ROMA TRANSLATION PROJECT
A list of recommended titles
Titles recommended for translation without changes

1. No author: Mujeres Gitanas ante el Futuro (in Spanish)

On Roma women

Editorial Presencia Gitana, 1990

Editorial Presencia Gitana, Valderrodrigo 76 y 78, bajos A., 28039 Madrid, Spain

2. Acton, Thomas: Surviving Peoples: Gypsies

Out of print but available from the author c/o Romanestan Publications, 22 Northend, Warley, Brentwood, Essex, England

Macdonald Educational, London, 1981

48 pages

3. Crowe, David: A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia

A useful companion volume to Fraser. Its weakness is that it (like Fraser) is based entirely on secondary sources, and presents nothing from a Roma perspective

New York, St. Martins Press, 1994

Address 175 Fifth Aveue, New York, NY 10010

328 pages

ISBN: 1850439117

4. Davidová, Eva: Romano Drom 1945-1990 (in Czech)

A monograph on the social situation of the Roma in Czechoslovakia after World War II.

Univerzita Palackeho, Olomouc 1995

244 pages

ISBN: 8070675338

5. Demeter, R.S. and P.S. Demeter Obraztsy folklora tsygan-kelderarei (in Romani and in Russian)

A volume of folklore collected and commented on by two Roma scholars

Nauka, Moscow 1981

264 pages

6. Fings, Karola, Herbert Heuss and Frank Sparing: From a “Race Science” to the Camps

The volume attempts to explain how Gypsy children came to be sent to the death camps by describing policies of Gypsy persecution from 1875 onwards led to the establishment of the Race Hygiene research Centre in 1936. Subsequent chapters describe the clearing of the cities of Gypsies and the eventual development of the death camps.

University of Hertforshire Press 1997

136 pages

ISBN 090045878X

7. Fraser, Angus: The Gypsies

A thorough overview of Roma history in Europe, already translated into several languages. Its weakness is that it contains nothing on the Roma population in North and South America, perhaps one quarter of the entire world population (not only are all Roma in the Americas from Europe, but now in post-Communist times the number of Roma going to live there is growing rapidly and has direct relevance to the European situation.)

Blackwell, Oxford, 1992, 2nd edition

175 Fifth Aveue, New York, NY 10010

256 pages

ISBN: 0631159673

8. Gómez Alfaro, Antonio: La gran redada de gitanos : Espańa, la prisión general de gitanos en 1749 (in Spanish)

The story of the mass internment without trial of Gypsies in Spain in 1749.

Editorial Presencia Gitana, Madrid, 1993

123 pages

ISBN: 8487347096

9. Grönfors, Martti: Bloodfeuding among Finnish Gypsies

Helsinki, 1977

10. Gropper, Rena C.: Gypsies in the City: Culture Patterns and Survival

On American Roma.

Darwin Press, Princeton, N.J., 1975

235 pages

ISBN: 0878500081

11. Hancock, Ian: The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution

The only book on the history of the Roma slavery in Romania.

Karoma Publishers; Arbor, Ann 1987

This is out of print but one copy can be found in the ERRC library in Budapest

12. Hancock, Ian, Siobhan Dowd and Rajko Djuric (eds):The Roads of the Roma

A collection of Romani poetry by poets and writers from twenty countries, includes forty-three poems and prose extracts arranged alongside an 800-year chronology of repression.

160 pages

University of Hertfordshire Press, 1998

ISBN 0900458909

13. Kamiński, Ignacy-Marek: The State of Ambiguity – Studies of Gypsy Refugees

University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 1980

395 pages

ISBN: 9186060007

14. Kenrick, Donald: Gypsies: from India to the Mediterranean

A short account on the origin of the Gypsies and the story of their migration over many centuries from India to Europe, Illustrated with engravings and copies of old maps and manuscripts. Additional chapters have been prepared for a new English edition and have been used in the Romani edition.

Published in France by CRDP 1993, distributed by University of Hertforshire Press

63 pages

ISBN 2865650820

15. Kenrick, Donald and Grattan Puxon: Gypsies under the Swastica

Written in an accessible way, this is the most comprehensive up to date single volume account of the fate of the Gypsies in the Holocaust. Translation should be done from a revised English version (available on disc) or from the French edition as they are more up to date.

University of Hertforshire Press 1995

157 pages

ISBN 0900458658

16. Kenrick, Donald and Grattan Puxon: In the shadow of the Swastica: the Gypsies during the Second World War

This volume covers the persecution of the Roma and Sinti in some of the countries occupied by Germany or ruled by its fascist allies including France, Italy, Austria and the present Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, the Soviet Union and the Baltic States.

