ID

FBW002610      Documentary

Country / Year

Italy, 1997

Original Title

Memoria

Directed by

Ruggero Gabbai

Produced by

Forma International, Mailand

Staff

Producer: Elliot Malki; Script: M. Pezzetti, L. Picciotto Fargion; Camera: Sefi Baruch, Nicolò Bongiorno; Editing: Daniele Orsini; Sound: Roberto Serra; Music: Mario Piacentini

Statement(s) by

Elisa Springer

Length

84'

Format

35mm/farbe/1:1,37

Dates

- 19 Feb 1997: Premiere, Berlin (47. Internationale Filmfestspiele, Kino 7, 27. Internationales Forum des Jungen Films)

Abstract

In November 1995 Elisa Springer enters the ‘sauna’ of Auschwitz-Birkenau again. She is only one of the survivors of the Holocaust who have acted as witness for the ‘Archivio della Memoria’ (Archive of memory) on which the film draws. For forty years she remained silent about this tragedy. Now she has decided to talk in order to make disavowal impossible. More than 8500 Jews from Italy are deported to Auschwitz and other camps between 1943 and 1945. About 800 Jews suvive. Fifty years after the Holocaust ninety of 800 survivors are still able to bear witness. The protagonists talk in places where historical events took place, i.e. in the Jewish district in Rome, in Milan’s prisons, Rome, Florence, Trieste, Genoa, camp Risiera di San Sabba, in the tranist camp Fossoli, in Milan central station etc. Another aspect is the fact that witnesses are not questioned by journalists or media specialists but by qualified historians who have done extensive research for the project and who have precise knowledge of the circumstances of each interviewee’s life.

Subject Terms

1930-1939; 1940-1949; 1990-1999; Auschwitz (Entire camp complex); Auschwitz II; Holocaust denial; Deportations; Memorials; Genoa; Survivors of the Holocaust; Italy; Camps; Rome; Sauna (Auschwitz II); Extermination