MILAN – New government funding for the Shoah’s memorial

From now on the Shoah Memorial in Milan can count on a new financial support. Thanks to the collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of University, and to a cross-party amendment voted in Parliament, an annual allocation of €300,000 is now foreseen. “For a cultural institution, to be able to count on support of this magnitude has a twofold meaning: innovation in educational proposals and more opportunities for the public, which is mainly made up of young people,” said Roberto Jarach, president of the Milan Foundation for the Memorial to the Shoah.

The bill was put forward by Brothers of Italy party and co-signed by all the parliamentary groups. The fund at the disposal of the Memorial is established through a contribution of €100,000 from each of the three Ministries involved. It is a “concrete commitment to honor the memory of the Shoah,” said Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara. For the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, this is “a virtuous example of cooperation between ministries.” The project, added the Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, is “the result of long reflections that I have shared with [Holocaust survivor and] Senator for life Liliana Segre, whom I thank for her tireless efforts to make remembrance the antidote against indifference.” 

On January 31, 1944, Segre was deported together with her father from the infamous platform 21 of Milan’s Central Station, where the Shoah’s Memorial is now located. Thanks to her, Jarach recalled, this place has become a landmark, visited by tens of thousands of people, especially students. “Over the years, the Memorial has become not only a place of historical remembrance, but also a place to confront modern problems. This support is not only economic, it is first and foremost a signal, a recognition of an important and up-to-date work,” commented the vice-president of the Memorial, Milena Santerini.

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Translated by Chiara Tona and revised by Rebecca Luna Escobar, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainees in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.