University of Hertforshire Press 1999

220 pages

ISBN 0900458852

17. Kenrick, Donald: Historical Dictionary of the Romanies (Gypsies)

Scarecrow 1998 (new edition expected soon)

320 pages

ISBN: 0810834448

18. Kertesi, Gábor and Gábor Kezdi: A cigány nepesség Magyarországon: dokumentáció és adattar

A monograph on the Hungarian Roma living in one district.

Socio-typo, Budapest 1998

467 pages

ISBN: 9630363526

19. Koenig, Ulrich: Sinti und Roma unter dem Nationalsozialismus (in German)

The Porrajmos (Roma Holocaust) was the other most important event (besides slavery) in Roma history in Europe.

Studien Verlag D.N. Brockmeyer, Bochum, 1989

Querenburger Hoehe 281, 4630 Bochum 1, Germany

210 pages

20. Kohn, Marek: The Race Gallery

Important exposure of the continuing influence of "scientific racism" taking the Roma people as a key example.

Cape 1995

95 pages

ISBN: 022403958X

21. Lackova, Ilona (ed. by Milena Hübschmannová): A False Dawn: My life as a Gypsy woman in Slovakia

A vivid picture of life in a prewar Gypsy settlement on the edge of a Slovak village, the horrors of the war, and the exhilaration of the communist period. The author was the first Gypsy to attend Charles University and became a party official but she also witnessed the destruction of the Roma culture, language and way of life in this flase dawn. Transcribed and edited from recordings in Roma.

University of Herfordshire Press 1999

22. Lemon, Alaina: Between Two Fires: Gypsy Performance and Romani from Pushkin to Post-Socialism

The books explores how Roma and Russians anchor both stage performance and everyday interaction to broader post-Soviet notions of race and debates about the past.

Duke, forthcoming spring 2000

272 pages

ISBN: 0822324938

23. Marushiakova, Elena and Vesselin Popov: Gypsies/Roma in the Balkans Volume 1: Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire

Based on original archival research, this book uncovers for the first time the details of the life of the Gypsies under the Ottoman empire: the taxes, religion, service in the army, occupations, settlements, etc. Volume two will describe the emancipation of the Roma in the 19th and 20th centuries and unravel the complex situation of the Roma during the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

University of Herfordshire Press, forthcoming (October 1999)

100 pages

ISBN: 1902806026

24. Matras, Yaron, Peter Bakker and Hristo Kyuchukov (eds): The typology and dialectology of Romani

Romani linguistics

J. Benjamin, Amsterdam; Philadelphia 1997

222 pages

ISBN: 9027236615

25. Maximoff, Mateo: Le Prix de la Liberte (in French)

A novel about the period of slavery by the Roma descendant of slaves. This 550-year period has profoundly affected the situation of Vlah Roma today. Slavery amounted to about two thirds of the Vlah Roma entire population in Europe.

Romaineville, 1981

61, Boulevard Edouarde Branly, 93230 Romaineville, France.

26. Nagy-Idai Sztojka, Ferencz : Magyar es Czigany Nyelv Gyok-Szotara Romane alava Iskolai es Utazasi Hasznalatra (in Hungarian)

One of the best Romani dictionaries

Kalousa, 1886

206 pages

27. Nečas, Ctibor: Ma Bisteren – nezapomeňme (in Czech)

A history of Roma lager in Hodonin near Kunstat 1942-43.

Muzeum Romské Kultury v Brne, Praha, 1997

68 pages

28. Nunes, Olimpio: O Povo Cigano (in Portuguese)

One of the best general studies of Roma history, culture and experience.

Obra Nacional da Pastoral dos Ciganos, c/o Grafilarte, Agueda, Lisbon, Portugal

462 pages

29. Okely, Judith: The traveller-gypsies

A controversial (the author argues against the Indian origin of the described Gypsy community) ethnographic work on the English Travellers. Full of telling material about Gypsy life, successful in teaching in sociology, geography and anthropology courses.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; New York 1983

254 pages

ISBN: 0521288703

30. Pasqualino, Caterina: Dire Le Chant: Les Gitans flamencos d’Andalousie (in French)

A study of Gitano music and song.

