SCHOLARLY SESSION ON THE RIGHTEOUS – REPORT FROM TURIN

, 16 November 2016
On 31 January 2013, a scholarly session “The Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History”, along with a screening of the film In Darkness by Agnieszka Holland took place in Turin as a part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The event proved to be extremely popular with the audience. There were no empty seats in the hall of the Museo Diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà in Turin.

The audience was welcomed by: Jerzy Adamczyk, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Milan; Guido Vaglio, director of the Museo Diffuso della Resistenza; Giuseppe Segre, head of the Jewish Community of Turin; Barbara Stasiowska-Randone, head of the Polish Hearth Club in Turin; Marta Levi, vice president of the City Council of Turin.

Afterwards, the scholarly session “The Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History” was opened. In his moving speech, Olek Mincer – a Polish actor living in Italy and a supporting actor in In Darkness – recounted the process of shooting the film and shared his personal and familiar experiences connected to the Holocaust. Zuzanna Benesz, a representative of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, gave a lecture on the selected aspects of the situation of the Polish Righteous during the occupation and presented various initiatives and projects undertaken by the Museum to commemorate them. Prof. Marco Brunazzi of Istituto di Studi Storici Gaetano Salvemini talked about the historical and social life conditions in Poland under occupation and about Polish-Jewish relations during the occupation period. Dr Liliana Picciotto of Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea presented the situation of the Italian Righteous and the state of research in the field. Gabriele Nissim, president of the Gariwo Foundation, spoke about commemorating the Righteous in Italy and indicated that figures such as Jan Błoński, Mosze Bejski and Mark Edelman also deserve to be called Righteous.

After a short break, the screening of In Darkness began. The film was shown in its original language version (dialogue in Polish, German, Russian and Yiddish) with Italian subtitles. The emotional states of the film's protagonist were shared by the audience, which at the end gave the film a big ovation. Many audience members commended the way in which the film presents the story, as well as its artistic values and the performances of the actors.

Last year, In Darkness was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign language Film. It also won a number of accolades from various international film festivals. Leopold Socha, the main protagonist of the film, was one of the 24,000 people honoured with the title of a Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Institute. Among all Righteous, over 6,000 are Poles.

The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Milan organised the event in cooperation with the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Poland in Turin, the Museum of Resistance, Deportation, War, Rights and Liberty, The Jewish Community of Turin and the Polish Hearth Club in Turin.