Viktor Salinas

* 1941

Gypsies / Roma, A 1948 – 1989 emigrant/refugee
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    Born in WW II.

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    "I was born in 1941. 'How was it possible?,' I asked my mum recently because she passed away not long ago, at 90 years of age. 'Mum, how did you manage with me being born in the midst of the war? In 1941, I've seen the movies - how is it possible?' My mum laughed at it. During the war, things were safe back home. The war was looming in other countries. But then the Russians began battling with the Germans at the Hron river, each at one bank. They couldn't get across. At that time, Romani people had already built their houses. But when I came home we saw them razed, all of them wrecked. Only a stable built by my grandpa was still standing, having concrete walls. We found shelter inside. After the war, it was my grandma, her daughters and sons, my mum, her children - all living in that stable. Later, grandma received compensation for grandpa. He was dragged to a concentration camp where he died. They gave grandma money. Enough to build a spatious house with a large kitchen and a room where we could all fit."

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    Murder of his father

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    "Shortly thereafter, my dad was just crossing a field. He was a Roma, one could tell. In was in 1946, a year after the end of the war. The police were up against the Roma. As he was crossing the field, some policemen spotted him and one said: 'Look at the gipsy walking there. Hand my your rifle.' They were drunk. One of them took an aim: bang, shot him in the leg. He fell on the ground. Before making it to the hospital in Levice, it was too late. He got blood poisoning and died. It was only my sister, my brother and me then. We lived however we could from what mum earned working for the farmers. She begged for food and helped them out to ensure our living. At the age of 17, I left for work to Litomyšl. We found work there and took roots easily. All the people working in the factory could see that we were good, had good relations with non-Roma people, and did nothing wrong. The manager used to bring us monthly salary all the way to our place. The bonuses. He brought it from Vysoké Mýto all the way to our place in Litomyšl."

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    Playing the trumpet

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    "When in moved to Litomyšl in Czechia, I began playing the trumpet. I had friends there with whom I played. I then went home to Levice, Slovakia where local white boys heard me playing. They invited me to play with them. I learned a lot there, among the big guys. And we were really good. In fact, we were so good that I even learned new Hungarian, Slovak and Roma songs from them. We played all of these songs. When Karel Gott released a new song, we would know to play it the next day. Perfectly. Everyone was surprised. I was the only Roma among non-Roma boys. All the others were gadjos. We called ourselves Tuláci - the 'Tramp Organization of Slackers". I played the trumpet, we had the piano, bass, drums... There were seven or eight of us boys, a female singer and I also sang. We would play even twice a week. We made good money. Back then we were able to earn 800 or a 1000 Crowns per day, which used to be a lot of money. But it was mandatory to be employed back then. Whoever wasn't ended up in prison; many Roma people did. The police would detain a Roma guy and the first thing they asked him was where he worked. They were also interested in what was the salary there. Had they found that the person wasn't employed, they detained him and gave him a beating."

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    Praha - kancelář Romey, Korunní ul, 04.01.2017

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    media recorded in project Romani Memory:Recollections of Roma from the Central Europeen Perspective
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Life ought to be colorful; I was mostly influenced by music

Viktor Salinas as a young man
Viktor Salinas as a young man

Viktor Salinas was born in 1941 in the village of Dolná Seč in Slovakia into a Vlax Roma family. From his early years, he recalls the German-Russian battle of the Hron river which led to the destruction of his family house. A year after the end of WW II., his father was shot dead by drunken policemen. He grew up with his mother and two siblings. In 1958 he moved to Czechia to work in the Karosa factory. In the 1960s he began playing the trumpet in the Tuláci band and he made a living as a musician for many years to come. At that time, he also got married and had eight children. In the 1980s he found exile in Austria and later lived in Germany, Belgium and Sweden. He returned to Czechoslovakia after 1989, settling in Prague. A few years later he moved back to Slovakia where he established the Independent Vlax Roma Party. Later, he lived in Austria and Czechia again, as well as in the US, Canada, Belgium and Great Britain.

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