“THEor I always fear being that boring grandmother, which I am, but in the pessimism that pervades me and doesn’t give me this great hope, I would like to be able to cultivate at least one, that is, today’s young people are capable of making the choice. Don’t be indifferent». This is the appeal that the senator for life Liliana Segre addressed to young people during the presentation of the initiatives that will be held in Milan for Memorial Dayon January 27, to remember the victims of Nazi-fascism.
Liliana Segre’s message on Remembrance Day
Forced protagonist and tireless witness of the horrors of the HolocaustSegre in his speech spoke about those who during the times of fascism had made the choice not to be indifferent to what was happening: «For 30 years I went to schools to speak and I always advised those wonderful kids, to get away from that idiotic cell phone – he added – and to make the choice to read and what to read, because culture is fundamental.”
The Memory that will become oblivion
However, Segre is not optimistic about Memory, convinced that it will soon turn into oblivion: «Someone like me believes that in a few years there will be a line in the history books and then not even that», she had already said last year about the Holocaust adding, aware of the growing climate in the country towards those like her who continue to testify, that «the danger is always there and I am convinced of what I say. I know what people say about Memorial Day, “enough of these Jews, how boring”but when one has seen the horror and knows that now he can only talk about it with 4 or 5 people, it is more boring than the others.”
Liliana Segre, senator for life and witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, speaks to young people (Photo by Stefania D’Alessandro/Getty Images)
Milan’s initiatives for Remembrance Day
Milan, on the other hand, cares about Memory and even more so this year: they are included in the initiatives on January 27th over 60 events dedicated to the memory of Jews, political opponents, soldiers deported and killed in the Nazi extermination camps. «For us, memory is alive, important, central in the path that the city wants to take – said the mayor Beppe Sala – we want to continue to spread awareness of the horrors of totalitarianism and racism by adapting them to the times we are living in, with an always anti-Semitism more evident”.
The stumbling blocks
The calendar is busy: 26 new stumbling blocks will be laid and the first 13 stones will be laid by the Municipality and the Stumbling Blocks Committee on Thursday morning. Another 13 will be placed on March 7, in the week in which the strikes that began in 1944 in Milan and Turin and in other Italian cities against the war will be remembered. On Remembrance Day the Municipality will make it public the geo-map of the Jewish population registered in Milan in 1938 which will be available throughout January 27th. Symbolic place and cornerstone of the city’s memory, the Shoah Memorialon January 27th it will be open all day with free visits.
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