TURIN – Stumbling Stone at the former prison Le Nuove commemorates violence, praises heroism

“From September 1943 to March 1945, more than a thousand people — men, women, partisans, antifascists, and Jews — were imprisoned within these walls. From here, they were deported to Nazi concentration camps.” This inscription appeared at the end of March on the tarmac in front of the Carceri Nuove in Turin, a complex of buildings used as a prison from 1870 to the 1980s. 

The “stumbling threshold” was created by the Extended Museum of the Resistance in Turin, the National Association of Ex-deportees, and the Jewish Community. It is inspired by the Stumbling Stones project, which involves embedding small brass plaques in pavements to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. 

“Beyond being a place of violence, this prison has also been a place of small heroic gestures,” said Dario Disegni, president of the Jewish Community of Turin, during the ceremony to unveil the inscription. On this occasion, Disegni recounted “the story of sister Giuseppina de Muro, who saved Mr. and Mrs. Zargani and the child Massimo Foa from deportation by helping them escape from the prison. During those frantic moments, the nun hid Foa in a basket of dirty laundry, which proved to be his salvation: “It was an act of great courage, for which sister De Muro has finally been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.”