On the occasion of Romani Resistance Day, we will send a clear signal at the Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe in light of the historical and current power of resistance of marginalised and racialised people. On 16th May 1944, Sinti and Roma stood up in Auschwitz-Birkenau and fought back against certain death in the gas chambers. Thanks to this unique act of resistance, many lives were saved.

The memory of the exemplary courage of the prisoners in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp gives many Romani, Black, Muslim-read, queer communities and people of colour even today the necessary power of resistance to fight against the system of oppression. For many people, especially people who experience intersectional discrimination, the struggle for their self-determination and existence is ongoing.

On 16th May, we condemn grievances in our society: racism, patriarchal structures, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and all other forms of discrimination and misanthropy. But above all, we remember our heroines and heroes and celebrate the resistance and resilience that enable our communities to survive!

Our language is art: From 1 to 3 p.m at the Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe, the truck Captain Django Sastipe, designed by Damian James Le Bas specifically for the 2nd Roma Biennale, will make two important artists from the Roma communities visible: the Polish poet Papusza, who survived Nazi persecution and gave expression to her suffering in her poems written in Romanes from 1946 onwards, and the Spanish artist Helios Goméz, who spent many years in prison as a convicted opponent of the fascist Franco regime.

In the truck itself, there will be projections of artworks by Sujatro Ghosh, Roland Korponovics, Delaine Le Bas, Kálmán Várady, Ludovic Versace and the Roma Jam Session Art Collective RJSaK as well as a music video by Riah Knight. There will also be an introduction to Romani Resistance Day by Pierre Chopinaud and Anina Ciuciu. Posters by the mentioned artists can also be picked up from 1 to 3 p.m.

At 2 p.m there will be a manifestation with speeches by activists from different Roma and BIPoC communities on the current situation of Roma and other marginalised people in Europe and beyond.