Florence 2022 Holocaust Remembrance Events & Exhibitions

In tune with the annual International Holocaust Day of Remembrance on January 27, 2022, an incredibly rich program of happenings will take place throughout Florence in the coming days: exhibitions, a talk by a Holocaust survivor, film screenings and other special events.

The Uffizi Gallery is unveiling a new acquisition, a portrait of young woman with closed eyes entitled “Flame” by genocide victim German Expressionist art Rudolf Levy, who was deported from Florence.  Raised in an Orthodox home, Levy faced opposition in his artistic career choice.  Born in Germany, he lived in Paris, Mallorca, New York, Dubrovnik and Ischia, seeking refuge.  He moved to Florence in 1940 and when the Nazis occupied Italy in 1943, he went underground.  Arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned briefly in Le Murate, he was taken to Auschwitz and died there in 1944.

Author and poet Edith Bruck will be the guest of the Order of Tuscan Psychologists entitled “Understanding is Impossible-Knowing is Necessary.”  Bruck, born in Hungary, is a survivor of Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen-Belsen concentration camps.  She adopted Rome, Italy as her home and has written many books in Italian including the finalist for the 2021 Premio Strega, Italy’s most prestigious literary award.  The conference, intended to commemorate and reflect on human suffering in the darkest period of our history, also looks to the future.  The emergence of Nazi-Fascist symbols and beliefs illustrates how important it is to remember the horror of the Holocaust (January 28, Palazzo Vecchio, Salone dei Cinquecento, 2:30 to 6 pm.  Attendance capacity of 180 by reservation only at:  www.mcrconference.it/comprendere-e-impossibile).

Through January 31, the Tuscan Region’s Carlo Azeglio Ciampi exhibition space on via de’ Pucci will host a photo display of international athletes who have suffered or died as a result of religious, political or racial discrimination.  Each panel will contain a picture of the late athlete, a biography and the reason for detention or arrest.  Tribute is being paid to soccer star Carlo Castellani of Empoli, who offered to substitute his father, a political dissident, who was designated by the Nazis to be sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he died of dysentery in August 1944 as well as to Shaul Laudy.  The latter, born in Belgrade, at age 8 was one of 2,000 Jews ransomed by a group of American Jews from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.  Laudy represented Israel in the 50 kilometer walk at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where he survived the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists. Hours of the show are 10 am – 12 noon, 3  – 6 pm Monday to Friday.

The Cinema La Compagnia, via Cavour 50/r will show “C’e Un Soffio di Vita Soltanto” (There is Only One Breath of Life) at 6:45 pm January 27.  The film tells the story of Lucy, the oldest known transwoman in Italy and one of the few remaining survivors of Dachau concentration camp.  Born Luciano, the film exposes the painful adolescence of Lucy’s life and tragic existence in the 20th century.  Lucy, who lived as a man, a woman, a son, a mother and a prisoner, survived her life as a friend, a lover and a prostitute.  Now in Bologna, the 95-year-old Lucy’s life is revealed in the film expressing her courage, humanity and strength of character.  The film, directed by Matteo Botrugno and Daniele Coluccini, will be screened in Italian.

The Museo Novecento of 20th and 21st Century Art presents a program on the upcoming film “Una Merce Molto Pregiata” (A Very Valuable Commodity) by Oscar award winning director Michel Hazanavicius.  The presentation consists of projections from the drawings in the creation of the animated film dedicated to the Holocaust.  The film tells the tale of a poor woodcutter and her husband living at the time of WWII in a secluded Polish forest, with a life filled with cold, hunger and misery.  One day the woodcutter observes something being thrown into the snow from a passing freight train.  Upon looking at the ‘package’ she discovers a child, a child she has been awaiting for a long time.  Disregarding laws requiring her to give the child to authorities, she determines to raise the child as her own.  Her fate, to face death, ironically became the price to pay for saving the life of the precious commodity.  The drawings will be shown from 10 am to 8:30 pm on Thursday, January 27 at the Palazzo Vecchio, Sala d’Arme.  A meeting with the director Hazanavicius, who was an Academy Award recipient for “The Artist,” is scheduled at 6 pm.

A 2021 movie directed by Kornel Mundruzo and produced by Martin Scorsese, “Quel Giorno Tu Sarai” (One Day You Will Be) will be shown at the Stensen Cinema.  The story portrays a Jewish family across three generations beginning at the end of WWII to today in Berlin.  Screened in Italian, the film opens with the birth of Eva in a concentration camp and ends with scenes based on her nephew Jonas, now living in the multi-cultural city of Berlin, once the worst place on earth for a Jew (Thursday January 27, Stensen Foundation Cinema, viale Don Minzoni, 25/G, 3:30 and 8:30 pm).

The city of Florence commemorates the lives of citizens lost during the Holocaust after being taken from their homes to concentration camps. Seventy-five Stolperstein, or Stumbling Stones, can be found throughout the city in front of the residences of the victims.  The brass plaques state names, dates of birth, date of arrest and date and place of assassination. The Stumbling Stone dedicated to the memory of Rudolf Levy can be found at Piazza Santo Spirito, 9, Palazzo Guadagni.  Other recently installed stones can be found at via Fratelli Rosselli, 78, commemorating Alberto and Pierluigi Guetta, and on via Alamanni  9 for Piero Viterbo.  All were young men executed in Gubbio in 1944, where they were sheltered along with other family members by local residents, having made the decision the area was probably safer than Florence.  They perished in a round-up focusing on Italian partisan Resistance fighters.

A stumbling stone was also installed in Montelupo in honor of Carlo Castellani.

All indoor Holocaust remembrance events require a Green Pass or equivalent certificate of full vaccination and masks are mandatory.  (rita kungel)