The diplomatic representations and Italian cultural institutes in the USA celebrated with conferences, exhibitions and concerts the Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. The Italian writers who witnessed the Shoah were at the centre of the event organised by the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington. Ambassador Armando Varricchio, in the presence of Undersecretary Ivan Scalfarotto, inaugurated the initiative, stressed the importance of cultivating the memory of the horrors of the Holocaust and the testimony of the many women victims of Nazi persecution, to ensure that such tragedies do not recur. He also pointed out that “the virus of hatred, racism and anti-Semitism has not been eradicated, as shown by the episodes of anti-Semitism in the USA, and that it is imperative not to lower one’s guard in the face of such creeping threats”. The conference analysed the writings of three authors: Giuliana Tedeschi, Liana Millu and Edith Bruck. The event was followed by the reading of three extracts from the authors’ works with musical accompaniment by the Italian-Jewish pianist and accordionist Simone Baron.
The Italian Consulate General in Boston organised an event entitled “Oltre il Dovere” (Beyond Duty): The Legacy and Lessons of the “Giusti Diplomatici” (the righteous diplomats), inaugurated with the opening of the exhibition curated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, in collaboration with Yad Vashem, followed by a round table dedicated to the diplomats who have distinguished themselves throughout the world in the defence of the Jews from Nazi persecution (for Italy Giorgio Perlasca), to be recognised as “Giusti tra le Nazioni” (Righteous among Nations).
In Chicago, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute presented the documentary “My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes” by Oren Jacoby (2014), which tells the stories of Gino Bartali, Giovanni Borromeo and other brave Italians who defied the Nazi-fascist terror in occupied Italy to save thousands of Jews, partisans and opponents of the regime. The screening was accompanied by the intervention of Gioia Bartali, grandson of the champion, who testified the courage and humility with which her grandfather managed to transport false documents hidden in the bicycle frame, thus helping to save at least 800 Jews from deportation.
Also, the Italian Consulate in Detroit dedicated the Holocaust Remembrance Day to Bartali with the screening of the documentary “My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes”, by Oren Jacoby, about the famous cyclist. The Consulate General in Houston, on the other hand, organised the screening of the documentary film “Inferno Mittelbau Dora” which retraces the history of the last concentration camp built by the Nazis, in whose underground tunnels the prisoners worked tirelessly on the production of V2 missiles.
A joint Italian-German commemoration was held for the first time in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. The event, organised by the Italian Cultural Institute with the Consulates General of Italy and Germany, was an opportunity to hear the story of Renee Firestone, who survived Auschwitz. The Holocaust Remembrance Day was also remembered in Phoenix, Arizona, where the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles organised a meeting with Arnie Wininger, a Holocaust survivor who fled Germany to Italy during the war. In Miami, thanks to the Consulate General, several schools and universities in Florida screened the documentary directed by Francesca Muci “La casa dei bambini” (The Children’s House), the story of 800 children, orphaned because of the extermination camps, who from 1945 to 1948 found a new life in Selvino, a small town in Lombardy region.
In New York, in front of the Consulate General headquarters, the traditional ceremony of public reading of the names of the Jews deported from Italy to the extermination camps was held, with the participation of the President of Sicily Region Nello Musumeci, the institutional, cultural and economic leaders of the city of New York and numerous representatives of the Italian and Italian-American community. The Italian Cultural Institute of New York will also host the reading of excerpts from Maria Eisenstein’s diary, one of the first testimonies of life in a fascist concentration camp, on January 30th. Finally, on January 29th an exhibition dedicated to the artist Leo Yeni, persecuted by the Nazi regime in Italy and later moved to the United States, will be inaugurated. On February 3rd the book “I campi del Duce” by Spartaco Capogreco, on the history of Italian concentration camps between 1940 and 1943, will be presented.
In San Francisco, Andra Bucci, one of the few children who survived (together with her sister) the Auschwitz concentration camp and now residing in Sacramento, met the junior high school students of the San Francisco Italian – American International School to talk to them about the importance of memory and the rejection of indifference. Finally, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco organised the screening of the documentary “Shores of Light: Salento 1945-1947” directed by Yael Katzir (2015). On January 31st, in the presence of the heads of the Consulate in San Francisco, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial.
