The Gypsy Bible

In: Index on censorship, Band 27, Heft 4, S. 36-47

Abstract

The brutal and relentless persecution of the Roma, unleashed soon after their arrival in Europe, has been one of the greatest crimes of history. Hopes that the 'enlightenment' that so strongly condemned the Nazi's genocidal policies would finally enable this peaceful people to take its rightful place in the family of women have proved tenuous. Today the persecution of the Roma continues; in Eastern Europe, particularly, its virulence generates fears of a new Holocaust. Children of the Rainbow tells the story of Branko, a survivor of Auschwitz, who sets out to liberate his people and to fulfil their secret yearnings for reunification in their mysterious homeland. Romanestan. And he comes to hear of the 'Gypsy Bible', the holy scripture that made the Roma a great people, but which, according to oral tradition, perished in the mire of time. A Bible miraculously reclaimed, by a seer, from the collective memory of the Roma as they stood before the crematoria of Auschwitz. A Bible hidden and awaiting discovery. A Bible that prophesies his leadership. A Bible that will regenerate his people. That will reunite them. That will lead them to Romanestan... And Branko finds this Bible...