Jewish community against partisans: the incredible dispute on the day of memory
The Jewish communities of some Italian cities have decided to desert the official celebrations for the day of memory. He began Milan in controversy with Anpi, because the National Partisan Association of Italy has repeatedly called the Israeli destruction of Gaza and the massacre of over 45 thousand Palestinians, in response to the execution in cold blood by the terrorists of Hamas of about 1200 inhabitants of Israel on 7 October 2023.
The students invited to the meeting hosted by the Municipality of Milan will thus miss the fundamental voice of the descendants of most of the families who have lived and suffered the holocaust, the extermination wanted by Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler and by the fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini. And other important Italian communities followed by Milan.
Because the Jewish communities were wrong
But it is a dramatic error, because the duty that many witnesses survived the extermination camps, from Primo Levi to Liliana Segre to Edith Bruck to remember some, have delivered to each of us, Jews and non -Jewish. The duty of testimony. But also of dialogue, an essential condition for memory to be saved from the trivializations of the memory.
We are in the era of trivializations and negations on the genocide of Jews, disabled and Roma (pictured above, children released to Dachau, photo US Holocaust Memorial Museum). But without testimonies, it would even be worse. Precisely for this reason the steps back, like that made by Jewish communities, are dangerous. Especially if they turn their backs to the young people who remain at the mercy of the rewriting of history. Between tense arms and nostalgia, fomented by algorithms that guide the new squares on social media. From Tiktok to Elon Musk’s X.
The courage of witnesses against trivializations
To those who have decided to attract attention to themselves with this sad decision it should be remembered that not all the partisans of Italy are recognized in today’s ANPI. The courageous witness is precisely the former provincial president of Milan, Roberto Cenati, who on the word genocide used by the national leaders in 2024 resigned. Just as not all Jews recognize themselves in the bloody thirst for revenge demonstrated by the Israeli government of Bibi Netanyahu, supported by the extreme religious right.
In a democracy like ours, however, the right to disagree should not be denying. Even if the criticisms concern Israel or Hamas. And if mixing yesterday’s blood with today’s facts is dangerous, because it generates hatred and prejudice, to the boys and all of us who have not lived the Shoah must be explained, told, testified, demonstrated. Once again. Without desertions. Without boycott.
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