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Parrajmos "Tambourine", "Songs and Poems for Andres" By Nily Naiman
| THe Gypsy Parrajmos By Nily Naiman | >> View all |
The Parrajmos (the great devouring), the holocaust of the Romani people, the Gypsies, was rooted in hatreds that preceded the Second World War. For hundreds of years harsh measures had been taken against Gypsies in Europe. In Germany they were hunted for sport as animals, and huntsmen would return proudly displaying the severed heads that they had taken as souvenirs. Beginning in 1890 many European countries passed a variety of laws restricting “the Gypsy filth”, placing limits on their interactions with the general population and prohibiting them from engaging in trades or owning land. | |
Listing Site Updates
| An Unexpected History in Mongolia: A Book by Nily Naiman |  |  |  |
| Thursday, 18 September 2008 | ||||
Synopsis of MONGOLIA, by Nily Naiman Lana, the focus of this family saga, is the youngest of three daughters. Her mother passes on to them a tradition from her childhood: If a girl stands in a field of butterflies and waits patiently, the number that land on her will foretell how many husbands she will have. A talented athlete, Lana becomes a champion runner, representing her country in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. In the years following, Lana continues her training. Shortly before she is scheduled to leave with her teammates for the Munich Olympics in 1972, her mother falls ill with incurable cancer. For the first time, her mother, Sara, reveals to Lana what happened to her during World War II. When the Nazis came to Sara's village in Russia, the family fled to the Russian-Mongolian border. There she met the love of her life, a young Mongolian man, who took her to his village across the border. She stayed with him and bore him a son. He died a tragic death, and in her grief and confusion, not even knowing the war had ended, Sara left her child with his grandparents, and crossed back into Russia to look for her family. She wandered through Europe, eventually coming to Cyprus. There she met the man who was to be her second husband and Lana's father, and they settled in Israel. Now her last wish is that Lana will accompany her to Mongolia, so that she can find the child whom she left behind 27 years before, and beg his forgiveness. Lana gives up her participation in the Olympics to stay with her mother and help her fulfill her mission. In Mongolia Lana forms a strong bond with her half-brother Molian, and decides to stay in that unique country. Molian will be her rock of support in her time of greatest need. The story tells of the joys and tragedies of Lana's relationships with her three husbands and eight children. Sami, who was her trainer and mentor during the Olympics, is a Muslim Arab brought up in Israel among all the frustrations of a people whose ancient land is now dominated by what they see as an alien culture. He joins her in Mongolia soon after her arrival there, and they marry. Sami dies in a tragic accident on the very day that Lana bears him a daughter, Bayar. Liu Young is an Olympic gymnast raised under the demands and restrictions of the Maoist regime in China. He has thought of Lana ever since they met during athletic competitions years before in Italy. When he hears of the death of her husband he travels to Mongolia to comfort her. With Molian's encouragement Liu Young remains there. Eventually he becomes Lana's second husband. He gladly adopts Bayar as his own, and together he and Lana will have seven more children. Liu Young will die suddenly, of natural causes. Lana returns to her home country to visit her sister after so many years away. There she reunites with Micha'el, who was her dearest friend when they were children and who is now a high ranking army officer. He will join Lana in Mongolia.
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Mongolia web news, ulaanbaatar
"Tambourine" By Nily Naiman
All visitors are invited to sign my guest book and offer their ideas and opinions on my books. Ideas for books are welcomed as long as they are fiction based on true events. Thanks for all the support. Nily Naiman
Synopsis:
This book is dedicated to the good people of Spain who opened their borders to Gysies (Roma, or Gitano), Jews, and other refugees from Nazi and Vichy French oppression during World War II. It is based upon true events in the lives of members of the author's family.
In Vichy France, Anna, a young Jewish woman whose passion is dance, meets a large Gypsy family on the outskirts of the city of Paris, and against all odds becomes attached to them through their dancing and their music. She befriends their little daughter Gisele, and falls in love with their oldest son, Andres. As the French police begin to enthusiastically do the bidding of their Nazi masters and round up all Jews and Gypsies in Paris, some in the Gypsy encampment, including Andres’ family, decide to run away to the south. Anna joins them. Their aim is to get to freedom in Spain.
The book chronicles the hardships, terrors, and unspeakable tragedies that befall them, as well as the episodes that give them hope and the courage to move on. The French population is divided between pro- and ant-Vichy loyalties. One cannot knock on a door to buy food or shelter and predict what the response will be. The forests are not safe shelters because Nazi and Vichy police patrols are everywhere. In order to be less conspicuous, the ten Gypsy wagons split into two caravans of five wagons each. In Anna’s group it falls to her, because of her light features, to enter villages along the way to purchase food and supplies.
The tension is constant. At one location she strikes a bargain with villager who gathers the chickens, rice and potatoes for her, and then proceeds to attempt to rape her. The encounter is brutal. Anna succeeds in stabbing him in the back with her concealed knife, and then in the shock and unreality of the moment proceeds to mutilate him and kill him. Later contemplating the horror of what she has done, Anna is nonetheless strengthened in the knowledge that she has the capacity to defend herself and survive. The caravan departs the area in haste.
