Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in Italy
"Shoah remembrance will never fade away from the hearts of the Italian and European people. New research keeps increasing the awareness and knowledge of perhaps the most appalling tragedy in European history"
Italy has been a member state since 1999 and held the Chairmanship in 2004. During that year member states grew to 20, thereby enriching working groups with the presence of new expertise. Two international seminars were organised: the first one with a focus on Primo Levi; the second one focused on confronting the challenges facing Shoah education in multicultural societies. The Italian Chairmanship was a great opportunity to make the ITF recognised throughout Italy.
Inspector general MIUR, HoD
International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2011:
The ninth edition of the competition for schools of any level was announced by the Ministry of Education, University and Research [henceforth MIUR], in cooperation with the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities [henceforth UCEI], and under the Patronage of the President of the Republic. As usual, the competition has seen a good response, and the works submitted, particularly by primary schools students, were of good quality. The works have been examined by a judging committee composed by members of UCEI and MIUR, among whom were also Anna Piperno and Sira Fatucci (ITF members). The awarding of the winners occurred at two separate times: on Jan 26th at MIUR and on Jan 27th at the Quirinal Palace, in the presence of the Head of State and of the highest representatives of the government and of the Jewish Communities.
Quirinal Palace - Celebrations for the Day of RemembranceThis year, too, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano was pleased to celebrate the Day of Remembrance at the Quirinal Palace. The awarding of the winners of the competition has been given particular emphasis. Moreover, former political deportees were presented golden medals. For the first time Roma and Sinti youth actively partook in the ceremony. Giuseppe Galasso (a well-known Italian historian and scholar) delivered a keynote address on "The Jews and the Italian Unification", and a short film by Roberto Olla about the Day of Remembrance was screened. The celebration was broadcast live by the public television channel Raitre, and it was given very wide media coverage.
Institutional relationships and Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee
Upon suggestion of UCEI, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers constituted the "Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee for the Day of Remembrance", chaired by MP Gianni Letta, Undersecretary appointed to the Presidency of the Council of Ministries. The Committee secures the harmonization of all the initiatives taken by the main Italian institutions on Jan 27th. This undertaking has allowed for a greater uniformity and coherency of the initiatives. This year, in addition to coordinating the different ministerial activities and to giving patronage to several deserving initiatives, the Committee, in agreement with UCEI, organized the Round Table and numerous other initiatives.
Organization of a Round Table
As a shared effort between UCEI and the Presidency of the Council of Ministries, a Round Table has been organized on the topic "Education, Mystification, and Historical Fakes: Anti-Jewish Prejudice in the Internet Era". Planned by the Presidency of the Council of Ministries as well as by Sira Fatucci (ITF member) for UCEI, the round table was held at the Poly-functional Hall of the Presidency of the Council of Ministries in Rome. Among the speakers were Anna Foa ("Historical Truth and Historical Falseness in the Internet Era"), David Meghnagi, ITF member ("Mental States of Denial. A Psychoanalytical Reading Applied to Historical Processes"), Roberto Olla ("The Shoah and the Fake in Movies"), Milena Santerini ("New Antisemitism and Racism in the Multicultural Society"), and Ernesto De Cristoforo ("Public Order and Historical Truth: A Journey between Fascism and Democracy").
Television Advertisement
The Presidency of the Council of Ministries created a TV advertisement to promote the sharing on the part of Italian citizens of historical materials concerning racial discrimination. These materials would go to the main museums and institutions concerning the Shoah (Rome, Ferrara, CDEC). Marcello Pezzetti (ITF member) dealt with the process on behalf of the Rome Museum of the Shoah Foundation.
In the conclusion of the Day of Remembrance an important event was held at the Main Synagogue of Rome, involving the encounter between Shoah survivors and their families on the one hand and the population of Rome on the other hand. The event was organized by the Rome Museum of the Shoah Foundation, more specifically by Marcello Pezzetti (ITF member), in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Rome, and with the Patronage of the Coordination Committee of the Presidency of the Council of Ministries.
With the occasion of the Day of Remembrance the book "Parole chiare. Luoghi della Memoria in Italia, 1938-2010", eds. Sira Fatucci (ITF member) and Lia Tagliacozzo, was released. This volume is a literary and photographic reportage, and has been receiving remarkable coverage on the Italian newspapers, in addition to having good success in terms of sales. It presents an itinerary to seven Italian symbolic sites connected to the remembrance of intolerance toward Jews and other groups discriminated against because they were understood to be "different".
