Farewell to Laura Fontana, Leading Holocaust Scholar

Laura Fontana, a renowned scholar and a leading Holocaust educator, passed away at the age of 61 on January 30. She was an international reference point for the study and transmission of memory of the persecution of European Jews. Fontana directed the Municipality of Rimini’s (Emilia-Romagna) Education for Remembrance program for a long time. From 2009 on, she led the newly founded Italian department of the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris. Fontana authored numerous scientific essays that were translated into various languages. She coordinated many international seminars and workshops, developed various pedagogical units and lectures, and wrote extensively on Holocaust education, history, and historiography in Italian, English, and French. Her most influential books include The Italians at Auschwitz (1943–1945), published by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, and Fotografare la Shoah (Photographing the Shoah), published by Einaudi. The latter develops a visual and cultural history of the Holocaust by analyzing public and private photographic collections.

Many institutions dedicated to Holocaust research and dissemination mourned her death. The Fossoli Foundation recalled her “great qualities as a scholar” and the “great passion and participation” that characterized her work. Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, the director of the CDEC Foundation, praised her contributions to our knowledge of the deportation of Italian Jews and her role in educating “many teachers on the Holocaust, its sources, and the correct way to communicate them in an educational setting.”

The Shoah Memorial in Milan commemorated her as “a colleague, friend, and source of inspiration.” The Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS) honored Fontana as a scholar who connected historical research, diffusion, and education, contributing to a shared memory. “Laura Fontana leaves us a precious legacy, which we commit to preserving and sharing,” commented the Municipality of Rimini.