L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano N ine Italian cit- izens, all sur- v i v o r s o f A u s c h w i t z , s h a r e d t h e i r stories and these stories, alternating with personal and historical photographs a n d a r c h i v e i m a g e s f r o m 1 9 4 5 , r e s u l t e d i n a d o c u - mentary about the impris- o n m e n t i n t h e A u s c h w i t z concentration camp. Andra Bucci, Esterina, Calò Di V e r o l i , N e d o F i a n o , L u c i a n a N i s s i m M o m i g l i a n o , L i l i a n a S e g r e , S e t t i m i a S p i z z i c h i n o , G i u l i a n a T e d e s c h i , S h l o m o V e n e z i a , A r m i n i o Wachsberger, these are the names of the survivors w h o a p p e a r i n I O n l y Wanted To Live, directed by Mimmo Calopresti. O n t h e o c c a s i o n o f t h e Day of Remembrance the documentary, executive pro- d u c e d b y S t e v e n Spielberg, was part of the initiatives organized by the Shoah Foundation Institute to commemorate of the six million Jews exterminated by Nazi barbarism. T h e I t a l i a n C u l t u r a l Institute and the Consulate G e n e r a l o f I t a l y i n L o s Angeles commemorated the anniversary with an online event organized in collabo- r a t i o n w i t h H o l o c a u s t Museum LA, the Museum of Tolerance Los Angeles, the U S C S h o a h F o u n d a t i o n , A m e r i c a n J e w i s h C o m m i t t e e L o s A n g e l e s , A D L L o s A n g e l e s a n d Milken Community School. The documentary tells how the Holocaust was experi- e n c e d i n I t a l y , f r o m t h e r a c i a l l a w s e n a c t e d b y Mussolini in 1938, to the German invasion in 1943 u n t i l t h e l i b e r a t i o n o f Auschwitz in 1945. Mimmo, how did the p r o j e c t f o r t h i s d o c u - mentary come about? I Only Wanted To Live was created after the Shoah Foundation finished collect- ing the interviews of all the s u r v i v o r s o f t h e I t a l i a n Shoah. It took an in-depth and meticulous work that involved a group of inter- viewers trained for the occa- sion, and another group of researchers and archivists to edit the long interviews into what can be considered a real encyclopedia. I n o r d e r t o c h o o s e , you viewed hundreds of interviews. How did you approach selection? I had an immense num- ber of hours available and I began to look at it in a chao- tic and, above all, emotional way. It was very difficult to keep taking on the incredi- ble pain those stories con- veyed, especially when they detailed in the camp. I ligh- tened up these moments by dwelling on the lightness of the interviewees' family sto- ries and on their life expe- riences before being perse- cuted, captured and depor- ted. After a long reflection, and after thinking I would have not made it, I tran- sformed this refusal into a need to collect these testi- monies and keep them alive, especially considering how difficult it was for many of them to tell what they had lived. They were afraid of not being believed. What was your ulti- mate goal as a director of this documentary? E v e n t o d a y , t h e r e a r e l e g i o n s o f d e n i e r s i n t h e world, there are political groups that are inspired by F a s c i s m a n d N a z i s m a n d groups of people who would like to continue to persecute Jews, political opponents, h o m o s e x u a l s , " G y p s i e s . " Accepting to do this, for me, meant deciding to be a bet- ter person, by listening and SILVIA GIUDICI being close to people who had suffered so much, by h e l p i n g t h e m t o k e e p o n living in their stories. Which approach did y o u f o l l o w i n s h a p i n g the documentary? I shaped the documen- t a r y b y c h o o s i n g t h e Auschwitz-Birkenau camp I h a d v i s i t e d w i t h s o m e s c h o o l s f r o m R o m e a n d some survivors, whose testi- monies are in the documen- tary. And then, I built a his- torical line starting from the p r o m u l g a t i o n o f R a c i a l Laws, the moment in which Fascism begins the ferocious p e r s e c u t i o n a g a i n s t t h e Jews. Then, slowly, I began to put together all the testi- m o n i e s , t r y i n g t o r e c o n - struct the historical period, the social and political cli- mate. In the end, I focused on the key phases of these men and women's odyssey: their capture, their journey, their arrival to the camp and their return home. I tried, practically, to relive through images and interview those t e r r i b l e m o m e n t s , t h a t struck humanity to its core. W h a t k i n d o f d e c i - s i o n s h a v e y o u m a d e r e g a r d i n g t h e u s e o f a r c h i v a l i m a g e s , c e r - t a i n l y o f t e n v e r y d i s - turbing? T h e r e a r e v e r y s t r o n g images, and every time I see them I get chills down my spine. But I chose only the necessary ones, because the awful moments of that terri- ble period cannot be forgot- ten. That those deaths, that Mimmo Calopresti (Photo: Massimo Valicchia/Dreamstime) Los Angeles commemorates Auschwitz with Italian director's documentary Continued to page 20 LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

• Cover