The most important Italian initiatives can be found on the website www.ucei.it/giornodellamemoria
On 27 January, Università degli Studi Roma Tre will be holding an inauguration ceremony for a new program, the International Masters on Holocaust Studies, Remembrance and Education. The inauguration ceremony will include speeches by representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Israeli Embassy, and the Jewish community of Rome, as well as Italy's Head of Delegation to the ITF.
The masters program aims to closely examine the subject from an interdisciplinary point of view. The program has been planned specifically for teachers, philosophers, educators, journalists, scholars in literature and/or religions, sociologists, head of communities, pedagogists, and community and museum workers. You can find more information on the program here: http://host.uniroma3.it/master/didatticashoah/, and on the ceremony here.
PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT AUDIOWALK GUSEN IN MILAN AND SESTO SAN GIOVANNI
On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27th January 2010) the Austrian Cultural Forum in Milan, Italy, organized a presentation of the artistic project AUDIOWALK GUSEN (www.audioweg.gusen.org), conceived by christoph mayer chm. This project invokes the concealed memory of an area that contained the concentration camps Gusen I and II during the Nazi dictatorship. Following the AUDIOWALK GUSEN, a voice over headphones leads the visitor through a pleasant residential and recreational landscape, which reveals no traces of what happened here in the past. The visitor listens to original recordings with the personal memories of survivors of the camp, contemporary witnesses from the village as well as the views of current Gusen residents. Retired members of the German air force, soldiers and former members of the SS, who were stationed in the camps Gusen I and II contribute whatever they have to say. The visitor can hear what no longer is visible and can see what is there at present. People tell stories which otherwise would have remained untold. It is possible to view one and the same place from different perspectives and place it in relation to yourself.
In presence of the artist Christoph Mayer a film on the AUDIOWALK GUSEN on 25th and 26th January was presented at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Milan and in the City Hall of Sesto San Giovanni (an 80.000 inhabitants' town bordering Milan), in cooperation with the National Association of former deportees to the Nazi Camps (ANED). Many inhabitants of Sesto San Giovanni, particularly workers of the big factories of this industrial town, had been deported as political detainees to the concentration camp in Mauthausen and its subsidiary camps like Gusen I and Gusen II after the general strike in March 1944. Particularly in the camps of Gusen many of them had died under the inhuman conditions of forced labor. The ANED-Section of Sesto San Giovanni for more than sixty years is keeping alive the memory of these Nazi victims and is organizing regular journeys to Mauthausen and its subsidiary camps, not only for members of the Association, but also for students and pupils, with the support of the Municipality of Sesto San Giovanni.
The presentation of AUDIOWALK GUSEN in its Italian version was very much welcomed by many members of ANED as an important step to deal actively with a dark chapter of Austrian history.
UPDATE: HOLOCAUST RELATED EVENTS IN ITALY
"Young People Remembering the Shoah": this is the title of the contest that the Italian Ministry of Education and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities have reserved to all Italian students on the occasion of the International Shoah Remembrance Day. The winners have been awarded in the Quirinal Palace by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, at the presence of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. Click here to see the works.
Exhibition marking the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Marcello Pezzetti (Italian delegate of ITF) and Bruno Vespa(journalist) organized the exhibition "Auschwitz-Birkenau" in Rome. A section of the exhibition was exposed in the Senate.
Stolpersteine
For the first time in Italy, on January 28th German artist Günter Demnig has placed 30 Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) near the houses from which Jews, soldiers, and political activists have been deported.
Release of education film 'Sogni bruciati'
"Burnt dreams" is a didactic movie produced by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities for Millanta Film. A project of Sira Fatucci (Italian ITF delegate) and Lia Tagliacozzo, the movie was directed by Lia Samonà. It depicts the experience of a class of Italian students dealing with themes such as racism, Shoah, and remembrance.
| Date of entrance into ITF: 1999 Chairmanship: 2004 National commemoration: 27th January Events: 27th January:
24th March:
All year round:
Jewish population: 1938: 45000; 2008: 30000 |
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Law n. 211 - July 2000. Art.1. The Italian Republic recognises the 27th of January, [..] as the ‘Memorial Day' to remember the Shoah [...] the racial laws, the Italian persecution of its Jewish citizens, Italian citizens who suffered deportation, imprisonment and death, as well as those, even in various fields of action and political allegiances, opposed the genocide project and saved lives of others and protected victims of persecution at the risk of their own lives. |
Education
Since Italy joined the ITF, Holocaust education has been boosted and emphasised at national and local level. This is why the ITF Italian delegation is located at the Ministry of Education, University and Research. Both teachers and students, from every level of education, have become increasingly interested in this issue. Initially teacher training had been promoted at the national level, later it has been developed mostly at regional and local level. Teachers organise themselves in networks in order to facilitate the exchange of information and best practices.
