On June 26, 2025, a special book presentation and artistic reading titled “We Escaped on Our Own: Eyewitness Accounts of Romanian Roma from the Pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen (1992)” took place, exploring the experiences of Romanian Roma during one of the most significant episodes of racist violence in post-war Germany.

The Rostock-Lichtenhagen pogrom, which occurred in August 1992, involved days of violent attacks targeting Romanian-Roma asylum seekers and Vietnamese migrant workers, highlighting the anti-Roma and anti-immigrant sentiments prevalent in Germany at the time.

The book, edited by the Documentation Center “Lichtenhagen in Memory” and the State Center for Political Education Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, compiles interviews with survivors of the pogrom, offering firsthand perspectives on the events and their aftermath.

The evening began with an introduction by human rights activist Izabela Tiberiade, a researcher and educator born in a traditional Romani community in Craiova, Romania, and a graduate of the University of Malmö. This was followed by an interview-screening with survivor Marian Dumitru, sharing his personal account of the pogrom. The program concluded with an artistic reading of testimonies by actress Bianca Babașa, a Romani performer from Romania trained at the National University of Theater and Cinematography “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest, who is also active in social projects using theater as a tool for dialogue and social change.

Through survivor testimony, scholarly insight, and artistic interpretation, the event offered a powerful reflection on the legacy of the Rostock-Lichtenhagen pogrom and the resilience of the Roma community.