), ...to jsou těžké vzpomínky. Vzpomínky Romů a Sintů na život před válkou a v protektorátu (...these are painful memories. Reminiscences of Roma and Sinti about life before the war and during the Protectorate)
Published by Větrné mlýny publishing house and Museum of Romani Culture, Brno 2021
You can buy the book here.
This extensive publication is primarily based on reminiscences of Roma and Sinti survivors about World War II in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It also contains biographical profiles summarizing the fates and family ties of surviving Roma and Sinti families, as well as four profiles of their descendants who contributed significantly to our knowledge of the lives of these families. The book concludes with testimonies from survivors interned in the two camps for Roma and Sinti who were not members of the Romani and Sinti communities.These testimonies are based on interviews recorded by various scholars, primarily in the late 1990s and 2010s. In other cases, the survivors first wrote the testimonies. An overview of the sources from which the recollections are drawn is provided for each survivor’s entry.
The publication is divided into two chapters, preceded by a historical introduction. The first chapter focuses on the interwar period up to 1939, and the second discusses the period after the Protectorate was established. This chapter is divided into 35 thematic sections, some of which are arranged chronologically. These sections cover topics ranging from the establishment of disciplinary labor camps to imprisonment and conditions in Protectorate camps and transports to concentration and extermination camps outside the Protectorate. The book also includes survivors’ reflections (“Why did this happen to us?”) and an epilogue on the postwar history of the former camp sites, nearly up to the present.
A distinctive feature of the book is how the testimonies are processed and presented. The book is compiled from excerpts of testimonies related to a specific subject.
The book includes a substantial visual appendix with family photographs and captions, facsimiles of archival documents, and images of items in the collection. It also includes a name and place index. Some of the interviews were incorporated into a documentary film produced by the Museum of Romani Culture.
According to the editors, the second planned volume will focus on the testimonies of Czech Romani and Sinti survivors relating to their wartime experiences outside the Protectorate, primarily in Auschwitz.
