Remember me

Giorno della Memoria 2013

Quest'anno per il giorno della Memoria ho svolto delle lezioni particolari con i miei alunni. In qualche classe ho parlato di Kitty Weichherz  facendo un dettato in inglese con frasi di facile comprensione.  In qualche altra classe ho fatto leggere un breve brano su Irma Grese,  per fare la comprensione del testo. In qualche altra classe ho fatto leggere e tradurre dall'inglese due lettere brevi di Krystina Wituska. In due prime classi ho letto, spiegato e fatto imparare a memoria The butterfly di Pavel Friedman. Le due prime classi hanno decorato un poster con delle farfalle.

Never forget

Messina, like other Sicilian cities doesn't have a jewish  community because most jewish people left the island because of the racial laws. There  are very few people in the area who have relatives who have experienced deportation as political prisoners after September 8th 1943. my interest in the Holocaust dates back to my  childhood days  spent abroad. By law  an International Remembrance day takes place in Italy on January 27th. Last year I was invited by the Provincia di Messina to speak about women in concentration  camps and I mainly focused on those in Ravensbruck.This year I have been invited to speak  to  High School students and Middle School students and the focus is on the children known as Bullenhuser Damm Children to whom  I have given voice in a book recently published in Italian. Although I try to give my voice mainly to children meeting their relatives who have been spared tortures or who have survived  it has been a must. Talking to Andra and Tatiana Buccihe on  the phone or on skype is not the same as sitting at their side.  Their arrival in Messina has been a great event.  I am involved in an International project which is giving an pportunity to ten students  attending the school where I teach to go to Hamburg for the 70 anniversary of the death of the Bullenhuser Damm Children. The emotions leave people speechless. As they tell their personal story they take turns and with my eyes closed I could see them in Birkenau and in all place s they mention.