EVENTS “Vittorio Emanuele III, Guilty Before History”

By Adam Smulevich
 
Vittorio Emanuele III, the king who signed Mussolini’s Racial Laws against Jews in 1938 is guilty “in front of history” for this act. 
 
This is the decision reached at the end of the mock trial against the Italian monarch that was held at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. The dramatic production, titled “Il processo” (“The Trial”) was promoted by the Union of Jewish Communities for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
 
On the stage were distinguished lawyers and jurists, recreating a trial that could not be held in the course of Vittorio Emanuele’s life.
 
During two intense hours of debate, the performance explored the circumstances of the Racial Laws and the climate of that political period. Especially emphasized was the theme of indifference which united the figure of the king to all those Italians, at all levels, who abandoned their fellow Jewish citizens to their fate.
 
Addressing the audience at the beginning of the event, the President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, Noemi Di Segni stated: “This is an evening devoted to Remembrance. The memory of an identity that has always felt part of a country, the memory of a country and its institutions; memory of a homeland, flag and collective identity “.