ROMA Resistance Day

15.05.2024
6.00 - 10.00 pm
Roma Resistance Day - film, performance, panel discussion

To mark Roma* and Sinti* Resistance Day, RomaTrial e.V. is organizing a two-day international series of events on 15 and 16 May 2024 on the topic of remembering resistance and life after survival.

On May 16, 1944, Sinti* and Roma* offered armed resistance against their planned murder in the "Gypsy family camp" of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Several thousand lives were saved as a result. For a moment, hope and empowerment sprouted from the mire of extermination. And that is exactly what we are celebrating 80 years later: the strength of our ancestors, their resistance, their determination - in the midst of the hopelessness and exhaustion of the death camp.

The event on May 15 will take place in cooperation with the "National Association of Partisans of Italy A.N.P.I." and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Program:

18.00
Documentary film "I Miei Sette Padri" / "My Seven Fathers"
Director: Liviana Daví
Italy // 2023 // 58 min
In Italian with English subtitles

On the first day of the series, the son of the Italian partisan Aldo Cervi looks at his father in the documentary "My Seven Fathers" to free him from the myth and discover the man who fought against the dictatorship, but also had a life characterized by work, affection and hope.

7.30 p.m.
Stand Up "Pieces of a Man"
By and with: David Labi
60 min // In English

David Labi also dedicates his stand-up performance "Pieces of a Man" to his father: an Italian Jew who survived the Nazi concentration camps as a child. Larger than life, he experienced business highs and lows, casinos and shady deals, a bomb attack and much more - and took his loved ones on the wild rollercoaster ride of his life.

20.30 hrs
Audience discussion with David Labi and Liviana Daví
30 min // In English

Afterwards, David Labi and the director of "My Seven Fathers", Liviana Daví, will enter into conversation with the audience under the moderation of Lisa Smith, filmmaker and co-curator of the International Roma Film Festival AKE DIKHEA?

21.00 hrs
Panel discussion with Adelmo Cervi and Tommaso Speccher
60 min // In German

The first evening concludes with a panel discussion with the following line-up:

Adelmo Cervi, son of Aldo Cervi and protagonist of "My Seven Fathers"
Tommaso Speccher, historian and author of the book "The representation of the Holocaust in Italy and Germany"
Moderation: Dr. Massimo Perinelli, historian and consultant on migration at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

16.05.2024
18:00 - 24:00
Roma Resistance Day - readings, panel, music in cooperation with CPPD

To mark Roma* and Sinti* Resistance Day, RomaTrial e.V. is organizing a two-day international series of events on 15 and 16 May 2024 on the topic of remembering resistance and life after survival.

On May 16, 1944, Sinti* and Roma* offered armed resistance against their planned murder in the "Gypsy family camp" of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Several thousand lives were saved as a result. For a moment, hope and empowerment sprouted from the mire of extermination. And that is exactly what we are celebrating 80 years later: the strength of our ancestors, their resistance, their determination - in the midst of the hopelessness and exhaustion of the death camp.

The event on May 16 is being held in collaboration with the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD).

Program:

18:00
Ede and Unku - the true story
Reading by Estera Sara Stan and music by Janko Lauenberger
40 min // In German

Unku comes from a Berlin Sinti family and was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. However, her story is not only recorded in the children's novel "Ede and Unku" from 1931, but also in a (partly autobiographical) novel by her great-nephew and jazz guitarist Janko Lauberger and the author Juliane von Wedemeyer in 2018. The young actress and activist Estera Sara Stan will read from the book, accompanied musically by Janko Lauenberger.

6.45 pm
Reparation Jew
Reading and music by Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg
40 min // In German

Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg's verses, full of captivating openness, are a record of an abuse and a documentation of a healing process. They tell of what it is like when suddenly nothing - not your parents, your career, your Jewishness, everything you love - is unencumbered and free from "his gaze", but above all of how literature can become a judge's hammer that sets right what reality denies. The poet, song pianist and librettist reads from his book "Wiedergutmachungsjude" and accompanies himself on the piano.

7.30 pm
Panel discussion with Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg and Kelly Laubinger
90 min // In German

Chaired by Jana Mechelhoff-Herezi, historian and research associate at the Memorial Foundation, Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg and Kelly Laubinger (Managing Director of the Sinti Union Schleswig-Holstein) discuss the memory of resistance and life after survival. A short video clip of Auschwitz survivor Mano Höllenreiner, whose family led the uprising on May 16, 1944, will be shown at the beginning.

21.30 hrs
Party with DJ UCE and Cristinel Manole

Roma Resistance Day is not only a day of remembrance, but above all a day of celebration! We celebrate the strength of our ancestors, their resistance, their determination - and our lives!

Uroš Petković performs as DJ UCE. He is a Serbian producer and composer who is an important part of the Balkan and e-swing music scene thanks to his projects such as ShazaLaKazoo and Jazzotron. Trumpet player Cristinel Manole accompanies DJ UCE live, presenting the best tradition of Roma* music from the Balkan region.