A devastating question

By Anna Foa*

A few days ago, in an intervention from remote in a school in Lazio, I was talking about October 16, 1943 [the day the Raid of the Ghetto of Rome took place]. Senior high school students, in their 18. Question time comes. The first proposes the abused parallel between the Shoah and the “discrimination” carried out by the green pass, the domestic COVID-19 passport. Maybe seeing my expression, the teacher intervenes and explains that “the boy doesn’t ask about facts but perception”. The cure worse than the disease. I answer that I cannot see how to compare who sees their family going to the gas chamber to who’s not allowed to go to a club. Then, I cannot continue and say that it is enough. Yes, I know, I should have gone on. But after having talked for such a long time, explained, and recounted, being asked this kind of question is devastating. I let the teacher know that I am waiting for excuses. Until now, it did not happen.

* Historian