The Swimmer of Auschwitz at the Gioiello Theater

A powerful evening took place at the Gioiello Theatre in Turin, where Raoul Bova performing “The Swimmer of Auschwitz,” a show dedicated to the extraordinary figure of Alfred Nakache, a French swimming champion of Jewish origin who survived the Nazi concentration camp.
Nakache, a world record holder and Olympic athlete, became inmate number 172,763 at Auschwitz. Not even imprisonment and hardship could dampen his determination: he continued to train by diving into the freezing water of a pool, finding in sport a means of endurance and survival. After his liberation, he returned to competition, setting a new record and participating in the 1948 London Olympics.
Alongside Nakache, the show also evokes the figure of psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, also interned in Auschwitz and author of “A Psychologist in the Camps,” a work that influenced reflections on the meaning of life and the human capacity to withstand pain and find purpose. Two stories, those of Nakache and Frankl, intertwine in a single universal message: living means facing suffering, but also transforming it into energy and hope.
In the production, directed with sensitivity and rigor by Luca de Bei, Raoul Bova portrays these two extraordinary lives, drawing on his own experience as an athlete to bring authenticity and emotional depth to the story.

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