Fabrizio, Gypsies, Auschwitz-Birkenau

From the Editors of "A Rivista Anarchica"

This new 2 DVD booklet is connected to the set of "products" related to Fabrizio De André that we have achieved since 2000: The dossier Miss liberty Lady anarchy, followed by the CD booklet "and we had beautiful eyes too" (2001), the DVD booklet "but the uniform of another color" (2003) and the CD booklet "one thousand red poppies 2" (2004). Now, two years later, we propose this thing a bit 'strange, seemingly more and more away from Fabrizio, in fact - in our opinion - in all its sensitivity and its cultural heritage.
We wrote six years ago, at the conclusion of the rate of opening of the dossier Miss liberty Lady anarchy:
"Far from fashion, deep understanding, with a density equal to the cultural refinement of feeling, De Andre has helped to give life and dignity to individuals, peoples, ideas that thanks to him - and to staff of large thickness of which he knew to be surrounded - could find in his poems to music a lawyer, a honest "propagandist" , an avenger against the wrongs of history.
Sardi, American Indians, toxic, whores, poets, anarchists, prisoners, the suffering, the rebels, gypsies: they are part of that humanity subjugated but not tamed, often only strong for his dignity and coherence, which crosses the head- 'his whole work. Expressing themselves in Genoese or Italian, Sardinian or Romanes, they are to have the last word. "
Things to Fabrizio and we have achieved so far have been designed to exploit this his (and our) choice to stay still on the side of the latter. The deeper meaning, the cultural figure of the operation with this new product we are pursuing, is twofold: to emphasize the importance of his intellectual contribution and, in this context, the indispensability of his anarchist gaze.

The last of the last

To the Gypsies Fabrizio has dedicated one song and a few other hints. In that one song included in his latest album - those souls prejudice that inevitably became his intellectual and musical testament - the Genoese singer-songwriter has succeeded in synthesizing a string text and some of the key reasons of why the Gypsies deserve respect and attention. Gypsies, the last of the last. The most misunderstood, hated, excluded. Always object of prejudice and harassment, .
It's no accident that we had to choose a cover photo for our first cd / su Fabrizio, we decided to show an image taken in a nomads field.
It's no accident that in the booklet included with this CD we have included a dramatic testimony about a Gypsy who survived the Holocaust, on the night between 2 and 3 August 1944, that led to the elimination of 2,987 Gypsies: all of those detained in the Zigeunerlager Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It's no accident that the presentation to the public and the press of this CD, June 12, 2001, was organized by us in a nomad camp in the northeast suburbs of Milan.
It is no coincidence that in our affluent, orderly and democratic culture any portion of the population is "out", away from everyday life of that "good people" referred to by Moni Ovadia in his speech, most of the Gypsies.

Testimonials and music: two Dvd

In this box there are two DVDs and a book: nearly two and a half hours of vision and about seventy pages. Materials of various kinds, collected in a single box by our sensitivity.

The first DVD (black) opens with some lines off of Moni Ovadia ignorance that is the basis for any injury, including widespread affecting Gypsies.

1. The first "real" documentary Zigeunerlager (the camp of Gypsies). This is an intervention, a lesson, you might say, Marcello Pezzetti, the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation, worthy institution engaged in the collection and defense of Memory. In about twenty minutes Pezzetti tells the story of the year and a half of "life" of the gypsy camp in the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau: a true "field in the field," in which from 13 February 1943 - when they got the first "inhabitants" - August 2, 1944 - in one night when all remaining inmates were "passed for the fire - were killed over twenty thousand Roma and Sinti.
2. Pieces is among the specialists most internationally accredited Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps and extermination. One could say that Auschwitz is history for him everyday. While the horror, the horror is not possible to "get used" ever, it is equally true that there is a moment of his speech in which Marcello s'infervora more.
   It is when he tells of the resistance by the Gypsies, and especially from Romni (gypsy women), the attempt to start them in mass to the gas chambers of contiguous Krematorium 5, May 16, 1944. This mass murder will succeed to the SS for less than three months later. But that day no, boxcutters prepared in secret, other small arms do-it-yourself, but above all the determination and desperation of the Gypsies, women in the front row, caught their murders and forced a temporary retreat.
   A page exception, among the most beautiful and dramatic of the European Resistance against Nazi-Fascism - tells us Pezzetti. - A page unknown, however, that should not remain so. And here the contribution that we give thanks to Marcello for the knowledge of that page, of that May 16, 1944, that addressed "bare hands" is by itself sufficient reason for us to realize this "product" and for its commitment to its spread.
   
