MEMORY – The century of Goti Bauer’s. Historian Pezzetti: “A unique temperament”

On July 29, 2024, Goti Herskovits Bauer, one of the last living witnesses of the Holocaust, turned 100. Born in the Czechoslovakian town of Berehove and raised in Fiume, she survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt. On her birthday, UCEI President Noemi Di Segni, her deputy Milo Hasbani, and Roberto Jarach, President of the Milan Holocaust Memorial, visited her in the Lombardy capital where she has lived for some time, to express the closeness and affection of the Italian Jewish community. The only member of her family to return from extermination camps, Bauer was one of the first witnesses to break the silence. “As scholars of the Holocaust, we owe a great deal to Goti and her pioneering work with teachers, when no one in Italy was dealing with the topic,” explained historian Marcello Pezzetti to Pagine Ebraiche. “She has always had this drive, stemming from her past as a young teacher in a class of only Jewish students, before deportation became a reality.” Pezzetti and Bauer frequently stay in touch: “We talk often about many things. Her clarity is impressive, and I am particularly moved when I hear her speak in Fiuman dialect with Andra and Tatiana Bucci, who were born there and survived Auschwitz. They have a deep bond. Andra and Tati adore her because for them, Goti represents the lost world of Fiume.” (Also known as Rijeka, the city became part of Yugoslavia after WWII and is now part of Croatia). Bauer and her family were betrayed while trying to cross the border into Switzerland. “What strikes most about her testimony is the pain she felt when she realized they had been sold out, with Switzerland in the background but now unreachable,” remarked Pezzetti. “Goti is a woman of remarkable strength and humanity. She survived due to a combination of factors, including luck, but above all her ability to anticipate what would happen to her. Holocaust survivor Shlomo Venezia had this quality too.” Bauer received a congratulatory message from Italian President Sergio Mattarella expressing “the Republic’s gratitude” for her testimony as a former deportee “that has helped keep the memory of the Holocaust alive” across generations. UCEI President Di Segni also presented her with a certificate, wishing Bauer to continue being a point of reference “for her descendants, the community, and the people who have drawn courage and strength from you.”