- • Today, at the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Republic and in live streaming on the website and on the FB page of the UNINETTUNO University and on the portal of the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Republic, the States-General of Memory have taken place
- • The initiative, born from an idea of Furio Colombo and Vittorio Pavoncello, in coordination with the secretariat of the Senator Liliana Segre, godmother of the project, was realized by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, in cooperation with the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti and the Fondazione Giacomo Matteotti
- • Among the guests, there was also Edith Bruck, the Hungarian-born writer of, an Auschwitz survivor, Milena Santerini, national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism and Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities
Rome, the 16th October 2020 – Preserving the memory of one of the most tragic periods in the history of mankind, in order to teach young people not to forget the atrocities experienced by the past generations. This is the message that emerged today from the States-General of Memory, which were held at the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Republic, in live streaming on the website and on the FB page of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO and on the portal of the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Republic.
The initiative, born from an idea of Furio Colombo and Vittorio Pavoncello, in coordination with the secretariat of Senator Liliana Segre, godmother of the project, was realized by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, in cooperation with the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti and the Fondazione Giacomo Matteotti.
The main objective of the States-General of Memory is to establish a center of aggregation and exchange of knowledge with all the organizations that work with and through memory, which is present in every sphere of life.
The project of the States-General was launched by UNINETTUNO University on 27 January last, with a 24-hour TV marathon broadcasted on Uninettunouniversity.tv (Sky channels 812 and 701 of Tivùsat) and in live streaming on the University website, which aimed at telling and remembering the Shoah through twenty-four continuous hours of video lectures, in-depth analyses, music and films, alternated with the contents of the lectures taken from UNINETTUNO archives.
The event was attended not only by the creators, Furio Colombo and Vittorio Pavoncello, but also by Maria Amata Garito, Rector of UNINETTUNO, Milena Santerini, National Coordinator for the fight against antisemitism, Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, who launched an appeal to Memory, Alberto Aghemo, Vice President and Secretary General of the Fondazione Giacomo Matteotti and Beniamino de' Liguori Carino, Secretary General of the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti.
Special guest was Edith Bruck, the Hungarian-born writer who survived Auschwitz, who read the poem "27 January 2020", and then made a speech on Memory after Auschwitz. The States-General of Memory also hosted Anna Foa's Lectio Magistralis, "Dall'omicidio Matteotti all'omicidio dei romani ebrei, violenze di un regime (From Matteotti’s murder to the murder of the Roman Jews, A of Abuses of a Regime)" and the reading of excerpts from “La storia” by Elsa Morante: 16 October 1943 by actress Marilù Prati.
"The Holocaust Memorial Day recognizes that after war comes peace and that all ideas must be respected even if they lose," said Furio Colombo. "But the Holocaust Memorial Day exists to keep clear, through remembrance and repetition of the facts that happened, that the Shoah is not just a horror done by others but an Italian crime. It affirms and demonstrates that fascism is not an idea among others. Fascism is a crime".
"The States-General of Memory deal with memory on many levels: from the celebratory dates that form our collective history and identity, to the memory of every aspect of life, whether we are talking about cells, moving objects, paths of the psyche, DNA or robotics, and in celebrating memory we talk about the future, because memory is not a starting point but a point of arrival, in which it becomes life," said Vittorio Pavoncello.
"The States-General of Memory must be an opportunity for the new generations to reflect on the deep wounds that wars leave in the conscience of peoples. A reflection that young people have to make in order to improve their present and not to make the mistakes of the past", finally commented Maria Amata Garito, Rector of UNINETTUNO. "UNINETTUNO University - that for years has been creating a network of students and professors coming from different countries of the world, with the aim of respecting political, cultural and religious differences considering them as a richness ̶ supported the States-General of Memory because, in the delicate historical moment we are living, initiatives such as this one are among the main tools for the spreading of a welcoming culture, that should be the basis of our globalized and interconnected society".