Is it necessary to study Roma genocide today? What happened during Poraimos in Transcarpathia? Why a critical view of National Socialist history is still important? What pages of history have not yet been fully revealed? We will try to answer these questions through art and music.
It is necessary to involve youth to help the modern generation to form the memory of the persecution of Roma during the Second World War It was done during the research of historical facts, preparation and production of the documentary performance “(Not) my story. Music”. In this story, you will also be able to learn the story of five Roma musicians, whose ability to play the violin not only saved their lives in the days of Poraimos, but also let them survive the horrors of the Soviet Gulag.
“Dyula Galamboshi – hismusical talentisstill alegend.”
Always well-dressed, in a tailcoat, with a violin in his hands, this is how he was remembered by his contemporaries. However, little is known about his tragic fate.
Dyula Galamboshi was born on February 13, 1911 in the family of a musician. His father, Jozef Galambosi, was a famous violinist in the musical world of our region. After graduating from school, young Dyula learned to play the violin from his father and the then-famous music teacher Horacek. Having received his primary education as a musician, Dyula Galambosi continued his studies at the Slovak Academy of Music. At that time, he already had a huge experience of concert activity. Since he was 13 years old, he performed with his father’s orchestra and toured with him throughout Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
In 1940, he married Iryna Bolovk, who was also from a musical family. During the war, despite all the difficulties and wanderings, he toured in Budapest, and during the bombing of the Hungarian capital (from the beginning of 1944), he was forced to go home to Mukachevo. Here he gets a job as a violinist in the famous at that time restaurant “Chillag” (“Star”). However, in the fall of 1944, a tragic incident happened to him in the same restaurant, which left an imprint on his future life. Once, two officers of the Soviet Army entered the restaurant. After getting drunk, they conflicted among themselves, took out pistols and started shooting at each other. One of the bullets hit Duly in the eye, who was sitting at the piano at that time. Later he became blind in that eye.
This tragic accident did not break the fate of the musician. In 1952–53, the “Hungarian Melodies” ensemble was created in Uzhhorod. Galamboshi became its creator and leader. It was his prima-violin. He died on February 14, 1986, but his memory and the development of the musical art of the region still lives on.
The violin saved not only highly professional musicians – violinists, but also village musicians. Hanna Vasylivna Tirpak from the village of Rodnikovka in Transcarpathia shared the story about her father – a Roma village musician,. You can learn more about her in the video story at our virtual museum in the section – “Reflections of the past”, the story of Hanna Tirpak.
In the fate of a bright person, an outstanding Roma musician – Yosyp Geizovich Potai two concepts are closely related: the tragedy of an individual and the tragedy of an era.
The greatness of the rise of the fate of the musician and the cruelty of the concentration camps
Yosyp Geizovich Potai was born on March 27, 1922 in the city of Uzhgorod, in the family of a violinist. The father did his best to to give his son a good education. Yosyp completed six grades of a Hungarian school, and then took private lessons from a music teacher who taught him music literacy, helped him master the musical skill of playing the violin, which became his destiny, his way for earning for life, his muse. Like all young people of that time, at the age of 17 he founded his own musical group and began to earn a living, while honing his musical skills.
However, fate was different. In the fall of 1943, he was drafted into the army. Near the city of Sentesh, he was surrounded and then captured. I had to suffer all kinds of cruelty and abuse of the human personality, overcome heavy physical and psychological tortures. As a prisoner of war, he walked almost the entire north of the Romanian territory: from Orodei to Temesvar, where a large concentration camp was located. From there, they were sent in freight cars to the Tambov region, the city of Marshansk, where they stayed for more than two years. It was a huge concentration camp for prisoners of war, where along with Hungarians there were Poles, Romanians, Japanese, and Germans. “When we were brought to the Tambov region,” recalls Yosyp Geizovych, “it was already winter.” It was down to 42 degrees of cold outside at night. The barracks were made of unhewn logs, the wind and snow passed through the cracks. We were given cotton pants and sweatshirts. We had to sew on them our number, which I remember to this day – 64. We were fed very badly. Many of those who were with me from Transcarpathia died there. Music saved me. Meeting new people told me that among the prisoners there are masters of musical instruments. They made me a homemade violin. Others – a clarinet, a tambourine, they got an accordion. With the created ensemble, they went from barrack to barrack and entertained people with music. That’s how we saved ourselves, helped others to survive.
Daughter of Yosyp Heizovich Potai Gabriela Bodi at a concert in the Palace “Ukraine” in 1992
In 1947, we learned that Transcarpathia was annexed to the USSR. The camp administration decided to let the Transcarpathians go home. “There were about 15 guys ,” Yosyp Potai recalls, “we got on the train quietly on the third shelf and that’s how we got to Lviv. And from Lviv, it took 2 weeks to get to Mukachevo on foot along the mountain paths. They spent the night in the forest, begging people for bread to survive. He returns home to Uzhhorod only in August. For a long time, I was then called to various institutions, finding out my identity. Little by little, personal life was getting better.”
