A day of reflection and discussion on teaching the Holocaust

On April 28, 2026, a day of study and discussion was held at the “Domenico Berti” High School in Turin, promoted by the Shoah Teaching Network. The meeting represented a crucial opportunity for methodological reflection and the sharing of best practices among schools of all levels, with students from different grade levels in attendance.
The Headmistress, Filomena Filippis, opened the proceedings by emphasizing the crucial importance of the Memory Project, which has been operating within the school for about twenty years. In a complex historical context, the school’s task is to transform the anniversary into a profound civic awareness, providing students with the critical tools to interpret the present and build active citizenship.
Professor Paola Marzia Gazzi then took the floor, dedicating the seminar to the memory of Laura Fontana and her latest scientific research. The analysis focused on the didactic function of the images of Auschwitz, classified by type of “gaze”: that of the executioners in the bureaucratic documentation and that of the private archives that depict life before the tragedy. Particular attention was paid to the traces left by the deportees: it was emphasized that these images are very few, but their very rarity demonstrates an enormous will to resist, representing the prisoners’ last-ditch effort to resist the annihilation of their identity. Finally, the liberators’ gaze upon discovering the camps was analyzed.

Sharing session: the schools of the network

Berti High School: “The Lens and Memory”
The 4th-G class at Berti High School presented a project that intertwines the macro-history, through the photographs of photographer Lee Miller, with the micro-history of Italo Momigliano‘s family. Through the analysis of letters and diaries, the students reconstructed the transition from everyday life to the tragedy of deportation. The project culminated in a dialogue between the students and Italo Momigliano’s daughter and was translated into a multimedia installation enriched with period music.

Villanova d’Asti Comprehensive School: “Our Wall of the Righteous.” A Vertical Journey
The Comprehensive School, represented by a teacher, demonstrated the effectiveness of a vertical journey, adapting the theme of the Holocaust to different grade levels. From dramatizations and games for children, the program moved on to poetry for the elementary school students, and finally to research on the Stumbling Stones and the Righteous conducted by the middle school students, which resulted in the video documentary “Our Wall of the Righteous.”

Colonna and Finzi School: “Stories of Jewish Families During the Holocaust”
The primary school teachers highlighted the uniqueness of working in a context where historical memory often coincides with family memory, and thus the need to approach students with special care and attention. Already on Yom HaShoah, the school has engaged families in a program that begins with preschoolers, with a reading of poems by Nedelia Tedeschi and a comic book (with granddaughter Chiara Segre present), up to the fifth grade, where the 16 students reconstructed Elena Recanati’s biography step by step, in the presence of her daughter Barbara Napolitano.

Cavour High School: “Racial Laws, Persecution, Deportations at Cavour High School and the Surrounding Neighborhoods.” Territory and Memory
Cavour High School presented its project “Racial Laws: Persecution and Deportations at Cavour High School and the Surrounding Neighborhoods.” The 1D class’s course began with reading key texts, including Fred Uhlman’s “The Reunion” and Lia Levi’s book “Una bambina e basta.” The students then explored the lives of Marisa Ancona, a student at the school in the 1936-37 and 1937-38 school years before the racial laws, and Giuliana Tedeschi, an Auschwitz survivor and a teacher at Cavour High School after the war. The activity culminated with a visit to the area to see the neighborhood’s Stumbling Stones and listen to Yiddish music.

Einstein High School: “Presentation of the book: In Your Name”
A delegation of students from the fifth-grade class presented the book “In Your Name,” the result of research inspired by the Memory Train experience. This work reconstructed the deportation of six Jewish women from the Jewish hospice in Piazza Santa Giulia in December 1943. Thanks to this investigation, three months ago, Stumbling Stones were placed in front of the former hospice building, giving back a name and a story to those victims.

Liceo del Convitto “Umberto I”: “The Racial Laws and the Expulsion of Jewish Students from Schools.” The Archive as Evidence
The presentation by the Convitto teachers focused on analyzing the school’s historical archive. They reconstructed Franco Momigliano’s life story: from his school report card to his expulsion due to the racial laws, up to his decision to become a partisan fighter and his subsequent graduation. It was emphasized that the project is an ongoing project, as much material remains to be explored within the school archives to fully reconstruct the events surrounding the 1938 school exclusion and present the research findings to students in the future.

Leinì I.C. – “Anna Frank” School. Impact on the Citizens
Professor Davide Aimonetto presented a project focused on Giorgio Perlasca that involved schools and the entire community. The activity culminated in two mornings with over 500 participants at the Pavarotti Theater, where an important meeting was held with authors of children’s books about the Holocaust. During the event, Elena Colombo’s story was screened, and actor Alessandro Albertin, narrator of Perlasca’s story, spoke with a reading from the text “Perlasca, the Invisible Hero.” This synergy between school and theater has transformed teaching into a powerful moment of civic participation.

At the conclusion of the morning’s work, the importance of the journey undertaken by the classes was clearly evident. This ongoing and comprehensive work is not simply a study exercise, but represents a living and participatory memory. By taking students outside the classroom, engaging them in dialogue with each other and with archive documents, with the city’s sites and personal histories, the school fulfills its mission of transforming historical knowledge into a shared legacy, capable of forming alert and active consciences in the present.

Round table and conclusions

The final part of the morning was dedicated to a roundtable discussion and conclusions, with a session of discussion and debate between teachers and administrators. Reflections were offered on the role of the Shoah Educational Network and future prospects.

By Eva Vitali Norsa