Skip to main content

Our Father – A Sinti Family Recounts

Discussion and Reading with Anita Awosusi and Her Daughter Tayo Onutor (audio recording available, in German)

In her book Vater unser – Eine Sintifamilie erzählt (Our Father. A Sinti Family Recounts), German Sintezza, civil rights activist, and author Anita Awosusi gives insights into her family biography and into the historical events and aftermath of Nazism.

Taking as her starting point conversations with her father, musician and violinmaker Hermann Weiss, Awosusi talks about his life and survival, deportation, forced labor, Soviet war imprisonment, and his return to his hometown of Karlsruhe. At the same time, she reflects on her own development from the child of the post-war period to the journalist and active civil rights campaigner for the German Sinti and Roma.

recording available

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The W. M. Blumenthal Academy is marked in green

Where

W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin (Opposite the Museum)

Awosusi's book is a piece of first-hand history and movingly demonstrates the important role of survivors of National Socialism and their descendents for recounting historical events.

Anita Awosusi

Born in 1956, Anita Awosusi headed the Dialog Department at the Documentation and Cultural Center for German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg for 20 years. She works on books, radio programs, music projects, films, and exhibitions.

The reading was originally scheduled for 9 February and unfortunately had to be postponed. For the rescheduled event, the author Anita Awosusi will now be joined by her daughter Tayo Onutor, who will take part in the discussion following the reading. The singer-songwriter is an active member of IniRomnja, a coalition of Roma and Sinti women in Berlin.

Moderation: Rosa Fava, W. Michael Blumenthal Fellow Jewish Museum Berlin

This event in our Academy program’s New German Stories series is being held as part of Rromnja* Power Month.

Audio recording of the reading on 23 March 2017, in German; Jewish Museum Berlin 2017

Interview Series: New German Stories (12)

Where, when, what?

  • When 23 Mar 2017
  • Where W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
    Klaus Mangold Auditorium

    Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
    (Opposite the Museum)

    See location on map

Audio Recordings: Listen to Past Museum Events (64)

Academy Programs: Past Events for You to Listen To and Watch 2011–2019 (40)

Share, Newsletter, Feedback