Auschwitz will have a pavilion for the Italian Jews deported: memory near the Death Wall

At Auschwitz, a pavilion to remember the Italian Jews deported and their martyrdom under Nazism will be built. It will rise a few meters from the Wall of Death, one of the symbolic sites of executions in the extermination camp, and is expected to be completed within two or three years. This was explained by historian Marcello Pezzetti at the end of the second day of the Journey of Memory promoted by Rome Capital and the Metropolitan City: two days in Krakow, Auschwitz, and Birkenau, involving 132 students from Roman high schools accompanied by Mayor Roberto Gualtieri. An experience built progressively, from listening to testimonies to direct impact with the sites of extermination.

The new space dedicated to the deportation of Italian Jews, Pezzetti further explained, will be set up on the first floor of the block that currently houses the Dutch pavilion, bringing Italy back into the exhibition path of the camp after years of absence. The project, the historian recalls, has been promoted by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and relies on the contribution of a technical-scientific committee composed of Bruno Maida, Marcello Pezzetti, Liliana Picciotto, Fabiana Maris, Maria Chiara Acciarini, and Raffaella Di Castro. For the setup, the Committee for the setup includes two architects from the Ministry of Culture, Condó and Guccione, who collaborate on defining the spaces and their integration into the historical context.

Work on the Italian pavilion is proceeding according to the planned schedule: the scientific committee has developed the scientific and exhibition project, and now the final discussion with the museum for the architectural project has been reached. The new Italian pavilion fits into a complex history: the previous memorial, built in the 1980s within the camp, was later removed and transferred to Florence, where it is now preserved and open to visitors.

The day for the Roman students visiting Auschwitz began at the Judenrampe, the railway spur where the deportation trains arrived: men, women, and children crammed into the cars, unloaded and immediately subjected to selection. At that point, next to the symbolic wagon, students and institutions observed a long moment of silence, laying a stone according to Jewish tradition and a wreath of flowers.

"Only by coming here can one truly understand the abyss of inhumanity that was the Shoah," said Mayor Roberto Gualtieri. An abyss that, he recalled, was not accidental but the result of precise choices: Nazism and the complicity of fascism. A system in which horror was consumed in everyday life, in the apparent normality of repeated gestures like any other work."

This year, for the first time, Roman students were not accompanied on the journey by survivors, but the transition was made strong by the words heard the day before. In connection, Andra and Tatiana Bucci — deported as children and survivors — shared their story with the schools.

Tatiana spoke not only of the past but also of the present: "I think especially of the children of today, all the children of any color, and this hurts me more than what I suffered when I was in the camps," she said. "It hurts me the situation today because I think of the children who are leaving while I have had the fortune to reach 88 years and I wish that all the children in the world could reach my age."

The day concluded at the Wall of Death, amidst reflection and emotion. And it is precisely here that the project of the pavilion gains its deepest meaning: not just an exhibition space, but a preserve of memory. "The health of our democracy depends on facing this history," Gualtieri reminded. It is the sense of a journey that, in two days, takes students from knowledge to awareness.