Remembering the Holocaust at the Italian Consulate (Jan. 27)

On January 27, a crowd will gather outside the Italian Consulate in New York, no matter the temperature. 

It always does for International Holocaust Remembrance Day when the Italian consul, staff from Centro Primo Levi and others take turns reading the names of thousands of Italian Jews who were deported from Italy by the Nazis and killed in concentration camps across Europe. It will be one of many events connected with the day, which will mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. 

But Italy has a special – and damning – connection to the Holocaust. It collaborated with Germany on pushing Jews to the margins of society through the 1938 Racial Laws, among other measures, and then exterminating as many as possible. 

This event is arguably sui generis because while Italy played a critical role in persecuting the Jews, the country had a relatively small Jewish population and so the number of names read is a little less than 10,000 -- a number that allows for reading all of the victims' names in the space of a day. It is a one-of-a-kind commemoration for those who somberly read the names and even for the strangers walking by on their way to work or school, hearing even just for a moment an echo of all that was lost.

And I will be there to pay my respects. What's commemorated on Jan. 27 is on my mind night and day, as I await final publication of This Darkness Will Never End, my translation of Edith Bruck's 1962 short story collection (Italian title: Andremo in città).

For more information:

https://primolevicenter.org/events/giorno-della-memoria-2025/

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