The Story of the Gypsies

The Story of the Gypsies, by Konrad Bercovici

This book might not be a fully accurate history of the roaming Roma peoples, but it sure paints a tale as fascinating as the myths and legends passed down about them. Author Konrad Bercovici documents the festive joy and celebration of life manifest by Gypsies, even while at times being persecuted. 

Gypsies are a people full of song and dance. A people who'd rather live poor but free from the constraints of traditional employment and settlement.  Fears of indoor living causing Tuberculosis, as well as settling down to become unwelcome neighbors in prejudiced communities, saw Gypsies embrace life on the road. Besides, who else would bring amusement and color to a sad, dull world full of superstitious religious chastity and industrial drabness?

Excerpt:

And as to their non-productiveness. It is an untrue accusation. Only they refuse, because of physical and spiritual inability, to work in factories and shops. Why should we persist? Are there not enough people working in England and elsewhere? Are there not enough things produced in these smoky hells of our industrial towns? And who will do the work of the Gypsies when they are squeezed into our factory doors? And who will do their work as well? as gaily? Whose red laughter will echo in the glen and the valley?

The civilized world recognized the rights of conscientious objectors during the late war (WWI). England was harder pressed for men to man the trenches than she is today, or ever has been, to man the factories and farms. Yet, she respected the scruples of conscientious objectors.

Well, the Gypsies are the conscientious objectors to factory work, to all the soul-killing inventions of a haphazard civilization. They have existed as they have for thousands of years, and are physically not inferior to most peoples. Two thousand years hence only, if the steel and smoke civilization lasts as long, will mankind be prepared to draw conclusions as to whether the Gypsies were right or wrong - unless none survive. pg237.

Traveling and living outdoor among their own kind gave Gypsies a sort of spiritual connection to nature, animals and one another, not unlike the Native Americans. Impervious to extremely hot and cold weather conditions, and common diseases of the day, could be a blessing or a curse for traveling Gypsies depending on superstitious beliefs held by locals. They flourished best when left alone to live, love, celebrate, and fight with one another in their own freestyle way.

There is one story in the book where two groups of Gypsies go at each other with brutal, vitriolic hatred over some issue. One of the men finally steps up and halts the melee with a well-known Gypsy song of brotherhood. Everybody joins in singing, while hugging, crying, and welcoming as brother ones who just minutes earlier were sworn blood enemies.

What I found so amazing, and admired, was how Gypsies lived so fully, putting all their being into the moment at hand. If they were mad, they were stark, raving mad, and would go at whatever the target of their anger without abandon. 

On the other hand, if they were joyous and gay, which was more times than not, they would uplift any and all around them in a shared, celebratory way. And if they were in love, they were madly impassioned beyond words. It took exotic music, some of the greatest violin music ever composed, to express the deep love of a Gypsy.

Among one another, Gypsies could go from one emotion to the next at the drop of a hat. Sad to Happy, Angry to Joyous, Hateful to Loving, all within the time it takes to sing a song or dance a dance. They lived in the moment and the moment seemed never too big or small for them. Gypsies loved life to the fullest, and as for death, it was just another road one must travel down.

Excerpt:

That evening, by the camp-fire, after the dinner of broiled meat, I asked Chief Marco the question that had been on my lips the whole day: "Why did you come to America? What made you come here?"

Marco looked at me. The question had never been put to him before. He had never put the question to himself. And then suddenly he answered with a hundred answers.

"And why shouldn't I have come? Because there was a strip of water between this country and the one I was last in? Why did you come here? Why does anybody come here? The only difference is that everybody else will stay here, while we will go on further; and tomorrow somebody will ask me in another country: 'Why have you come here?' " Marco called out to the other Gypsies: "See what he asks me - why have we come here?"

So they all laughed aloud and made fun of me because I had asked such a foolish question. "Ha-ha-he asks why we have come here! He-he - he asks why we have come here! Did you hear what he asks? He asks why we have come here! And he says he is almost a brother!" pg242.

In reading this book published in 1928, I could feel the rush of excitement and jubilation of Gypsy brotherhood and sisterhood. For a book to incite in a non-Gypsy a feeling of freedom and belonging, some 100 years after being written, is almost miraculous. I applaud its author, Konrad Bercovici for delivering to readers all the pain, beauty, and brotherhood of Gypsy life. 

As for the history of how Gypsies were received and treated in various countries, the author lays bare a story of lies told, laws enacted, genocides and purges carried out, all against migrating Gypsies and their traveling communities. 

Persecution of Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Germany, 1933–1939 | Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org)

Like the Jews of history, Gypsies were ostracized and banned from many countries. And it seems, like the Jews, they got a bad rap because they lived a unique lifestyle. And like many persecuted ethnic groups throughout world history, they survived the hatred.

I didn't know the term Gypsy related to Egypt. (see below)

An Amazon Review:

J. Cox

5.0 out of 5 stars A celebration of life, and a prelude to a tragedy.

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2016

This is a strange and beautiful book. More of a mix of journalism, folklore, and the oral tradition than straight history, Mr. Bercovici was obviously in love with the people whose lives he described.

Though Gypsy lore claimed an origin in Ancient Egypt, Bercovici notes the abundance of Hindi words hiding in the Roma tongue, and suggests that they were among the earliest inhabitants of the Indian sub-continent. Given that Macedonia at the time of his writing boasted the largest per capita population of Gypsies and offered them the greatest tolerance, he reasons that they arrived in Europe as soldiers in the armies of Alexander the Great. He veers, I would say, into the realm of speculation and romanticism when he posits a Gypsy origin for the poet Homer, and imagines that Shakespeare based his characterization of Cleopatra on an encounter with a Gypsy woman.

A Romanian Jew, forced to flee the land of his birth due to racial hatred, Bercovici is acutely sensitive to Gypsy persecution and suffering. Not coincidentally, I think, he claims the most most brutal treatment occurred in Romania. In places where the were treated with greater kindness - in Hungary, for example, Gypsy and Maygar mixed and co-existed easily - they made enormous contributions to the culture, Gypsy music had a strong subterranean influence on the classical and symphonic music of south-eastern Europe.

In this volume, mythology and history intermingle as I have said. Our author cites an old Gypsy legend that the race was cursed to roam because a Palestinian Gypsy blacksmith was the only man in Jerusalem willing to forge the nails to crucify the Christ. His own identification with the Gypsies is based on a longing for freedom that the modern world had stifled. In one contradictory passage he first claims that they have protected the purity of their bloodline, while later writing that they have always opened the door of their language culture and ways to those who shared their values and embraced their lifestyle, which would suggest a theory of social selection to explain the maintenance of the folk. Thy Gypsy, though often poor and uprooted, is ultimately happier and healthier than the settled populations among whom he moves, writes Bercovici.

This book was written and in 1928. The author, a colorful character who was ultimately involved in a plagiarism lawsuit with Charlie Chaplain, is fearful for the future of the people who's lives he describes. Though Germany was solidly democratic at the time, Bercovici particularly cites the German addiction to strict law and order and the demand for cultural and ethnic homogeneity as the great threat to Gypsy survival and the Bolshevik ambition to transform society as a threat to Gypsy freedom. Given what what was coming in ten years time, the Porraimos, the Devouring, the systematic extermination of the European Gypsy communities by Nazi Germany, and its sad coda, the forcible assimilation of the remaining Gypsy communities in the post-war Communist regimes, this book ultimately strikes a note both heartbreaking and prophetic.