The Gaunlet to Be Taken Up : Josef Serinek and Jan Tesař As a Challenge for Contemporary Research on the Histories of the Roma in the 20th Century
Abstract
The text is a contribution into the debate on the book by Jan Tesař based on his interviews with an escapee from the "Gypsy" concentration camp in Lety u Písku and a Romani resistance fighter, Josef Serinek (Česká cikánská rapsodie, J. Tesař, Triáda 2016).
It is written from the perspective of the conteporary knowledge of the history of the Roma in Czechoslovakia. Highlighting the uniqueness of the testimony by J Serinek as one of the oldest ego-sources related to the history of the Czechosovak Roma in the first half of the 20th century, the author analyzes in detail several topics connected with particular moments in the testimony by Serinek (inclusion of the Roma in liberation fights; testimony in the conditions inside the Lety Gypsy concentration camp; real-life experience with the much discussed Czechoslovak law on "travelling Gypsies" from 1927 as well as the attmepts at self-organization of the Roma on the international level in interbellum Europe).
The author shows how fragile is the image of Josef Serinek as the "Romani hero of the fight for the liberation of Czechoslovakia" in the Czech collective memory.