Today in Music History May 16, 1953: Romani guitar wizard and jazz legend, Django Reinhardt, died. Reinhardt was the first major jazz talent to emerge from Europe and is still probably the best. He formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934 with violinist Stephane Grappelli. This group was one of the first jazz groups anywhere to feature guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt toured briefly with Duke Ellington in 1946. He died unexpectedly of a stroke at age 43. In 1928, he had an accident that left him only able to use his first two fingers on his left hand. This forced him to invent a new technique that allowed him to become even more proficient than he had been prior to the accident. He never learned to read or write music and played completely by ear.
Today in Labor History, May 16: Romani Resistance Day, commemorating the Roma people who fought the fascists during World War II. The date was chosen due to a Holocaust survivor stating that on 16 May 1944, there was a rebellion of Roma detainees at the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. However subsequent research by the Auschwitz Museum discovered that this date was most likely incorrect. It was actually in early April that a number of Roma prisoners refused orders from the SS to leave to work in Germany. Instead, a Polish prisoner was ordered to make a list of Roma able to work to be transported later. By 2 August 1944, those Roma able to work had been transported elsewhere, when the SS came to take the others to the gas chambers. The prisoners armed themselves with crowbars and fought back, but were eventually overcome and gassed. And just a few days ago, The European Committee for Social Rights (ECSR) unanimously concluded that Italy’s new fascism government was violating the European Social Charter as regards the housing rights of the Roma, 15,000 of whom are currently living in shanty towns on the margins of big cities such as Rome, Milan and Naples.
ROMA VOICES IN HISTORY. A Sourcebook. Volume Editors: Elena Marushiakova
and Vesselin Popov. #Brill#OpenAccess#Book 2021
"This ground-breaking book is an impressively extensive collection of primary historical sources in various languages that reflect the history of the Roma (formerly referred to as ‘Gypsies’ in local languages). The selection of the included materials reflects the authentic voice of the Roma themselves, and presents their visions and the specific goals pursued by the Roma civic emancipation movement. The source materials are published in original and translated in English, and are accompanied by explanatory notes and summarising comments discussing the specific historical realities and their interrelation to the Romani emancipatory movement in Central and Eastern Europe, thus presenting a comprehensive picture of the historical processes."