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The Holocaust

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The Holocaust

“Tears of Blood” by Bronislawa Wajs

Bronisława Wajs, also known as Papusza in her Roman name, was a renowned Romani

artist during her time. She grew up from a humble background. Her family in Poland was part of

kumpania—the band of families that lived together. He grew up to become proficient in writing

and other revolutionary ideas of that time (Greene & Cushman, 2016). That was a strange thing

for Polska Roma in that period. She thought deeply about how she could gain an education.

Thus, she resolved to be stealing chicken and selling their corpses in exchange of books and

lessons. She started to perform her songs in 1949 after her talent was recognized by Jerzy

Ficowski who asked her to keep on writing down her poems so that they could eventually be

published (Kledzik, 2013). “Tears of Blood” is one of the many poems that were published in

early 1950s by Ficowski. Unfortunately, Wajs’ family rejected her poems as stated in one of her

many biographies.

In the poem “Tears of Blood” Wajs encapsulates the horror that she witnessed in the

Second World War. She used the poem to vocalize her personal and the collective trauma that

the war had caused many people, especially in Europe. During the Holocaust in Roma, more than

half a million Romans were massacred. In fact, some countries killed as many as 90 percent of

those who were of Roman descent. These experiences were quite painful to countless people.

The holocaust goes on to become one of the factors that are shaping the Roma diversity today as

the people know the consequences of racial and ethnic divisions (Marushiakova-Popova &

Popov, 2017). The Germans did not like the Roma people due to their strict laws of purity which

included an extremely rigid code of rituals, practices and taboos that had to be obeyed if anyone

was to be regarded as clean.

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Furthermore, “Tears of Blood” is indeed a memorable poem that carries the subject of the

Holocaust. Through the use of her writing talent, the poet is able to evoke the trauma occasioned

by the Second World War, therefore providing a testimony of to the memory of the Holocaust in

Roma as a basis to reclaim existence and identity. The Holocaust resulted in the killings of

numerous Gypsies. In fact, the number ranges between a third and two thirds of the total Gypsy

population in Europe (Kledzik, 2013). The massacres, to the Roman, was more than a genocide

and the continued denial that they had been under great suffering in the hands of other countries

only worsened their situation. Nonetheless, for Wajs the horror of the genocide was to be trailed

by the rejection that she got from her own people. Being an ostracized woman and fearing for her

dear life, she suffered a lot of mental breakdown and was even hospitalized.

The poem effectively relates the Holocaust to its readers. It provides a vivid memory and

inspiration that came from the beauty and strength of the people who were subject to the Roma

Holocaust. The language that is used in the poem as well as the personal experiences of the

author are sufficient to give readers the mood of the Holocaust, the factors that led to its

occurrence and its aftermath. What is evident in the poem is that the people of Roma continued

their strict religious practices that would eventually see the author of this poem exiled from the

world of the Roma people. What a great poem it is!

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References

Greene, R., & Cushman, S. (Eds.). (2016). The Princeton handbook of world poetries. Princeton

University Press.

Kledzik, E. (2013). Recording an Oral Message. Jerzy Ficowski and Papusza’s Poetic Project in

the Postcolonial Perspective. Rocznik Komparatystyczny, (4), 207-234.

Marushiakova-Popova, E. A., & Popov, V. (2017). Rethinking Roma holocaust: victims or/and

victors. Beyond the Roma Holocaust.