Memoáry romských žen [Memoirs of Romani women]

Published by Muzeum romské kultury [The Museum of Romani Culture], Brno 2004

The publication Memoirs of Romani Women presents two autobiographical stories of Romani women who were born during the 1920s and 1930s. One side of the book, entitled Elina - The Saga of the Holomek Family, contains the memoirs of Elina Machálková, a representative of the so-called Moravian Roma, from her birth to 1997; however, her narrative partly goes back further, to the 1880s, when her grandparents were born. The other side of the book features the reminiscences of Karolína Kozáková, a representative of the so-called Czech Roma, and is entitled Karolína - a journey through life in a gypsy wagon. They cover the period from the mid-1920s to 1969.

Each of these sections opens with an Introductory Note by Jana Horváthová. The following chapter (bearing the same title as the book's title) explains the significance of the two witnesses and why their stories have been published together. The next chapter is devoted to the main characters featured in the story. This section contains a list of the names of the ancestors of both survivors, often including dates and places of birth, or dates, places and circumstances of death, and a note if the person died in a concentration camp. The main parts of the book are the autobiographical texts themselves, divided into chapters according to place, time, and persons, and in some cases according to subject or event, but not in strict chronological order. They are accompanied by numerous photographs from family archives and the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno. Each of the two sections concludes with Editor's Notes, which supplement the information from both autobiographies.

It is the first ever publication of autobiographies of Romani women in the Czech Republic. Emílie Machálková wrote her memoirs in Czech in 1998 by hand in an A4 school notebook, and Karolína Kozáková also in Czech in 2000 in an out-of-date diary. The manuscripts were transcribed by Ivona Parčiová and Eva Šrámková. The editor responsible, Jana Horváthová, made only minimal changes to the text in order to preserve the original style of the narrative as much as possible.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Partners

  • Muzeum romské kultury
  • Institute of Ethnology

Supporters

  • Bader
  • GAČR
  • TCAOS