ROMA Resistance Day

15.05.2024
18:00 – 22:00
Roma Resistance Day • Film, performance, panel

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

On 16 May 1944, Sinti and Roma waged armed resistance against their planned murder in the „Gypsy family camp“ at 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 15 May is being held in cooperation with the “National Association of Partisans of Italy A.N.P.I.” and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

Programme:

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 programme, the son of the Italian partisan Aldo Cervi explores 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 shaped by work, affection and hope.

19:30
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. As a survivor, he experienced business highs and lows, casinos and dodgy deals, a bomb attack and much more – and took his loved ones on the wild rollercoaster ride of his life.

20:30
Q&A 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 dialogue with the audience under the moderation of Lisa Smith, filmmaker and co-curator of the International Festival of Romani Film  AKE DIKHEA?.

21:00
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 portrayal of the Holocaust in Italy and Germany”
Moderation: Dr Massimo Perinelli, historian and expert on migration topic at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung