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In memory of Mr Voghera.
Here lived
This entry was posted in Italy, Piemonte, Random memories and tagged Armistice, Auschwitz, Benito Mussolini, Bolzano, corso Matteotti, Day of Memory, Deportation, Fascism, Ferruccio Voghera, Final solution, Fossoli, Gino Voghera, Gunter Demnig, Holocaust, Italian Jews, Italy, Jews, Memory, Nazism, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Racial Laws in Italy, Racism, San Sabba, Shoah, Stolperstein, Torino, Trieste, Turin, WWII. Bookmark the permalink.
A moving tribute to Gino and so many others. Those paving block memorials are a wonderful way to keeping the memories alive. The realities of that time in France hit home with me when I recently read ‘Suite Française’ by Irène Némirovsky, a French writer who died in Auschwitz.
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Merci, Mel. I personally found those stumbling blocks to be the most effective, and heartfelt, to keep the memory alive. I some time ago read about the psychology of a genocide (the Armenians, the Jews, the Yazidis, the Bosniaks) and it all worked along the same lines: these people were stipped of their humanity by propaganda, made into objects, so theoretically normal people (the SS were largely normal, not psychopats) could be convinced in killing people like themselves. The stones, in my opinion, challenge this view really well: Gino, the Jews, the Yazidis and so on and so forth were just normal people.
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An interesting read and great write up to remember the one of many who lost their lives. So many people, so many histories….
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Thanks Anna. So many stories, so much human potential wasted. God knows what those who ended up in a chimney could’ve achieved, had they not been persecuted…
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I wonder how many paving blocks I passed during my strolls around Budapest. Thanks for bringing attention to their meaning. It’s really good of you to have done some research on this gentleman and shared his presence with us here.
I can relate to the annoyance of revisiting a city where I once lived for years, and not remembering my way around. I’m dealing with that now, in fact, with the place I grew up in. Very disconcerting, and yet fascinating. It’s like the maps in our heads get overwritten.
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Thanks Julie, I suspect it’s also one of the intended purposes of what the artist, Mr Gunter, wanted to do. Focus on the individuals. You’re very right about memory, it seems as if I’m shredding files I no longer need, or access…
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A really fine post. You may be familiar with the Jewish custom of placing a pebble on a gravestone in order to demonstrate to passersby that a visitor was there, that this person has not been forgotten. You just did that.
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Hi Rich, I remember that custom from the ending of “Schindler’s list”, and it didn’t really occur to me before reading your comment… that’s a very beautiful idea, thanks a lot for it. 🙂
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This is wonderful to have noticed that stone, had the innate curiosity to ask who was he, researched the person and preserved his memory online. Your narrative also puts context on our so called troubled times. So important that what happened in those dark days is never forgotten. Well written.
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Hey (Hey) Loons, thanks for the kind words. I don’t know about you, but I’m worried about something like the Holocaust happening again. Well, it is happening again, think at the Yazidis, but I’m also thinking at immigrants, both here in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. The dehumanisation of migrants (think of that woman who called them cockroaches on the Daily Rag and didn’t even get the sack) has a sinister echo.
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Sadly too true. Yes I feel that edge, as if events are conspiring towards something nasty. Certainly we are seeing more insularity, and I hope it is not a slippery slope. Social media and fake news, lack of compassion, disrespect for learning and the lessons of history. Let’s hope it turns.
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Well, let’s hope so…
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History always comes back, doesn’t it?
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Hope not! 😦
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Well… neither do I, but human memory is so short, and everybody seems to be ready to get at each other’s throat… 😦
Buon finale di settimana.
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Yeah, unfortunately it seems the case.
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A shame isn’t it?
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Yes, but will we ever learn?
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Nope. I think the trick is to select a country as far away from nuclear fallout as possible. Hmmm. Mexico is a bit close to the US… 😦
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…and with the winds, it’s even closer!
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True. Though we tend to send hurricanes north, not the other way around.
A doppo.
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A powerful tribute. Thanks for this post. 66000+ plaques.
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Yup. Much more poignant, in my opinion, than museums or big plaques or large monuments.
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There have been already a lot of books and articles written, and movies and documentaries made to remind people about how racial supremacy rhetoric can bring some people to the depth of the abyss of humanity and have the heart to annihilate those they believe not worthy of life. Yet, even today racially-charged enmities are still brewing in some parts of the world. Thanks for writing this, Fabrizio. It is important to keep telling the story of this dark chapter in history to the world.
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You’re welcome, Bama. thanks for reading!
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