As far as students are directly concerned, an annual competition has been taking place since 2001, "I giovani ricordano la Shoah" (Young people remember the Shoah), which has been organised by MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research) in cooperation with UCEI (Union of Jewish Italian Communities). This competition is increasingly successful, since the number of participants is growing and the quality and originality of their work is improving. It has been set up to implement the Italian law (see Factbox n. 2) which designated the 27th January as the Italian Remembrance Day.
The Italian Chairmanship (2004) was a great occasion to make the ITF's work known throughout Italy. Key documents were translated into Italian and published on booklets and on the MIUR website. Teachers and students showed a great interest in them. Italian initiatives were supported by the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, University and Research, by the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities and by scholars and experts.
The results of the two international seminars promoted during the Italian Chairmanship by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (on Primo Levi and on the teaching of the Shoah in multicultural societies) were spread among Italian teachers through publications and meetings.
A webpage "Scuola e Shoah" ("Schools and Shoah") was created within the Ministry of Education's official website. This page provides information about activities carried out at national and local level, and suggestions are provided on materials and teaching methods. Best practices and students' works are also published on the site.
In 2005, 25 teachers from all over Italy took part in a seminar held at Yad Vashem. On that occasion a network of Shoah teachers was set up in each region, to ensure the lessons of the Shoah reach every single school.
In 2007-2008 two training seminars regarding Holocaust education took place and involved, for the first time, about 400 new appointed principals.
A book was written and published on behalf of the Ministry of Education, "La lezione della Shoah", in 2008.
The Italian Ministry of Education is committed to a better system of monitoring and recording the large number of research and education initiatives regarding the Shoah carried out by local authorities, municipalities and schools, and to better link them to ITF work at the international level.
Remembrance
The Remembrance Day was designated for the 27th January by the Italian Government through a specific law (L. 211 20 July 2000, published above) It was a very effective initiative, not only because it established a national day of remembrance, but also because it helped raise awareness about such an awkward issue as the Shoah. From that moment, many events have taken place and many studies have been carried out in schools and universities. Mass media pay great attention to this commemoration.
- A Shoah Museum is going to be opened in Rome.
- A project was approved to open another
- national museum on Jewish heritage and Shoah in Ferrara. At the moment, documents and exhibitions on Shoah are to be found in local Jewish museums.
- The "Risiera di San Sabba" and the "Ferramonti" camps are visited more and more by teachers, students and others.
- In order to allow a better comprehension of the Shoah, through student visits in concentration and extermination camps, teacher seminars were held together with Italian speaking guides from Poland, Germany, Austria. The aim was to provide guides with an accurate knowledge about Italian history with regard to the Shoah, which also serve pupils' and students' educational needs. This successful experience has also been repeated recently.
Research
The teaching of the Shoah history and literature is often present as a topic in Universities all over Italy. Students often tackle this topic in their dissertation theses.
Roma Tre University has set up an international Second Level Master's Degree on Education on the Shoah (history, remembrance, philosophy, literature, art, religion, psychology and social sciences).
This degree, run by Professor David Meghnagi, is the first of this kind to exist in Europe. Teachers from the most eminent American, European and Israeli universities have delivered their lectures here. Among the teachers: Wolfgang Benz, Valerio Marchetti, Marcello Pezzetti, Michele Sarfatti (history teaching), Reuven Feuerstein (psychology and treatment), Yehoshua B. Abraham and Oz Amos (literature), Dina Porat, Shlomo Avineri and Eugene Schoenfeld (philosophy and sociology).
The aim of the degree is to provide a high quality training for teachers and educators on the most relevant issues in current research and on political, religious and cultural debates. Given the importance of this initiative, this Master's Degree has been carried out under the auspices of MIUR (Italian Education, University and Research Ministry), CRUI (Italian Universities Rectors Conference), the ITF Italian delegation, the City of Rome, and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
Students usually serve their apprenticeships at Yad Vashem and at the Kibbutz Lohame Haghetaot.
A training project has been set up involving schools from three Italian regions: Lazio, Tuscany and Piedmont.
Another project, called "Adotta un ricordo" ("Adopt a memory"), has been carried out during the last four years. This teaching proposal is aimed at promoting memories passed across generations and history reconstruction. Almost 800 students took part in this initiative. There is an increasing level of cooperation between Universities and schools.
