74 years ago, the gates of Auschwitz opened at the end of the Second World War. The horrors of the Nazi extermination project were finally exposed to the world. Our task now is to remember.
"Until My Star Shines Again," by Daniela Palumbo, draws on the testimony of Liliana Segre to help us understand and remember Italy's racial laws and the deportation of Jews to the camps in Germany. Through Segre's memories—those of young Liliana, who lost her father there and part of herself—we witness the resilience of her humanity.
January 27 also calls us to confront the Nazi project to eliminate all "lives deemed unworthy of living"—countless children and disabled people, first confined by force, then subjected to euthanasia. How medical professionals, even beyond Germany, carried out this horrific agenda is documented in "Asperger's Children" by Edith Sheffer. This systematic killing operation, known as Action T4, was the Nazi trial run for the Holocaust that followed. Anffas Nord Milano and L-Inc have organized an exhibition and seminar dedicated to this terrible history.
"…because even now, always, the danger lurks. The danger of killing, of massacre, of discrimination, of racism, of antisemitism. Humanity is never saved once and for all from its worst impulses. This is why it is so important to know, to study, to cultivate memory. Never turn your head away. Never remain indifferent. Primo Levi warned us: 'It happened. It can happen again.'" (Liliana Segre, letter to students in Fasano, January 2019)