After several days they come across the remains of the other five-wagon group. All their brethren from the original Paris encampment have been murdered along with their ten horses. In anguish and desperation they push on. Eventually they encounter a band of partisans, with whom they stay for several days. Some of them, including Andres’ older sisters Rachelle and Nadine, will remain with the partisans, while the others will keep traveling. Andres’ mother, his young teenage brother Michel, and two of their small cousins become too ill to continue. In hope of saving their lives the party reluctantly leaves them along with two of Andres’ aunts at a monastery that is also hiding Jews and other refugees.
In a town near the Spanish border Anna's group is given temporary refuge by a young couple. The Allied forces have landed at Normandy and in the south of France. With the best of intentions the wife tells Anna and Andres that there are no longer any Nazi soldiers about, and that rather than continuing to trek through the forests they should take the train to the point where they will cross over to Spain. The decision to do so proves a disaster. The train is loaded with SS. Most of the party, including Andres and his father, are slaughtered. The only survivors are Andres’ brother Pablo, his cousin Antonio, Gisele, and Anna, now heavily pregnant with Andres’ child.
Nadine, still with the partisan band, has been participating in missions to destroy bridges and railways. They have had many successes, but in their last mission to blow up an important railway link they are ambushed. The leader of the group and his son, who has been married to Rachelle, are killed. Nadine, Rachelle, their cousin Chico, and the few other survivors manage to cross into Spain.
Michel recovers in the monastery, but his mother and two small cousins do not. He is horribly abused for over a year by two nuns who consider the Gypsies to be filth, unworthy of human consideration, but Father Philippe, the head of the monastery, finally discovers the situation and it is corrected. German soldiers raid the monastery and take Father Philippe and most of the refugees captive. Michel, his two aunts, and his little brother Nicola, who were able to remain hidden, now leave the monastery. They too meet up with partisans with whom they remain until the end of the war when they reach Spain.
The ultimate fate of the survivors is told in the final chapters by Lucia, Anna’s granddaughter, who is very much a part of modern Spain. This is a unique story of heroism, love, and passion in the midst of the "Parrajmos", the Gypsy Holocaust, where poetry, song, dance, and zest for life are keys to survival.
"TAMBOURINE"
| Mongolia Gets Literary Treatment |  |  |
| Written by Administrator | |
| Thursday, September 25, 2008. | |
| A RECENT novel by Israeli author Nily Naiman depicts a young woman’s life and loves after she travels to Mongolia. Based on biographical details of her own life and that of some members of her family, Mongolia recounts the story of Lana, a young Israeli Olympic Hopeful, and her mother, Sara. The narrative traces Sara’s flight from Russia during World War II to Mongolia, where she marries a Mongolian man and gives birth to a son. After her husband dies, she leaves the child with his grandparents, returning to Russia to search for her family and eventually move to Israel. Stricken with terminal cancer, Sara asks Lana to return to Mongolia and help her find her lost son as a last wish. Lana abandons her Olympic dreams to join her mother, encountering her own romances and tragedies during the journey to Mongolia. Known for her strong female protagonists who face emotionally wrenching situations, the story spans four continents, but its action resides principally in the Mongolian countryside. Naiman is the author of four books. Mongolia was published by Chipmunka Publishers. |
A letter of protest
This is a letter of protest on behalf of the Asian women who were forced to serve the Japanese army as prostitutes, “comfort women”, during the Second World War. Some 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries in the Pacific were forced to suffer at the hands of the Japanese under conditions that rivaled the worst of the atrocities of the German Nazis.
In the interests of justice and simple decency, I demand that the government of Japan publicly admit its country’s crimes against these women and offer apologies to them and to the world. In some countries such as Korea it is mistakenly believed that the comfort women were willing collaborators. This is a lie that has in part been fed by misinformation from the Japanese government itself. As a result the surviving women and their families are afraid to come forward publicly because they know that they might be shamed and ostracized by their fellow countrymen. The government of Japan has a moral obligation to make clear to the world that the comfort women were not collaborators, but were victims who were forced into prostitution under threat of death.
I have seen photographs taken by Japanese soldiers themselves of the girls whom they brutalized who were too young to have willingly collaborated in their own humiliation. The older women in the photographs have clearly been raped and tortured.
It is also high time that the government of Japan seek out the families of the comfort women, as well as the few remaining survivors themselves, and offer direct apologies to them as well as appropriate compensation.
My novel, Silent Marionette, a Story of a Comfort Lady, is based upon true events in the life of a Korean teenage girl who was kidnapped by the Japanese and forced to serve them as a comfort woman in Manchuria. It is not yet published, but is in the hands of a literary agent, Ger Nichols, with The Book Bureau in Ireland. When it is published I recommend that it be made part of the curriculum in Japanese high schools and universities. This generation of Japanese must be aware of the sins of the past so as not to repeat them in the future.
Who ever wants to join me in the protest please write to nilynaiman@hotmail.com;
