Leaving Auschwitz

By Daniela Gross

On the next Holocaust Remembrance Day, there will be a new sad memory regarding Auschwitz to ponder about. As reported on the daily Il Manifesto by Beatrice Andreose, the Italian Memorial, which was set up in the camp in 1980 to honor the Italians that died in the Nazi lagers, was removed in May.

“Signed by the architectural firm BBPR, by Pupino Samonà, Primo Levi, Nelo Risi and Luigi Nono, to honor the Italians that died in the Nazi lagers, the monument was dismantled by the order of the director of the [Auschwitz] Museum”.

“The Italian Memorial was accused of being ‘an artifact for its own sake, without educative value. What was most unwelcome – read the article – the manner in which it described the rise of Nazi fascism, collaborationism, the racism of the state, and the role played by German multinationals (especially Bayer).”

Therefore, in May the Memorial was moved to Florence, in an area destined to become a museum about deportation. “I never wanted to see the Italian Memorial tore apart piece by piece”, declared Dario Venegoni, the president of the National Association of Italian Political Deportees from Nazi Concentration Camps. Sadly, the next Holocaust Remembrance Day will also include in its commemoration activities both in Rome and in Milan, this recent attack to the Memory.