COURAGE

Свързване на колекции

„Ромски архив“ е първата дигитална колекция в България, свързана конкретно с ромите в България, поставени в позицията на „невидимо малцинство без своя история“, представяни в медиите основно чрез социални проблеми и девиантно поведение. Колекцията-архив, създадена от Балканското общество за автобиографистика и социална комуникация (БОАСО), включва многобройни устни автобиографични интервюта, богати визуални материали, его-документи, както и издирени документи – текстове и образи, съдържащи информация за ромите в България, съхранявани в българските архиви.  

Колекцията-архив цели да допринесе за демократизиране на историческото знание, за повишаване на ромската самооценка и самосъзнанието на ромите за ценността на документите от миналото. Същевременно самият процес на събиране и попълване на колекцията (колекцията е отворена) допринася за преодоляване на етноцентричността в образованието, засилва интеркултурния диалог, повишава образователните амбиции на ромите. „Ромски архив“ прави ромите по-видими в обществото, медиите и науката в България.

The collection of Society for Queer Memory represents a unique set of daily needs items, printed materials, private funds and oral testimonies capturing the history, memory and everydayness of LGBT/queer people living in Czech milieu. The oldest members of the community are perceived as bearers of a specific historical memory based on their experience of the second half of the 20th century, when they were criminalized and subjected to repression by the state. Thus, the collection focuses also on defensive strategies of “dual life” of this particular social group, both official and private.

The collection contains a great variety of documents that belonged to the historian and politician Sándor Varga. The majority of these documents are from the time when Varga was secretary of CSEMADOK (1968-1970), and they provide unique insight into the activities of this organisation. The collection also contains some documents that are related to the Hungarian youth organisation in Czechoslovakia. This organisation was an important platform for allowing young Hungarians in the country to make their voices heard. Through it, they organised workshops, discussions about the problems of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, and also discussions about the general political situation (including The Prague Spring and the following events). Despite its short existence, CSEMADOK had a crucial role in the youth movement, and this underscores the significance of this collection.

The Transnational Roma Networks Ad-hoc Collection at CNSAS comprises documents created or collected by the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, about the transnational relations of the Roma community. From among the members of this community who willingly assumed this identity, two leaders and activists, Nicolae Gheorghe and Ion Cioabă, stood out during the 1980s. They were among the few people in communist Romania who had the courage to rise up against the aggressive policy of forced assimilation of Roma that threatened their survival as a distinct ethnic and cultural group. As a result, their stand against discriminatory treatment of Roma people in communist Romania brought them into close collaboration with foreign researchers and Roma transnational organisations, also interested in the fate of the persecuted Roma.

The collection reflects the activity of the Romanian-German writer and journalist William Totok, persecuted by the communist authorities for the criticism towards Ceaușescu’s political regime expressed in his literary texts. The William Totok private collection comprises mainly books, literary manuscripts, drafts of academic papers, audio and video documents, and correspondence.