CNRS Editions de la Maison de Science de L’Homme, Paris 1998

ISBN: 2271055644

31. Piasere, Leonardo: Mare Roma (in French)

A study of Xoraxane Roms in Italy

32. Rom-Lebedev, Ivan: Ot tsyganskogo khora k teatru “Romen” (in Russian)

Autobiography of a Roma actor and writer. Documents the establishment of the Moscow Roma Theater in 1931, World War II and other historical moments through the eyes of one Rom.

Iskusstvo, Moscow 1990

265 pages

ISBN: 5210003590

33. Rosenberg, Otto: Das Brennglas (in German)

By a Sinto who tells his own story to Ulrich Enzensberger who transcribed it. Bestselling account of one man’s journey through the camps – the lens (Brennglas) in question refers to the accident that led him to the camps.

Eichborn, Berlin 1998

142 pages

ISBN: 3821806494

34. Sanchez Ortega, Maria Helena: La Inquizicion y los Gitanos (in Spanish)

The first book to document the treatment of Roma (Gitanos) in the Spanish Inquisition. It has generally been assumed that no Roma were transported out of Spain during this period.

Libreria Taurus, Madrid, 1985

451 pages

35. Sebková, Hana, Edita Zlnayová, Milena Hübschmannová: Fragments tsiganes: comme en haut, ainsi en bas (in French)

A collections of interviews translated from Romani into French.

Lierre & Coudrier, Paris 1991

160 pages

ISBN: 2907975323

36. Stewart, Michael: Time of the Gypsies

On the Hungarian Roma under socialism.

Westview Press, Boulder Colorado 1997

ISBN: 0813331986

37. Szapu, Magda: Halotti szokások és hiedelmek a kaposszentjakabi oláh cigányoknál (in Hungarian)

A short study of death rituals in a Hungarian Roma community.

MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, Budapest 1984

71 pages

ISBN: 9637761845

38. Szuhay, Péter: A cigányok, a legnagyobb magyar kissebség (in Hungarian)

A monograph of the Hungarian Roma.

1996

39. Tong, Diane (ed.): Gypsies. An interdisciplinary reader

A collection of the most seminal essays on Roma in the last few decades. Sections of politics, social change, history, language, performing arts, social organisation and images of “Gypsies”.

Garland, New York – London, 1998

376 pages

ISBN: 0815325495

40. Van de Port, Mattjis: Gypsies. Wars and Other Instances of the Wild

Ethnographic work on the Serbs and Roma music during the wars of ex-Yugoslavia.

Amsterdam UP 1998

350 pages

ISBN: 9053563113

41. Williams, Patrick: Mariage tsigane : une ceremonie de fiançailles chez les Rom de Paris (in French)

A study of Parisian Kalderas community and society

Harmattan, Paris, 1984

480 pages

ISBN: 2852971607

42. Williams, Patrick: Nous, on n'en parle pas : les vivants et les morts chez les Manouches (in French)

About death among Manouche (Sinti related Roma in France), very successful in France

Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris, 1993

104 pages

ISBN: 2735105407

43. Yoors, Jan: The Gypsies

1930s Belgian Lovari

Waveland 1987, 2nd edition

44. Yoors, Jan: Crossings

Lovari Gypsies WWII

Waveland 1971/88

45. Zimmermann, Michael: Rassenutopie und Genozid: die nationalsozialistische “Lösung der Zigeunerfrage” (in German)

Classical study of Roma Holocaust

Christians, Hamburg, 1996

574 pages

ISBN: 3767212706

Titles that can form a basis for compilations, readers, etc.

1. Acton, Thomas (ed.): Gypsy Politics and Traveller Identity

McVeigh and Suinear on sedentarism, Gheorghe on identity, & much more.

University of Hertfordshire Press 1997

176 pages

ISBN 0900458984

2. Acton, Thomas and Gary Mundy (eds.): Romani Culture and Gypsy Identity

Comparative accounts of Roma culture, art and music together with contemporary accounts of changes in education and health. Illustrated by painted traditional caravans, songs and music scores.

University of Hertfordshire Press 1997

203 pages

ISBN 09000458763

3. Danbakli, Marielle (ed.).: On Gypsies: Texts Issued by International Institutions

Key European (EU, the Council of Europe), OSCE and UN documents for reference.

Published in France by CRDP in 1994 and distributed in Britain by University of Hertfordshire Press

209 pages

ISBN 2865650995

4. Sutherland, A.: A: Gypsies – The Hidden Americans

Wavelend, 1986

ISBN: 0881332356

5. Tebbutt, S.: Sinti and Roma in German-Speaking Society and Literature

A collection about Romani art, life and issues in Germany

Berghahn Books, 1998

160 pages

ISBN: 157181922

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