Awosusi-Onutor grew up in Karlsruhe, where she graduated from secondary school in 1997. After studying German and English literature as well as Multimedia studies at the Universities of Heidelberg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, she moved to Berlin in 2004 and has since dedicated herself to her career as musician, writer and activist. [2]
Since then, she has performed as singer-songwriter with various musicians, including Romani guitarist Ferenc Snétberger. [3] Among other performances, she participated in the 2014 Black Bazar Berlin. [4]
Awosusi-Onutor has particitpated in public discussions and conferences on racism against Sinti and Romani people in German society. [5] At a 2022 conference about the culture of remembrance at the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin, she stressed that the history of the Nazi persecution of Romani people must not be forgotten, and that their human rights today must be protected after talking to those affected, not just about them. [6] Further, she is a member of the NGO's RomaniPhen and IniRromnja, documenting and explaining Romani women's history and persecution. [1]
At a course for Yale University's Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM), titled Decolonizing Europe, Awosusi-Onutor spoke along other international panelists about Roma, Resistance & Intersectionality. [7]
In 2017 she released her documentary film Phral mende - Wir über uns with members of the German Sinti community that premiered at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. [8] In 2021, Awosusi-Onutor published her first children’s book Jokesi Club. Jekh, Dui, Drin – 3 girlfriends in Berlin, featuring Romani children. [9] Further, she wrote the definition of Romani and Sinti people for the 2023 dictionary Vielfalt.Das andere Wörterbuch. (English: Diversity. The other dictionary). This dictionary by the renowned Duden publishers explains 100 words relating to diversity in contemporary German society. [10]
The Romani Holocaust was the genocide of European Roma and Sinti people during World War II. Beginning in 1933, Nazi Germany systematically persecuted the European Roma, Sinti and other peoples pejoratively labeled 'Gypsy' through forcible internment and compulsory sterilization. German authorities summarily and arbitrarily subjected Romani people to incarceration, forced labor, deportation and mass murder in concentration and extermination camps.
The Sinti are a subgroup of Romani people. They are found mostly in Germany, France and Italy and Central Europe, numbering some 200,000 people. They were traditionally itinerant, but today only a small percentage of Sinti remain unsettled. In earlier times, they frequently lived on the outskirts of communities.
The Romani people have long been a part of the collective mythology of the West, where they were depicted as outsiders, aliens, and a threat. For centuries they were enslaved in Eastern Europe and hunted in Western Europe: the Pořajmos, Hitler's attempt at genocide, was one violent link in a chain of persecution that encompassed countries generally considered more tolerant of minorities, such as the United Kingdom. Even today, while there is a surge of Romani self-identification and pride, restrictive measures are being debated and passed by democratic states to curb the rights of the Romani people.
The Yenish are an itinerant group in Western Europe who live mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and parts of France, roughly centered on the Rhineland. A number of theories for the group's origins have been proposed, notingly that the Yenish descended from members of the marginalized and vagrant poor classes of society of the early modern period,including persecuted Ashkenazi jews and gypsies, before emerging as a distinct group by the early 19th century. Most of the Yenish became sedentary in the course of the mid-19th to 20th centuries.
Panna Czinka was a famous Hungarian-Romani violinist.
Romani Rose is a Romany activist and head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. He lost 13 relatives in the Holocaust.
The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is a German Romani rights group based in Heidelberg, Germany. It is headed by Romani Rose, who lost 13 members of his close family in the Romani Holocaust. The organization is a member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities.
Berlin-Marzahn Rastplatz was a camp set up for Romani people in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn by Nazi authorities.
Sinte Romani is the variety of Romani spoken by the Sinti people in Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, some parts of Northern Italy and other adjacent regions. Sinte Romani is characterized by significant German influence and is not mutually intelligible with other forms of Romani. The language is written in the Latin script.
The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma was established in Heidelberg, Germany, in the early 1990s, as a memorial to Sinti and Roma people who were killed by the National Socialists Party. After several years of extension work collecting stories from the victims, conducting research, and conversion, the building complex was ceremonially opened to the public on 16 March 1997, and was supported by the attendance of many Roma and Sinti survivors. It is the world's first permanent exhibition on the genocide perpetrated upon the Sinti and Roma by the Nazis. The documentation Centre has three levels and covers an area of almost 700 square meters, and traces the history and stories of the persecution of the Sinti and Roma under National Socialism. The institution is overseen by Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, supported by the city of Heidelberg, and is the beneficiary of special funds from the German Federal Government and the land of Baden-Württemberg.
The Romani people in Austria have lived in the country since the Middle Ages. According to the 2001 census, there were 6,273 Romani speakers in Austria, or less than 0.1% of the population. Estimations count between 10,000 and 25,000. A more recent estimation count between 40,000 and 50,000 Romani people or about 0.5%. Most indigenous Romani people in Austria belong to the Burgenland-Roma group in East-Austria. The majority live in the state of Burgenland, in the city of Oberwart and in villages next to the District of Oberwart. The Burgenland-Roma speak the Vlax Romani language.
Romani people in Germany are estimated at around 170,000–300,000, constituting around 0.2–0.4% of the German population. One-third of Germany's Romani belong to the Sinti group. Most speak German or Sinte Romani.
Jonathan Mack is a German human rights activist, educador and scholar. Mack has a diploma in political sciences of the Free University Berlin, and currently works as political advisor at the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.
Margarete Kraus was a Roma woman who was persecuted during the Porajmos, imprisoned at Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. Her experience was recorded in later life by the photographer Reimar Gilsenbach.
Elisabeth Guttenberger was a German Holocaust survivor and human rights activist. Of Sinti origin, she survived the Romani Holocaust and testified at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials after having been interned at the Gypsy family camp.
Philomena Franz was a Sinti writer and activist from Germany, who was a survivor of the Romani Holocaust, having been imprisoned in Auschwitz. She later published works that recounted her experiences and was recognised as a significant voice in Romani literature.
Anita Awosusi is a German writer, musician, documentary filmmaker and human rights activist. Herself a Sinti woman, she has been active in campaigns for the rights of the Sinti and Romani people. Since the 1990s, she has published works on the history of the Romani Holocaust, on the music and on stereotyped representations of Sinti and Roma.
Petra Gelbart is a musicologist, musician, music therapist and human rights defender. Born in former Czechoslovakia, she has lived in the United States since 1988. Mainly active for the human rights of Romani people, she was a curator of the music section for the RomArchive in Berlin, Germany. Active in several Romani organizations since 2000, Gelbart is known both for her research, public speaking and musical performances focusing on the remembrance of the Romani genocide in Europe.
Dotschy Reinhardt is a German jazz musician, author and human rights activist. Apart from her live performances and music albums, she is known for her publications about Romani culture and as activist for ethnic diversity and the rights of Romani people in Germany.
Else Baker is a survivor of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp.
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