EVENTS Cyprus Remembers British Detention Camps

By Rossella Tercatin
 
A conference to remember British Detention Camps set in Cyprus after World War II will be held on the island later this week. 
 
The conference will focus on the children born in the camps, where their parents were held after attempting to reach Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust. 
 
Many of the 2,200 will attend, including Miriam Bisk, who currently lives in America and also serves as the coordinator of the Israeli- Italian committee for Sciesopoli, also known as “the Jewish colony.” 
 
Sciesopoli is a house in Northern Italy where over 800 Jewish children who had lost their parents in the Holocaust were sheltered between 1945 and 1948 in the Alpine city of Selvino. They eventually were brought to Israel, but some of them were caught and incarcerated in the camps in Cyprus.
 
In the occasion of the recent visit to Israel of Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Bisk reached out to the Italian authorities to re-acknowledge the story of the Selvino children and of the importance of the site, which a group of people is trying to revitalize. 
 
Bisk also asked for the cooperation of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), and sent a message to its President Noemi Di Segni.