The Italian Cultural Institute in Amsterdam is presenting “Questo è stato’’, a literary recital with Sabrina Modenini. The recital is based on the book of the same name by Piera Sonnino, with adaptation and direction by Andrea de Manincor.
In her novel, Piera Sonnino tells the tragic story of the deportation and extermination of her entire family – her parents, three brothers and her sisters – in the Nazi concentration camps. These pages are extraordinary in their capacity to portray the daily, methodical encirclement and the erosion of freedom and human dignity suffered by Italian Jews, from the introduction of the racial laws to the final catastrophe of Auschwitz. The work is intended as a meditation upon and testimony to life as lived in the Auschwitz concentration camp. 70 years have passed since the liberation of the camp but the horror the Russians found there is still keenly felt.
The recital, on 31 March, will take place in Italian with Dutch subtitles, produced by the Italian Cultural Institute and taken from the translation “Zo was het. Een Italiaanse familie in Auschwitz” by Anthonie Kee, published in 2007 by Athenaeum – Polak & Van Gennep.