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Romani writers from former Czechoslovakia offer their history and perspective in this important collection that fills a gap in world literature.

As representatives of an oral culture, the Romani people have throughout history been the subject of stories written by outsiders. Sometimes idealized, often defamed, and even condemned, they have seldom been accurately portrayed by the majority of writers. It has only been in the last century that the Roma have finally started writing for themselves.

The fifteen Romani writers from former Czechoslovakia featured in this anthology speak of the people, times, and places they particularly hold dear. Although the roads of the Roma have always been paved with disrespect, discrimination, and vicious racial persecution by mainstream societies, these stories frequently talk about the good things in life. Be it the writers’ homes in the traditional settlements of rural Eastern Slovakia, the Czech industrial towns where the families moved after WWII in search of a better life, or the bustling cities of the post-transition period, they demonstrate immense pride in their Romani identity, love of their Romani language, and heartfelt respect for their elders. Velvet Blues provides a very different picture from the stock character of “the Gypsy” so common in world literature.

So many lives were cut short by the Holocaust, many with no trace to leave behind for future generations to remember. Vendulka tells the story of a single scrap of remembrance—a candid photograph taken in the midst of this unspeakable tragedy—and that artifact’s amazing aftermath.

Famed Czech photographer Jan Lukas snapped an offhand portrait of twelve-year-old Vendulka Vogl in March 1943. A friend of the Vogls, Lukas was saying goodbye to the family, who were soon to leave Prague for a concentration camp. The photograph almost didn’t see the light of day—Lukas knew that if the Nazis found it on him, he could wind up in the camps as well—but the image was eventually developed and came to symbolize the Holocaust and humanize its victims. Seventy years after this famous picture was taken, investigative journalist Ondřej Kundra discovered that, despite all odds, Vendulka Vogl had survived the camps of Terezín, Auschwitz, and Christianstadt, and was in fact still alive and living in the United States. Kundra persuaded her to tell the remarkable story surrounding the photograph: her survival, her later decision to flee the Communist regime for America, and how she later reconnected with Jan Lukas, maintaining a lifelong friendship.
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Vogl’s thrillingly moving story, Kundra’s sharp and engaging writing, and Lukas’s striking photography all combine to make Vendulka an inspiring investigation into the horrors of totalitarianism and the redemptive beauty of friendship.