\u201cRemembering is pain, but I never shirked. Even illuminating a single consciousness is worth the effort and the pain of keeping alive the memory of what it was. For me, memory is living and writing is breathing\u201d. So the Hungarian-born but Italian by adoption Holocaust survivor writer and poet Edith Bruck, who just turned 90, in a recent interview stressed her commitment to a life of witness, writing, poetry.
\nBruck\u2019s tireless dedication, pursued through extraordinary books, was honored by the Italian President Sergio Mattarella bestowing on her the honor of Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. It is a symbolic thanks by the whole country. “When I learned of this honor – said Edith – I cried”.
\nEdith Bruck, who as a young girl survived Auschwitz and other extermination camps, was received at the Quirinale last week. On February 20, she made the news for receiving a visit from Pope Francis in her Rome home. Her last book, Il pane perduto (The lost bread), recently was nominated to the Strega, the most prestigious Italian literary award.
\nThe author traces in it her life, marked in her youth by deportation to death camps. A comparison from which she never escapes, aware of the fact that \u201cilluminating a single conscience is worth the effort and the pain of keeping alive the memory of what has been\u201d, as she affirmed in an interview with L\u2019osservatore Romano.
\nTo propose the book to the Strega award was the journalist and former parliamentarian Furio Colombo, creator of the Act that established in Italy the Day of Memory, who speaks of the book as \u201cdense and bearer of truth\u201d characterized by \u201cliterary beauty, stylistics, emotions\u201d.
\nThe friendship between Edith Bruck and Colombo has been deep for a long time. \u201cWe are practically agemates, we remember the same people, the same situations\u201d, Colombo observes. \u201cEdith Bruck is a Shoah witness, but even before that, a bit like Primo Levi, a great writer. When she meets the youths in school, that experience moves and pulls them in. Her words and her poetry are a gift\u201d. \u201cEdith faces a very difficult life moment of loneliness and isolation in a world that is becoming increasingly angry. But she does it \u2013 concludes Colombo \u2013 with mysterious and extraordinary joy\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"