On August 15, 1947, Yosyp Potai began working in the musical ensemble of the Verkhovyna restaurant. In 1967-73, he worked in the “Hungarian Melodies” ensemble, which is widely known not only in Transcarpathia, but also outside Ukraine. During a tour of Siberia, accidentally walking through its streets, he recognized the church he had seen when he was in one of the concentration camps. On stage, during the evening concert, he felt sick: his heart could not bear such memories. After the concert, he immediately went back home and never went on tour again.
“The last cymbalist of the 20th century”
Such is Aladar Yozhefovich Rusyn, born in 1918, Roma by origin.
He was born on September 29, 1918 in the city of Uzhgorod in a large family. The first music teacher was uncle Aladar Galamboshi, who had no children of his own and took the talented boy to his home. From the age of seven, he persistently taught his nephew to play the dulcimer.
During the Second World War, he performed labor duties at the logging sites in the village of Kostrino – chopped trees for the needs of the front. On Saturday and Sunday he came home to see his relatives. Only after the war did he learn that in the attic of the house where he lived (Mukachevska 11), a Jewish family of 6 was hiding, who were supposed to be deported during the Holocaust. Only in 1956, during a tour of the Transcarpathian People’s Choir in Poland, Aladar Rusyn visited the Auschwitz and Auschwitz concentration camps and understood where the Jews from Transcarpathia were taken.
Music and the violin saved the life of another famous musician – Bailo Kandra.
He was born in a famous family of Roma musicians, and from the age of 5 he already played the violin.
From the story of Tiberiy Oleksandrovych, Beyla Kandra’s grandson: “I will tell you about my musician ancestors and about myself if you publish my story, starting with my great-grandfather. After all, my great-grandfather Beilo Kandra was a famous musician for Emperor Franz Joseph (alto violin). He passed on his knowledge to his son, and to my grandfather, also to Beilo . Beilo Jr. was 14 years old when he started playing in the orchestra at the Royal restaurant in city Beregovo with violinist György Koreni.
During the Second World War, when the bridge across the Danube in Budapest was destroyed, 4 Hungarians and 2 Roma viola players Lajos Janov and his grandfather Beilo Kandra made a raft and swam to the other bank of the Danube, but they were met there by Russian soldiers. The command sounded: “Hands up! Surrender your weapons!” However, it was not a weapon, but a viola, which my grandfather took with him. It is slightly larger than an ordinary violin, and the soldiers, seeing the case, thought that it was some kind of weapon.
Roma musical group, in the center – Aladar Yozhefovich Rusyn
But the grandfather, who during the war learned and understood some military commands and Russian words, began to show his hands, imitating playing the violin, and said the word “music”. Then the soldiers withdrew and invited him to open the case. Seeing the violin, they asked the grandfather to play. And Bailo’s grandfather knew several Russian romances, such as “Black Eyes”, “I Loved You” and others. And in Budapest, a record with songs performed by Leonid Utyosov fell into the hands of Roma musicians. Their orchestra learned them all to perfection. Grandfather Bailo and Lajos Yanov started playing these songs alternately. The Russian soldiers rejoiced after hearing their native melodies, they were very pleased. After listening enough, they let everyone go. They gave a certificate with a seal that the musicians are untouchable and can freely go to Transcarpathia. And they were given a whole backpack of products. So the violin saved the life of grandfather and his friends.”
Beyla Kandra’s grandson – Tiberiy Oleksandrovych, continued the history of the glorious family of Roma musicians, led the “Hungarian Melodies” ensemble, and later the “Ung Romen” ensemble. He mastered the violin perfectly and masterfully, on which he could play nightingale melodies. He also easily played complex compositions on the accordion. In addition, he improvised jazz melodies on the piano in such a way that it takes your breath away.
Tiberiy Oleksandrovych at the presentation of the book “Encyclopedia of Romani musical art of Transcarpathia”
Tiberii Horvat with his wife Edita
Music saved the lives of many Roma musicians and unfortunately the best melodies and songs were created during the persecutions, Poraimos. The same tragic story of the writing of the Roma anthem – “Opré roma”, better known as “Jelem, jelem”.
Yarko Jovanovych, a famous Roma musician, a prisoner of three concentration camps
The melody of the song ” Djelem Djelem ” became known in Europe and abroad in the late 60s of the XX century, thanks to the film “Feather Gatherers” by the Serbian film director Oleksandr Petrovich (another name is “I met happy Roma”).
In April 1971, the meeting of the first Congress of the International Roma Union was held in London, during which the famous Roma musician Jarko Jovanovych, a prisoner of three concentration camps in which he lost his parents and all his relatives, and Slovak Roma Jan Cibula presented the updated lyrics of the song ” Djelem Djelem ”, which was dedicated to the suffering of the Roma people during the war.