Various initiatives are being organized in Florence on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, January 27.
Official commemorations
On Friday, January 27, at 8am, the flag will be raised at half-mast on the facade of the Palazzo Vecchio, as a mark of respect for the victims of the Holocaust. At 9am, a laurel wreath will be laid by the Platform 16 memorial at Santa Maria Novella train station to remember the nearly 300 Jews who were deported from Florence to Auschwitz on November 9, 1943.
Concerts
Head to the music room at the San Firenze complex (piazza San Firenze) for Kechi Kinnor (take the violin) on Thursday, January 26, at 10.30am. Expect traditional Italian Jewish songs, history and memories of a co-existence that became persecution. Italian singer-songwriter Letizia Fuochi will perform Neve di carta – il Canto della Memoria at Museo Novecento on Friday, January 27 at 6pm. Reserve your spot: +39 055 2768224 / info@musefirenze.it
Museum tours + exhibitions
Visit MAD Murate Art District on Friday, January 27 (3pm + 4pm) for a free-of-charge walk around the former hard labour prison, where Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Carlo Levi and Gaetano Salvemini, among others were imprisoned. The tours are in Italian. Reserve your place: +39 055 2768224 / info@musefirenze.it.
Also on Friday, January 27 (4pm + 5pm), Museo Novecento invites visitors for a walk (in Italian) around the permanent collection with a special look at individuals such as Mario Mafai, Carlo Levi and Renato Guttuso, who were affected by Jewish persecution or who voiced their dissent at the horrors of the Holocaust.
The Rudolf Levy (1875-1944): Work and Exile exhibition just opened at Palazzo Pitti as a tribute to the German expressionist painter Rudolf Levy who lived as a Jew in exile until the German Occupation before being deported to Auschwitz. Visitors can gaze at 47 of his works that retrace his time in exile through to his final years in Florence. Until April 30.
The showSauro Cavallini. L’opera di un internato at Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati (piazza Duomo) focuses on one of the most prolific Italian artists of the 20th century. After surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and spending about a year in the Gradaro concentration camp in Mantua, he went on to become a renowned sculptor. The exhibition features 16 of the artist’s iron and brass sculptural works, in collaboration with Fondazione Fossoli and Prato’s Deportation Museum. From January 26 to February 28, 2023.
