It was exactly on Sergio de Simone’s seventh birthday when he was transported from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg on November 29, 1944. On April 20, 1945, just weeks before Nazi Germany surrendered, the SS murdered him and 19 other children in the basement of the school on Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg after they had carried out “experiments” on the abducted children, including intentionally infecting them with tuberculosis. They were hung on meat hooks.
This cruel story is told by the Italian animated short film “Storia di Sergio,” which premiered on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday at the European Parliament in Brussels. After the Shoah Sergio’s fate initially remained largely unknown until the German journalist Günther Schwarberg researched the case. In files from the Nazi era he only appeared as number 179614, tattooed on his arm.
Sergio’s cousins Tatiana and Andra Bucci, who were deported to Auschwitz with him and barely survived, have dedicated their lives to his memory. For Tatiana Bucci, now 88 years old, the appearance in the EU Parliament is a moving moment: “My heart beats very fast,” she says at the beginning of her speech at the ceremony in the plenary hall.
Dragged out of the living room
Her speech forms the basis for the animation that is shown afterwards: In March 1944, cousin Sergio from Naples was visiting the Bucci family in Fiume, which was then under Nazi occupation, when the SS henchmen broke into their living room one night and kidnapped the family.
„Sergio’s Story“Director: Rosalba Vitellaro, Italy 2026, 28 min.
The Bucci sisters, who were only four and six at the time, were not immediately sent to the gas chamber during the selection process because the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele I thought they were twins – and therefore suitable “guinea pigs”. Sergio was also initially spared because Mengele was said to have had a weakness for beauty and the boy was pretty with his dark hair and darker skin.
The three children were then stripped naked, washed and tattooed: “Like animals, so that we lose any sense of dignity,” explains Tatiana Bucci. “I began to understand that this is what being Jewish means.” To this day she finds it difficult to talk about it.
Cute snub noses
“Storia di Sergio” uses familiar imagery to convey closeness: Sergio and the other children have big, shiny eyes and cute button noses. The touching soundtrack for violin and piano by Davide Caprelli creates the appropriate pathos without falling into kitsch. Above all, Sergio’s story takes center stage, and that is the strength of the 28-minute film.
For this performance, “Storia di Sergio” landed on the longlist for this year’s Oscar in the animated short film category, but did not make it into the final selection. On January 29, 2026, the film will be shown in the Italian Parliament and then in schools in Sicily. The film does not yet have a distribution, neither in Italy nor internationally.
Producer Alessandra Viola tells taz about difficulties with financing, especially after October 7th and the war in Gaza. She was therefore very happy about the support from the German embassy in Italy. “Making the film was very important to me because there is a huge hole in our family history,” says Viola, whose ancestors were murdered in Auschwitz. With this film she can at least tell a story, even if it isn’t her own.
Director Rosalba Vitellaro criticizes an inadequate culture of remembrance in her home country: “I am of the opinion that Italy must apologize (for the Holocaust).” There are more people in the country with sympathies for fascism than anti-fascists, she says. Tatiana Bucci argues in a similar direction in her speech: “Germany has come to terms with its past. And we in Italy should also deal with it. Because we weren’t entirely innocent.”
After the premiere, Tatiana Bucci tearfully thanks the audience, who responded with a standing ovation. For her, a life’s task has been fulfilled.