Hozená rukavice
A thrown gauntlet

Josef Serinek and Jan Tesař as a challenge for today’s research of the history of the Romany nation in the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The authoress comments on the three-volume publication "Czech Gipsy Rhapsody" of Jan Tesař from the perspective of the current state of knowledge of the Romany history in the territory of Czechoslovakia. She states it is an inspiring work, both thematically and factually and in terms of methodology and interpretation. She emphasizes the uniqueness of the narration of Josef Serinek (1900–1974), recorded by historian Jan Tesař in 1963 and 1964, as one of the oldest sources of Romany provenience on the history of the Romany nation in the Czech Lands in the first half of the 20th century, including their wartime genocide. She dwells for some time on several topics closely related to specific moments of Serinek’s narration, namely the involvement of Romanies in fights for the liberation of Czechoslovakia, evidence concerning the so-called gipsy camp in Lety u Písku, consequences of the First Republic’s law on “itinerant gipsies”, and Romani self-organization attempts in inter-war Europe. The strongest aspects of Tesař’s work are, in her opinion, Tesař’s interpretation of the holocaust of Romanies in the Protectorate, which caused significant damage to the whole Czechoslovak society, and the way in which Tesař sets Serinek, a Romany survivor and also a freedom fighter, into the narration about the genocide which the Czech population made a substantial contribution to. The authoress shows how fragile and unobvious is the Tesař’s picture of Serinek as a “Romany hero of the Czechoslovak fight for freedom” in the collective memory of the Czech society, including its Romany segment.

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