Gariwo
https://en.gariwo.net/education/taking-on-the-baton-of-memory-12123.html
Gariwo

Taking on the baton of Memory

Gariwo launches "Adopt a Righteous" campaign

Pietro Kuciukian, Paolo Kessisoglu and Gabriele Nissim

Pietro Kuciukian, Paolo Kessisoglu and Gabriele Nissim

“Adopting a Righteous. A force for our future”. 500 students of the school of Milan and its province have responded to the call launched by Gariwo, taking part in our event of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On the stage of the Auditorium of Via Corridoni, with the accompaniment of violins and the harmonium of the Orchestra dei Popoli, students brought to life a show made of video, dialogues and readings about the tales of Claire Ly, Sophie Scholl, Dimitar Peshev, Primo Levi, Armin Wegner, Pietro Kuciukian, Don Giovanni Barbareschi, Irena Sendler, Anna Politkovskaja, Fernanda Wittgens, Svetlana Broz and Giacomo Gorrini.
Resurfacing were the deep events in the lives of these exemplary figures, who face the extreme evil of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, in Cambodia or in Russia chose not to turn away and instead to take on responsibility.

And it was precisely on narration and responsibility that the remarks byPaolo Kessisoglu, Gabriele Nissim and Pietro Kuciukian were focussed. 

Kessisoglu, actor and tv anchorman of Armenian descent - "a craftsman of feelings" as he depicted himself, addressed the students starting from a slogan: “Rebellion is genial”. His own career, he said, started from a "rebellion" against his family.
Each of us, reminded us Kessisoglu, can in his small span of control perform such deeds that enable him to be free, critical and aware, and has the duty to struggle against indifference. The actor closed his remarks by quoting Gramsci: “I hate the indifferent. I believe living means being partisan. Those who truly live cannot be else but citizens and partisans. Indifference is apathy, it is parasitism, it is cowardice, it is no life. This is why I hate the indifferent".

Gabriele Nissim went on underlining the importance of active participation of young people in Holocaust Remembrance Day, which shall not remain a rhetoric recurrence. "Today we had a big experiment, with the young people as protagonists of a relay race. The whole of you in fact have taken on the baton of the Righteous, telling about their tales, thinking about the world, becoming narrators". Gariwo chairman then launched the campaign "Adopt a Righteous", inviting all Italian schools to remember with a significant gesture these exemplary figures who, like Armin Wegner, Vasilij Grossman and Václav Havel, proved that in the face of evil it is possible to resist and let humanity win.

In order to pass memory on, Pietro Kuciukian in the end invited young people to turn to their parents, who are the carriers of a historical memory. "Do not wait like I did  - said the honorary consul of the Republic of Armeni  -, that is to say never talking to my father about the events of 1915 and feeling overwhelmed by all the things I could have asked him only after his death. Ask your parents, talk with them, because it is important to pass on memory”.

Don’t miss the story of the Righteous and the memory of Good

Once a month you will receive articles and events selected by Gariwo Editorial Board. Please fill out the field below and click on subscribe.




Grazie per aver dato la tua adesione!

Related content