The memory returned

Presentation of Germano Maifreda‘s work “THE RESISTED MEMORY” (Il Sole 24 Ore).
The economic persecution of Italian Jews beginning in 1938 was a deliberate attempt to erase the existential dignity and memory of a minority that, for over two millennia, had resisted persecution, expulsion, and profound transformations, but also intertwined its economic, social, and cultural history with that of the peninsula in general. The stories of Jewish entrepreneurs and managers recounted in these pages represent only a small, albeit exemplary, portion of those that emerged from the investigation of documents preserved in the historical archives of banks and other institutions. These sources reveal the existence of a generally diligent and at times zealous bureaucratic machine; an apparatus that belies the myth of the good Italians. Germano Maifreda (University of Milan) restores these testimonies to collective memory and offers a broad historical rereading of the peculiarities of the Italian case in the European context, from the promulgation of the racial laws to the process of restitution and reparation, which dragged on for decades and was never truly completed.

Speakers include Carla Cioglia, archivist at the Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archives, and Erika Salassa, archivist at the Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura.

The event poster is available.

Collateral event to the Exhibition Seeing Auschwitz.