3. Porrajmos Romani is the term to indicate what the Jews call the Holocaust: the destruction, devouring the correct translation is given by our friend George Bezzecchi, national secretary of the Opera Nomadi. We are pleased to remember that George was the Rom Harvati Fabrizio wanted to know not only to translate part of the Romani Khorakhané starring Dori, but also to learn about - and through one of them - the history and philosophy of life Gypsies.
   And Porrajmos (persecution forgotten) is also the title of the second documentary, made for the Opera Nomadi Poce by directors Paul and Francesco Scarpelli. There are the testimonies of some Roma Italian - male and female - who were not personally in Nazi concentration camps, but who have had relatives that have been translated. All and all had to do with persecution and violence of the fascists, Nazis and Ustasha who collaborated with the Nazis enthusiastically and efficiently. In Porrajmos the memory of those dark years it intersects with the current situation of Roma and Sinti in Italy, caught between old prejudices and new identity crisis.

4. Closes the first DVD (black) an original document, carried out by our dear friend Giovanna Boursier (already included in the booklet of the CD and we had beautiful eyes too and just presented in the documentary Porrajmos). It is his Hugo, the documentary based on the testimony of German Sinto Hugo Höllenreimer recorded in early August 2004 at Auschwitz.
   That's what happened. Joan has learned that a group of German Sinti and Roma would have gone to Auschwitz on the 60th anniversary of the murder of Gypsies interned there. Without having any specific contact, without knowing German, Jeanne has risen by train with his video camera (the one with which he works for television broadcast Report) and a friend willing to be her interpreter. There, she met Hugo Höllenreimer, a German Sinto interned at Auschwitz. Hugo has called her one morning: he would tell his experience to a group of young Germans. Jane, with her video camera, has everything.
   The result was this testimony of 19 minutes, dry and simple, beautiful to the moral stature, the ability to mimic natural and the story of Hugo.
5. The second DVD (red) opens with the recording of a beautiful evening held at the Chamber of Labour, in Milan, October 22, 2005. Title of the evening: Djelem Djelem. But the title chosen by us for its movie, made by the friends of StalkerVideo has no boundaries, no barriers. Much of this documentary is made up of songs performed by Moni Ovadia and the four wild Romanian Roma musicians from the group Taraf Metropulitana and some speakers talked about Moni from the stage. A further integration are the answers given to us by Moni in the back-stage before the show.
6. Opera Nomadi ever made is the second documentary Interview with Mirko Levak (story of a Gypsy survivor of Auschwitz), directors Francesco Scarpelli and Erika Smith. A story in its own way "complete" by blocking their caravan by the nazi-fascists on the holding in Trieste in Friuli, the start - with a stop in Bolzano - toward life and death camps at Auschwitz, liberation, the return in the village of origin, find and recover: a continuing life, a life marked a witness "simple" but for this - for how it is told - very heavy.
7. The last movie is also the longest. Inside it is a large part of the show Porrajmos. Voices from a forgotten murder (Roma and Sinti in the Europe of the second World War) held (so far the only time) at the Labour Milan 24 January 2006. The full record is more than an hour, here there are about two-thirds. The protagonists of "narrative" are Dijana Pavlovic (Serbia Roma) and Claudio V. Migliavacca, with the participation of George Bezzecchi, Nahum Jovanovic and talented girl and espressivissima Daniela Di Rocco (Roma all). This is a project of Maurizio Pagani Opera Nomadi Milano.
   This show, which was attended by dozens of Gypsies in and around Milan, repeats and summarizes, with other items, with more style, the substance of what was described, reported, testified in previous documents. It's a little 'a compendium of Porrajmos, this murder really miss that anarchists wish to recall, nell'assordante silence of a world that thinks of nothing else.

