Remembrance Day 2023 in Florence

All the most important initiatives on the occasion of January 27th that remembers the victims of the Holocaust

If knowing the past is always an essential value for every nation and for every society, this value becomes even more significant in the case of the Holocaust Memorial Day which remembers the victims of the Holocaust. In particular, January 27th, 1945 remembers when the Soviet army in Poland discovered the concentration camp of Auschwitz bringing to light the shocking program of extermination of the Nazi lager. Florence, despite this complicated moment of health emergency, has organized a rich calendar of initiatives to commemorate this very important day.

• Tuesday 24 January - 11 am - Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Opening of the exhibition Rudolf Levy (1875-1944) - The Work and the Exile, curated by the Uffizi Galleries with the collaboration of the Fondazione Museo della Deportazione. It runs from 24 January to 30 April and is a tribute to the great German expressionist painter through his paintings, from his youthful years to his exile, including the last - considered his most prolific - spent in Florence, before his arrest, deportation and death in the Auschwitz camp.

• Thursday 26 January - 11 a.m. - Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, Florence

Inauguration of the exhibition Sauro Cavallini. The work of a prisoner, conceived by the Centro Studi Cavallini and curated by director Maria Anna Di Pede. When Sauro began practising sculpture, the nightmares of imprisonment took shape and were translated into his first works of art, testimony of a particularly painful past. 16 of those works, created between 1961 and 1963, are on display from 26 January to 28 February for the first time in Florence in the rooms of Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, in Piazza del Duomo.

Sauro Cavallini. L’opera di un internato

• Thursday 26 January - 4.30 p.m. - UNIFI FORLILPSI via Laura 48, Florence

Conference Along the Thread of Memories. A historical-educational path to reading the present, with the testimony of Lidia Maksymowicz, speech by Elvira Mujcic and Micaela Frulli, coordinated by Luca Bravi and Stefano Oliviero.

• Thursday 26 January - 4.30 p.m. - Cinema La Compagnia

For the Rassegna cinematografica Giorno della Memoria 2023 - Cinema La Compagnia, Florence, on 26 January at 4.30 p.m. Tatiana Bucci presents the animated film dedicated to her and her sister Andra La stella di Andra e Tati with the moderation of Camilla Brunelli, director of the Fondazione Museo della Deportazione di Prato.

• Friday 27 January - 6:00/20:30 pm - Museo Novecento Florence

On the occasion of the celebrations for the Day of Remembrance, on 27 January, the Museo Novecento presents a special appointment with the singer, author and performer Letizia Fuochi, the protagonist of the performance Neve di carta - il Canto della Memoria, accompanied by guitarist Francesco Frank Cusumano.        

Letizia Fuochi

• Monday 30 January - 10 a.m. - Teatro Metastasio- Via B. Cairoli 59, Prato

Voci dal Buio - I destini intrecciati di quattro amici tra Prato e Firenze negli anni '43-'44, a meeting aimed at schools but open to all in which, through historical interventions, songs, readings and music, the stories of four young people whose lives were overwhelmed or broken by racial persecution and deportation will be told. With the contribution and collaboration of the Fondazione Museo della Deportazione, Teatro Metastasio and UnicoopFirenze Soci Prato. Free entrance, reservation required at biglietteria@metastasio.it

• MUS.E guided tours of the former Murate prison and the Museo Novecento

On Friday 27 January MUS.E proposes an afternoon of thematic visits to the Museo Novecento and MAD Murate Art District. At 3 and 4 p.m. there will be two free guided tours inside MAD Murate Art District, in the rooms of the former prison and today an important city centre of contemporary art production. A place that takes on a special significance for Holocaust Memorial Day: the Murate, in fact, in 1944 was the gathering place for numerous deportees before their departure to the extermination camps. At 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. instead, at the Museo Novecento, it is possible to participate in two thematic visits centred on the museum's permanent collection. In particular, the tour will focus on some of the artists in the collection and will pay special attention to the collector Alberto Della Ragione. On 27 January at 6 p.m., the Museo Novecento presents a special appointment with the singer, author and performer Letizia Fuochi. Reservations are compulsory. For information and bookings: 055 2768224 info@musefirenze.it 

MAD Murate Art District - Carcere duro

• Thursday 26 January - 5.30 p.m. - Sibilla Aleramo Conference Room, Oblate Library

Leggere per non dimenticare XVIII edition. The presentation of Gaetano Petraglia's book La matta di piazza Giudia. History and memory of the Roman Jewess Elena di Porto with an Afterword by Carlo M. Fiorentino. Presented by Daniel Vogelmann.

• Friday 27 January - 5 p.m. - Sibilla Aleramo Conference Room, Oblate Library

Special edition of the Ceppo Prize for Childhood and Adolescence 2023 for Remembrance Day. Awarding of the Ceppo Prize to Anna Sarfatti and Wlodek Goldkorn

• Saturday 28 January - 11 a.m. - Sala Storica Dino Campana, Oblate Library

Presentation of the book Il campione e la bambina by Paolo Mirti.