Italians and the Holocaust Final

When was Levi’s The Truce published?

1963

Who are the main protagonist’s of Levi’s The Truce?

Levi himself

What is the story of Primo Levi’s The Truce / The Reawakening?

Levi’s journey home from Auschwitz

When was Rosi’s film adaptation of The Truce released?

1997

How does Rosi’s film adaptation of The Truce differ from the novel?

The movie adds emotional drama, more clear narrative arc, adds themes of hope, adds philosophical depth.

What are the structural analogies between Levi’s memoirs dedicated to his experience in Auschwitz?

Levi’s chemistry as a symbol of his intellectual status, episode structure to portray chaos, contrast of scientific analysis and emotional depth.

When did Primo Levi publish The Drowned and the Saved?

April 1986

What’s the structure of Levi’s The Drowned and the Saved?

A series of essays

What’s the meaning of the quote from Coleridge that opens The Drowned and the Saved?

Carries themes of the strength of human good and evil, powerlessness, and moral ambiguity

When did information about Nazi death camps begin to spread, as Levi tells us?

After liberation in 1944

What was one of the most recurring dreams of the prisoners?

Returning home from camps and no-one believing their stories, a deep seeded fear that a) the atrocities weren’t as horrible as they though and b) of erasure of those true experiences

What does Levi mean by the “Fallacy of memory”?

memory is unreliable especially after traumatic events, selective memory

What is the “Gray Zone”?

the space where perpetrator and victim are blurred and one is forced to make the choice of survival

Why does Levi retell the story of Chaim Rumkowski?

To illustrate an example of the “Gray Zone”

Jean Améry

Holocaust Survivor, philosopher, focused on resentment and trauma while Levi looked to create a more just society

Levi’s thoughts on Jean Améry

“theoratician of suicide,” Levi prioritized survival and Améry dwelled

What emerges from the chapter “Letters from Germans”?

Levi hopes to understand bystander mentality, some expressed remorse, most denied responsibility and highlighted their own suffering, Levi winds up frustrated with lack of accountability

Most interesting “Letter from Germans”

Wolfgang Beutin letter, accountability, young German, shame, doesn’t understand/comprehend either

What were Italy’s main concentration camps?

Fossoli, Bolzano Transit Camp, Borgo San Dalmazzo

Difference between Italian and German Concentration camps

Italian camps just interned prisoners and held mainly political prisioners and allied soldiers vs German camps designed for mass murder

What kind of book is Giorgio Bassani’s Within the walls?

5 short fiction stories about city landmarks and the atrocities that occurred there

What is Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table?

Essays taking place before during and after the Holocaust

How is Levi’s The Periodic Table structured?

21 short stories, one for each element, weaving personal story with scientific ideas

Which of the presentations did you find more instructive? Can you give a summary?

Group 1: Italian Concentration camps and massacres, Trieste “San Sabba” plant, rice drying oven used to cremate

Who is Rosetta Loy?

Italian writer, Catholic, affluent family non-Jewish bystander of Holocaust

Why is First Words relevant?

Gives a different perspective as neither a perpetrator or victim of atrocities, bystander

When was Loy First Words published?

August 9, 2000

What do we learn about Rosetta Loy’s religious education?

Worship of God and the Pope, church as an all encompassing life choice, Catholic values vs practices

What are The Protocols of the Elderly of Zion?

Wide spread Antisemitic conspiracy about Jewish people’s inferiority that was to be taught in classrooms and everywhere. Exposed as a falsity quickly, but continues to be shown as fact.

What’s the “Manifesto of Racial Scientists”?

Document published in 1938 that laid groundwork for Racial Laws of 1938, forcibly signed by leading intellectuals by Fascist leaders pressures

What are the “Manifesto of Racial Scientists” proclamations?

Jews do not belong in the Aryan race, must be exclude to not “pollute” the Italian race

What is decided at the Wannsee conference?

Decided to up the stakes, “Final Solution” approved

Who is Pope Pius XI?

Pope from 1922-1939

Pope Pius XI life

Born: 1857 Died: 1939

Pope Pius XI stances

Public condemnation of fascism, Nazism, and communism

Who is Roberto Benigni?

Italian actor, comedian, and director

What makes Roberto Benigni famous?

Starring in, directing, writing, film Life is Beautiful

hen was Life is Beautiful released?

1997

Who is Ferzan Özpetek and what is his cinema about?

Famed Italian director, films about solitude and loss

When was Facing Windows released?

February 28, 2003

What happened on October 16, 1943, in Rome?

Raid on a ghetto, largest round up and deportation of Jews, 1,259 people arrested

What is the story of Ettore Scola’s short film ’43-’97?

Young boy escapes Nazis and finds refuge in a cinema

What is the entity of the Jewish population in Rome in 1943?

12000

 How many Roman Jews were deported and killed?

2000

What chronological template does Robert S.C. Gordon propose to use for a cross-border knowledge of the Holocaust?

intersectionality, evolution of memory, varied timelines

Pope Pius XII elected

1939

Pope Pius XII views

remains silent throughout the Holocaust