Jan Tesař a výzkum partyzánského hnutí v protektorátu
Jan Tesař and the research of the guerilla movement in the Protectorate

A few reflections on the “Czech Gipsy Rhapsody”

Summary/Abstract: The author focuses on the place of Tesař’s trilogy in the history of the guerilla resistance in the Czech Lands during WW2. In the opening part of his review, he provides a well-arranged summary of related research projects since the 1950s and concludes by stating that the Czech Gipsy Rhapsody, Tesař’s opus magnum, is an unquestionable contribution and a source of inspiration in this context. In Černý’s opinion, it is unique mainly in that it presents, for the first time ever in a dedicated work, an active Romany participant in the anti-Nazi resistance. The edition of authentic recollections recorded in a number of interviews dating back to the first half of the 1960s narrates a riveting story of Josef Serinek (1900–1974), who was interned in the so-called gipsy camp in Lety u Písku during the Protectorate; he escaped and then organized and led a squad of guerillas operating in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. The author appreciates Tesař’s meticulous historical comments, analyses, and details which he attached to the edition of recollections in the second volume of the publication, while critically commenting some aspects concerning, for example, the terminology used by Tesař, Nazi networks of informants in Moravia, or the German security machine and court instances in the Protectorate. The final volume of the publication is, in the author’s view, rather unconvincing. The author claims that Tesař’s assessment of guerilla combat on a global scale since the beginning of the 19th century is based on a very narrow and obsolete selection of published sources and also contains a number of questionable or misleading statements.

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