NEWS Stumbling Blocks for Remembrance in Fiume
By Adam Smulevich
Born and raised in Fiume, which back then was in Italy and today is in Croatia, sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci survived Auschwitz. They were both children: Tatiana was six years old, Andra four.
Seventy-five years after the day they were arrested together with their mother and grandmother, they returned to their hometown to place ten Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks) in memory of their family members killed in the Holocaust. One of the blocks is dedicated to their little cousin Sergio De Simone. Sergio was with them in Auschwitz and was horribly killed in the basement of the Hamburg school of Bullenhuser Damm in a medical experiment.
The moving ceremony in Fiume was sponsored by the city.
“This city is also yours. You will always be welcome here” said mayor Vojko Obersnel during his speech. “In a normal world – he also said – the stumbling blocks should not even exist. But since the Holocaust did happen, we have a duty to bear witness and tell our young people its stories. There is a great need for certain things to be known, for understanding the consequences to which hatred and intolerance can lead”.
Together with the Bucci sisters, members of the Jewish Community of Rijeka attended the ceremony, as well as Livia Ottolenghi representing the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and historian Sanja Simper who authored a deep study on anti-Jewish persecution in the area.
“The idea of laying these stones emerged during a Journey of Remembrance in 2018, organized by the Ministry of Education together with UCEI. It was Tatiana the one who proposed it” Ottolenghi explained to Pagine Ebraiche. The process initiated by one of her daughters lead to a positive outcome, also thanks to the interest shown by the municipal administration.
“Today – Ottolenghi said in Fiume – really closes a circle. For this reason it was fundamental to be here”.
“I look back, I look at these windows that are behind me, and it’s like seeing my grandmother again” said Tatiana, with a broken voice. “Today our loved ones are back here with us” confirmed Andra. They didn’t talk much, but their faces said everything.
Concluding the morning was the screening of the cartoon dedicated to the story of their life, La Stella di Andra e Tati (“The Star of Andri and Tati”) produced by the Italian broadcasting company Rai and by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. The cartoon was recently purchased also by the Israeli television. Its screening is scheduled for the next Yom haShoah (May 1-2, 2019).