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Absolutely Stunning!
P.S: Looking forward to another one.
Highly recommended!
Daniel Kuhlmann, Stockholm
Alexander Ramati tells the story of the Gypsy Holocaust in his exhaustively well researched book. AND THE VIOLINS STOPPED PLAYING follows the fate of a Romany family which had taken up a nearly middle class life in Warsaw, Poland. The children attended school, and 17 year old Roman Mirga had one more year of study before he graduates from high school. Indeed, this is the true story taken from Roman's diary and notes of how his family together with 500,000 Gypsies suffered the same fate as Europe's Jews under Germany's expanding program of ethnic cleansing throughout the European continent.
The Mirga family had became intergrated, if not assimilated, into the Polish society of the 1930s. Roman's family were musicians who entertained the public in a Warsaw night club (favored by German officers) and coffee houses. When the German army invaded Poland, everything would become changed forever. At first, the Gypsies were ignored by the Germans as the SS herded Poland's Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto or simply murdered them outside of the towns and villages where they had lived. But after most of Poland's Jews had been eliminated it was the Gypsies' turn, and the Mirga family realized that they had to flee for their lives.
It was turning winter as our Warsaw family of Gypsies join their tribe wintering along the Bug River. They try to convince the tribal leader, called the Shero Rom, that the Germans intend to round them up and treat them the same way as the Jews. The Shero Rom does not believe these Bareforytka Roma (big town Gypsies), and will not even begin to consider a plan to move his tribe to safety in Hungary in the middle of winter. The Mirga family becomes worried about their chances for survival. Eventually, word gets to the community from a similar tribe that the Germans have begun a Gypsy round up and several of their kind have been killed.
Like other Holocaust stories, this one too has a very unhappy ending. However, along the way the reader is treated to a rare and authoritative glimpse inside the Romany culture and social structure, made mysterious by centuries of bigotry and social isolation. Most of Europe's societies tolerated but shunned the esoteric Romany people. Landless and rootless, Gypies wandered the landscape, providing entertainment and skilled craftsmanship during their wanderings. Ramati's book evenly explores both the positive and negative aspects of the Romany people while the story is told of their exodus, capture and then suffering cruel medical experiments and then murder at Auschwitz.
As both anthropology and Holocaust scholarship, Ramati's AND THE VIOLINS STOPPED PLAYING deserves wide readership. It provides a refreshing examination of who the Romany people are and why they deserve not only to be tolerated and allowed to live in peace and dignity, but to be respected for who they are and what they value.
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The sensitive illustrations have a magical quality, managing to show the historical realities of each period within the context of trees. The illustrator's use of color is outstanding, with color fading as the land is denuded, then rebuilding to lush blues and greens as new forests darken the hillsides.
This book would make a wonderful gift for any child, and for any adult interested in either the environment or the Holy Land.
This is just on of the Barnes' FABULOUS children's books!