In 2026, in an international context marked by new wars and polarizations, the Gariwo Foundation chose to experience the Day of Remembrance as a widespread journey: not a single ceremony, but a constellation of initiatives capable of speaking to different audiences — students, citizens, institutions, the world of sport and information — held together by a precise idea: memory is truly useful only when it becomes civic education and individual responsibility.
The activities promoted and supported by Gariwo in these weeks have involved overall several thousand people, intertwining different languages and places: theatre and training, reflection on genocides and prevention, testimony in sport, journalistic storytelling, the voice of podcasts and above all the Gardens of the Righteous as living spaces of citizenship. With two very important notes: for the first time in its history the daily newspaper Avvenire decided to hold an editorial meeting outside the walls of its headquarters, choosing the Garden of the Righteous, where on 27 January the editors brought together memory and journalism; Milan asked the Gariwo Foundation to explain to the young athletes of the women’s Primavera team the meaning of the actions of righteous sportspeople who, during the Shoah, chose not to turn away and to use their sporting popularity to do good.
22 January 2026: the launch of Community of Memory and the meeting on the “stages of hatred”
The journey opened on Thursday 22 January 2026 at the Garden of the Righteous in Milan (Via Cimabue 40) with the first 2026 departure of Community of Memory. As is tradition, the Garden welcomed the start of the journeys dedicated to upper secondary schools: paths that combine the study of history, peer education and direct experience of the symbolic places of the twentieth century. The first destination was Krakow, with the possibility of completing the journey with a stop in Prague or of choosing Prague as the main destination in a subsequent departure. The initiative is promoted by the Association for the Garden of the Righteous of Milan, of which the Gariwo Foundation is part together with the Municipality of Milan and UCEI.
On the same day, at 6.30 pm at the House of Rights (Via De Amicis 10, Milan), the meeting “How does a genocide arise? The stages of hatred” took place: a public discussion that, starting from Gregory Stanton’s model, discussed historical processes, social dynamics and the responsibilities of governments, the media and ordinary people, with attention also to instruments of protection and prevention. Joshua Evangelista (Gariwo Foundation) took part in the dialogue with Chantal Meloni (University of Milan) and with representatives of LƏA – Jewish Antiracist Laboratory.
23 January 2026: theatre and school, with Árpád Weisz at the centre
On Friday 23 January 2026, at the Teatro Elfo Puccini in Milan, Gariwo presented to 500 male and female high school students the show “Árpád Weisz. If racism takes the field”, by and with Gianfelice Facchetti: a theatrical narrative that restores the life and legacy of Árpád Weisz, a Jewish-Hungarian coach who won three league titles with Inter and Bologna, deported and killed in Auschwitz. A direct and accessible way to talk about discrimination, responsibility and moral choices, through an Italian and European story. Rai followed the event with an extensive report for Inviato speciale (Radio Uno).
26 January 2026: at Casa Milan, memory enters sport
On Sunday 26 January 2026, on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, the Milan Foundation invited Gariwo to Casa Milan for a meeting dedicated to the Shoah, individual responsibility and the Righteous: figures who, in the darkest moments, chose not to turn away.
The afternoon involved the women’s team Primavera squad, the technical staff and club executives, showing how sport can also be a place of civic education and awareness. President Gabriele Nissim spoke with sports journalist Mauro Suma about the Righteous of sport of yesterday and today.
A particularly intense moment was the meeting with Manuela Valletti, daughter of Ferdinando Valletti, recognized as a Righteous of Sport: a Milan footballer in the 1940s, deported in 1944 to Mauthausen, where he chose to help and protect other prisoners, putting his own life at risk. After the war he devoted many years to recounting his experience by meeting thousands of students, transforming memory into living testimony.
Strengthening this link between sport and memory was also a special collectible sticker dedicated to Ferdinando Valletti, produced by the Association Figurine Forever: a popular and powerful gesture, capable of speaking to the youngest with an immediate language.
27 January 2026: Avvenire at the Garden of the Righteous, an “off-site” newsroom to move memory into places of responsibility
The symbolic culmination came on Tuesday 27 January 2026. On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, Gariwo welcomed to the Garden of the Righteous in Milan the editor-in-chief of Avvenire Marco Girardo, deputy editors Marco Ferrando and Francesco Riccardi and a representation of the newsroom, for a meeting that brought together journalistic reflection, civic education and active memory.
The visit to the Garden preceded an extraordinary editorial meeting of the newspaper, hosted in the spaces of CASVA (adjacent to the Garden). The editorial meeting is the moment in which it is decided how to tell the world to readers; and precisely for this reason the initiative had a concrete and not merely celebratory value: for the first time since 1968, Avvenire chose to hold a meeting outside its own headquarters, rooting that decision-making moment in a place that speaks of moral choices and individual responsibility.
Accompanying the newsroom along the path through the Garden and during the meeting was Gabriele Nissim, together with a delegation of the Gariwo Foundation and Giulia Ceccutti of the association Friends of Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salam. A gesture that confirms the Garden of the Righteous as a space of dialogue between memory, information and civil society.
The stories told to the general public: the Sky Sport special and the podcast on Etty Hillesum
Alongside the live meetings, Gariwo also worked on the languages of contemporary dissemination. On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and on the eve of the Milan–Cortina Olympics, the Sky Sport special (video by Alberto Pontara) with Gabriele Nissim and Giacomo Corbellini (Gariwo) was produced, dedicated to three athletes linked to winter sports who did not turn away in the face of Nazism: Bronisław Czech, Birger Ruud and Ettore Castiglioni.
On the audio front, the GariwoMag editorial team also published a podcast dedicated to Etty Hillesum, to bring back to the centre a voice capable of combining lucidity, moral conscience and human depth: a testimony that continues to question the present. Also on Etty Hillesum, we point out this fine interview by Chiara Zoppi (LINK).
A widespread memory: initiatives in the network of Gardens of the Righteous and with institutions
The Day of Remembrance was also articulated in a widespread manner within the network of Gardens of the Righteous, with events and meetings in various locations: Abbiategrasso, Jesi, Binasco, Albairate, the Boccioni High School of Milan, San Donato Milanese, and at Palazzo Cusani (Milan), with the meeting with Martina Landi and General Carmine Sepe on 28 January 2026, preceded on 27 January by a guided visit of a military delegation to the Garden.
The phrase that holds everything together: from “never again” to responsibility in the present
Giving a unified meaning to these initiatives is an idea that Gariwo has been bringing into the public debate for years and that, in this 2026, resonates with particular urgency. As Gabriele Nissim recalled:
«That “never again”, conceived in this way, has had consequences on the pessimism that can be felt today, because with a reassuring vision of history we imagined that the past would never repeat itself and we have remained almost surprised and disappointed by the new wars under way. Many people are as if paralyzed and do not want to understand the duty of responsibility. That naïve faith in a historical providence after the Shoah prevents us from reflecting on the relevance of the concept of the Righteous in our time, as an antidote to pessimism».
It is in this direction that Gariwo chose to work for the Day of Remembrance 2026: transforming commemoration into a civic practice, capable of speaking to the present and of reactivating — in schools, in sport, in the media and in places of memory — the concrete sense of individual responsibility.
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