The Journey of Memory Has Begun, from Italy to Poland

More than a hundred Italian high school students are participating in the 2026 “Journey of Memory of the Italian School to Remember the Victims of the Shoah,” which is organized by the Ministry of Education and the UCEI. This year, before arriving in Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau, the journey stopped at various Italian Jewish sites dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, which is a first.

“This is a deeply enriching experience and it will change you,” said UCEI president Noemi Di Segni, who met with students and teachers at the Jewish Center Il Pitigliani in Rome. During the event, participants learned about an “alive” Jewish identity through testimonies from students of the Renzo Levi Jewish high school and Claudio Procaccia, the director of Culture of the Jewish Community of Rome.

From the Great Synagogue and the Central Train Station in Rome, to the Fossoli concentration camp, to the Shoah Memorial in Milan, the many stops of the 2026 Journey of Memory were accompanied by workshops and events. The same will happen in Poland, where Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara will join the students. According to a note by the Ministry, the initiative’s new dynamic formula is meant “to raise questions, critical approaches, and responsibilities.”

In the image, students visiting the Great Synagogue in Rome