L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano EXPLORE OUR STOREFRONT OF PRODUCTS MADE IN ITALY PLUS A LOT MORE... HTTPS://ITALOAMERICANO.ORG/SHOP/ tragedy could be conceived and carried out in Europe is a terrible and indelible war- ning for humanity. H o w i m p o r t a n t i s M u s s o l i n i ' s s p e e c h a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e documentary? M u s s o l i n i ' s s p e e c h i n Trieste, the one where he p r o m u l g a t e s t h e R a c i a l Laws, is terrible not only for the Duce's words, but for the disturbing, oceanic pres- e n c e o f p e o p l e w h o s h o w their support. Those images certify that the majority of I t a l i a n s a g r e e d w i t h t h e delirium of their leader. Of course, there were those who were against this, at first a group of university professors and then other brave people who tried to prevent the deportation of Jews to the camps, but the majority was on board, and those moments confirm it. It w a s d i f f i c u l t t o r e c o v e r those images, they seemed to have been forgotten and lost in the Istituto Luce's archive. For a long time I worked on an incomplete version of some parts. Only after a long search did we arrive at the full version, needed to restore such an uncomfortable truth for our country. Is there an aspect of the Holocaust that you w e r e u n a w a r e o f a n d that you discovered dur- i n g t h e m a k i n g o f t h e documentary (and that p a r t i c u l a r l y s t r u c k you)? The image that struck me t h e m o s t i s t h a t o f t h e American army approaching the camp recently liberated by the Russians, where you can see houses in all their n o r m a l i t y , w h i c h s h o w s that, for a long time, normal people lived next to a hell in total indifference. Another i m a g e i s t a k e n f r o m t h e Auschwitz album, the only photographs taken inside the camp, where a Nazi offi- cer with a simple gesture of his hand directs, with mon- strous indifference, those poor people either to the " d e a t h l i n e , " t h a t i s , t h e group sent directly to the gas chamber, or to the bar- racks, where there impri- sonment was to begin. What impressed you the most about the sur- vivors' testimonies? W h a t r e a l l y i m p r e s s e d me about the survivors' tes- timonies was the difficulty in returning to a normal life, t h e f e a r o f n o t b e i n g believed and the feeling of guilt without ever having done anything wrong. It was something I didn't expect. The fear of not being accept- e d a n d , a b o v e a l l , t h e awareness that number tat- tooed on their arm was to r e m a i n i n d e l i b l y e t c h e d onto their souls. For us — for me — all that remains is the duty of relaying that tes- timony, that moment when humankind was afraid to know and to rise against the atrocity inflicted upon mil- lions of human beings, Why do you think it is s t i l l n e c e s s a r y t o t a l k a b o u t t h e H o l o c a u s t nowadays? It isn't only that terrible organization that led to the suffering of millions of peo- ple we should not forget, but also the injustice of racial persecution, the ferocity of the torturers in inflicting punishments and a life of hardship on the innocent. Forgetting it all would be truly unworthy for a society that wants to be recognized a s c i v i l a n d t h a t p u t s humanity and justice first. Images are useful, so that n o o n e c a n s a y : " I d o n ' t believe it." Continued from page 18 LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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