Guide to the reading

The book opens with Uprè Romà (page 2), traditional gypsy song, considered by many (but not all) the international anthem of nomadic peoples.
After this presentation you're reading the editorial, there is a brief speech by Gloria Arbib, thinking we had originally requested only Porrajmos documentary, the documentary (No. 3 of the DVD Black) gained by the nomads with the help of the Fund " Law 249 "managed by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities - which in fact was responsible for Gloria. Her remarks (p. 15) on the failure - not intentional - of the integration of Gypsies and Jews are interesting. And the relationship between the story of two people found it further, a small but significant award dell'UCEI involvement in two additional "products" Opera Nomadi stand in our box: an interview with Mirko Levak (video n . 6) and the multimedia show Porrajmos (video 7).
Giovanna Boursier of the aforementioned is the essay (p. 17) on Roma under the Nazis and fascism: a written framework, which goes quickly those dramatic events - dwelling (and is definitely the most revealing part) on the involvement of fascists , the "Italian" in a pattern of persecution and murder that we have always been accustomed to attribute solely to the Nazis, the "German". Make sure to read the pages of the concentration camps and other forms of organized segregation of Gypsies, or the role of the Bolzano camp last stop before traveling directly to Auschwitz. Even if you think you are acquitted - Fabrizio was singing thinking of '68 - you are forever involved. And the same applies in this case. Moni Ovadia said as his last speech at the end of track 5 (red DVD).
On page. 41 one of our editor, Paolo Finzi, is recalling his first encounter with memory and concentration camps especially to mark the similarities and differences between the two experiences of scapegoat: the Jews of thousands of years and that less than a thousand years of Gypsies.
It is up to two members instead of Opera Nomadi, a Roma Giorgio Bezzecchi and gagio Maurizio Pagani, to analyze briefly (p. 48) the social situation of Gypsies in Italy today. The picture that emerges is disturbing. It confirms that the account in which are kept minorities (ethnic, religious and non-religious, etc..) Is a more accurate index for assessing the degree of civilization of a society.
In the same reality, but mainly with the eye of the camera, is interested in Paul Poce: his shots (on pg. 52) during the evacuation in April 2004, a whole Milan building occupied by hundreds of Roma from Romania, there show scenes of ordinary crackdown, an episode in the millennial history of thousands of these people.
If there is a poem, if there is a song in which this story rough, difficult, yet so rich in humanity, is reflected with knowledge and with respect, and especially with the piety that characterizes it, is Khorakhané, written by Fabrizio De André with Ivano Fossati. We publish the text (on pg. 60) at the end of our book and our work, as well as - after a presentation card (page 64) of the magazine "A" and credits & thanks (pg. 69) - it is the image of "our" Fabrizio, taken by Reinhold "Denny" Kohl, the one that seals the whole.
As we heard deep in the January 11, 1999, with Fabrizio for us there is the word goodbye.
Gypsies or imprisoned, or transgender American Indians, people with heart or anarchists until there is a humanity squashed or ridiculed, scorned, or repressed, we will have something to say and do. And we will say and do it more willingly, remembering our comrade and friend Fabrizio, singing his poems.
Keep in touch, maybe through the anarchist monthly magazine "A", on which, since February 1971, we carry our thoughts and our struggles.
Ask for a copy of the review-essay "A", write us, please visit our website (in particular, click on the image of Fabrizio De André to be updated on our initiatives in this regard), send a fax, letter, email, short showed up!
The appointment is to our next "product."

la redazione di "A"

rivista anarchica
        anno 36 n.321
        novembre 2006