Minister Valditara: "We remember to fight hatred and indifference"
This morning Minister Giuseppe Valditara, in conjunction with the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), inaugurated a plaque in memory of those expelled from Italian schools "victims of anti-Jewish persecution and the application of the racial laws adopted by the fascist regime. So that we never lose the memory of what happened”. The plaque is displayed near the Library of the Ministry of Education and Merit where numerous documents on the topic are preserved.
"Let's fight anti-Semitism and racism not just today, but all year round”, declared the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara. “Memory is the indispensable tool for promoting freedom and democracy, the founding values of our school. We cannot forget that 85 years ago the infamous racial laws, approved by the fascist regime, violated fundamental rights which today constitute the pillar of the Italian Constitution. The republican school does not exclude or discriminate, but places the person at the centre, who must have the full possibility of expressing his or her talents. Remembering is the most important act we must do to counteract indifference and hatred”, concluded the Minister.
The Minister thanked senator for life Liliana Segre for the letter written on the occasion of the event, which underlined the importance of honoring the memory of the victims of that barbarism: "For some years now, Italian public institutions have finally begun to give the right importance to those facts. I was a first-hand victim of those rules. At eight years old I found myself expelled from public school. Everything was so absurd, I didn't understand, even my family couldn't explain to me. This is why today it is so important to remember, but also to right distant wrongs and give justice to those who have the right to memory, respect and dignity.".
The ceremony was attended by the Israeli Ambassador to Italy Alon Bar, the UCEI President Noemi Di Segni, Professor Tiziana Della Rocca of the Association of Italian Teachers for Memory in Schools, the President of the Jewish Community of Rome (CER) Victor Fadlun and Ugo Foà, who gave his testimony as a former student expelled precisely because of the racial laws.
The initiative was attended by the National Coordinator for the Fight against Anti-Semitism Giuseppe Pecoraro, Dr. Lucilla Musatti and the professors Anna Piperno, Maria Serena Ciardi, Paola Boso Caretta, Fiorella Castelnuovo of the "Italian Teachers' Association for Memory in Schools”, the Secretary General of the Ucei Uriel Perugia, the head of the Memory area of the Ucei Raffaella Di Castro, the Councilor for Schools of the Jewish Community of Rome Daniela Debach, the Councilor for Memory of the Jewish Community of Rome Daniele Regard and the Head of Delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Luigi Maccotta.
The ceremony was attended by a delegation of students and teachers from the Jewish schools of Rome, the lower secondary school "Angelo Sacerdoti” and the secondary school “Renzo Levi”.
On the occasion of the event, a reasoned exhibition entitled "School denied” which intends to retrace the history of textbooks which, with circular 33 of 30 September 1938 from the Minister of National Education, were eliminated from schools because the authors were Jews. The exhibition will be open to staff and the public. Workshops and visits for schools will be organised.