Having trouble viewing this email? Click here          May 16, 2022 – 15 Iyar 5782

The concept of “silence” appears more than fifty times. An already meaningful number that even doubles if we consider another emblematic term such as “fear”. Attitudes and moods that were the hallmark of Eugenio Pacelli’s controversial pontificate. And in particular of his relationship with Hitler and Mussolini, which has always fascinated historians, and actually, not only them. Very often, there are two opposing stories: the one that sees in Pius XII “Hitler’s pope”; and the apologetic type that lavishly praises his heroism and dubious virtues. The Black Legend and the Pink Legend. A great historian and an already Pulitzer Prize winner, David Kertzer, will shed light on so many unresolved cruxes with his long-awaited new book. “The Pope at war: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini and Hitler”, published by Garzanti and about which we have already revealed the release in the past few days, will be out from May 26th. The book has already raised a meaningful stir among scholars. Some of the leading experts on the Shoah in Italy, guests of the American Academy, outlined the scope of a text that seems to lay bare all the frailties and negligence of the Holy See at the time. Even when the anti-Semitic persecution – as it has been repeatedly remarked – took place “a step away from the windows of the Vatican”, as in the case of the more than a thousand Roman Jews gathered in the former Military College in Via della Lungara after the round-up on October 16th and from there deported to the extermination camps. Together with the author, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lutz Klinkhammer, Simon Levis Sullam and Marla Stone animated this intense meeting. Kertzer, assisted in his research by Roberto Benedetti, reported how he moved through very different contexts, analysing thousands of papers from “Anglo-Saxon, French, German and Italian” archives.

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Rome, Trieste, Milan, Florence. The new documentary by the Museum of the Shoah Foundation journeys through four Italian cities to explore the period marked by Jewish persecutions. Titled “Storie della Shoah in Italia. I complici” “Stories of the Shoah in Italy. The accomplices”, the film is curated by the historians Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi and Isabella Insolvibile and focuses on four experiences of betrayal and denunciation to investigate “the mechanism and personal motivations of those who wanted a Europe freed from Jews”.
It is a journey through places and partly unpublished testimonies that aims, through an effective public history operation, “to tell a dark and almost completely forgotten page in the recent history of our country”. That, precisely, of collaborationism, as the President of the Shoah Museum Foundation remarked in presenting the documentary to the press.

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From his roots in his native Vitebsk, described with love and nostalgia in the series My Life, to the encounter with his beloved wife Bella Rosenfeld, whose books he later illustrated; from the representation of the horror of the pogroms to the recreation on canvas of biblical events.  
Marc Chagall’s work continues to fascinate the general public, representing an original tale of the Jewish world, its tradition, and its vitality. These fundamental themes of the artist’s life and creative work are the focus of a new exhibition that brings over 100 works by Chagall from the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to the MUDEC in Milan.  
Open to the public from March 16, “Marc Chagall. A Tale of Two Worlds”, curated by Ronit Sorek of the Israel Museum, will be dedicated in particular to Chagall’s graphic works and his activity as a book illustrator. In presenting the project, Sorek remarked that scenes and experiences of early youth formed the basis of Chagall’s symbolic world, and this is perhaps the secret of the lasting success of his art.  

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Par Dario Calimani

Parmi toutes les images épouvantables avec lesquelles la tragédie de l’Ukraine nous nargue tous les jours, la plus angoissante, encore plus des morts – exécutés et abandonnés dans les rues comme des ordures – encore plus des dix mille enfants brutalement tués, c’est l’image des enfants qui restent seuls, orphelins, abandonnés dans les rues des villes désormais détruites. 
Où iront-ils? A qui demanderont-ils de l’aide? Qui les prendra par la main? Qui leur donnera de la nourriture? Qui leur donnera un lit? Qui les élèvera? Qui aidera ces enfants à oublier les visages de leurs mères et leurs pères? 
Cette humanité dévastée hante la pensée et les heures. 

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By Solveig Steinhardt*

At least twice a year I go back to Livorno, the city of my childhood. The first thing I do is head to the messy, noisy and colourful central food market to eat a frate (an orange-scented doughnut dipped in sugar), and then to the harbour to see if the sea urchin stands are still there, serving the spiky sea creatures cut in half, to be consumed raw with a drop of lemon juice.
Just 20km south of Pisa, Livorno checks all the boxes of the typical European port city: it's chaotic and lively; it's multicultural; and it's strongly linked to the sea, both culturally and gastronomically. Plus, it's in the middle of Tuscany, which should automatically make it popular. 
Yet, with only 10% of Florence's tourist numbers and a third of Pisa's, Livorno is mostly ignored by visitors – and the few who do show up often look like they arrived by accident. Stop one on the street, if you can find one, and ask why they are here: they'll likely say they are waiting to catch the ferry to Corsica or Sardinia, or are just driving through and looking for a place to eat.

*This article was originally published on BBC on May 8, 2022

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