Sunday 27 October 2019 the Municipality of Selvino inaugurates the “Jewish Sciesopoli Memorial Museum – Children’s home of Selvino“
Opening program
- 10.00 am Meeting in the Conference Hall of the Municipality of Selvino
- 10.15 am Greeting from the authorities
- 11.45 am Opening ceremony of the Sciesopoli Jewish Memorial Museum – Children’s home of Selvino ribbon cutting
- 12.30 pm Buffet offered by local operators
After several years of efforts to save the memory of Sciesopoli and his orphans who survived the Shoah, Sunday, October 27, 2019, the “Sciesopoli Ebraica – Children’s home of Selvino” museum will be inaugurated in the municipal building of Selvino, rebirth and hope.
Between 1945 and 1948 in Selvino, in the colony called “Sciesopoli”, about 800 Jewish children and young people who survived the Shoah were welcomed.
Here they have found life after having been saved from the Nazi-Fascist violence and the Shoah, now with no more families or homes to return to.
Here they rediscovered their identities and started looking to the future.
For a paradox of history, the large building designed by the architect Paolo Vietti Violi in 1932, where young people were educated to fascism, has become the place of rebirth of the victims of that same ideology.
After 1948 Sciesopoli continued to play an important role as a summer colony and, during the school year, also as a nursery and elementary school: it is estimated that in almost forty years it has hosted at least 50,000 children.
The colony was closed in 1985, but the memory of this story was never exhausted, kept alive by the people of Siena, by direct witnesses and by their heirs.
With the disappearance of many of the children who lived in Sciesopoli, the need was felt to collect their stories with books, research, documentaries, exhibitions, activities, culminating in September 2015 in the great meeting for the seventy years of the Jewish presence.
With this Museum, the story of Selvino’s children, who found their stolen childhood in Sciesopoli, is available to everyone to keep their memory and their message of hope alive.
This is a fundamental step to bring the Sciesopoli building back to life and to its welfare and social vocation, taking care of minors and people in need, so that it can once again become the great “Children’s home of Selvino”.
The museum will be open to citizens and schools, writing an email to the Municipality of Selvino.
Mayor Diego Bertocchi
Managing Director of Sciesopoli Virginia Magoni
In collaboration with:
Sons of the Shoah Association
CDEC – Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center Foundation
Children of Selvino Association
FBCEI – Jewish Cultural Heritage Foundation in Italy
UCEI – Union of Italian Jewish Communities
MiBACT – Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism
Regional Secretariat for Lombardy
Layout and graphics:
Andrea Costa
Giovanna Latis
Texts:
Aurora Cantini (welfare Sciesopoli)
Marco Cavallarin (Jewish Sciesopoli, Memory Recovery)
Andrea Costa (Fascist Sciesopoli)
Video: Enrico Grisanti
Map: Mario Camerini
Translations: Studio Interpreti by Silvia Hassan, Milan
With the financial support of:
Bolton Group
Keren Hayesod Onlus
Province of Bergamo
UCEI – Union of Italian Jewish Communities
UBI Banca
We for Loro Onlus
and other private donations
With the technical support of:
SP SYSTEMA, Pomezia (RM)
Aresi Carpentry, Treviglio (BG)
Video devices:
Gaspari Lab, Cadriano of Granarolo of Emilia (BO)
Works:
XXXX, Selvino
Noble floors, Bergamo
Design brochure: Bunker
Brochure printing: Grafiche Rebecchi Ceccarelli, Modena
Acknowledgments
Many people have dealt with the history of Sciesopoli over the years, with a great contribution of studies, testimonies, projects, ideas, without which this Memorial Museum would not have been possible. Others have favored these activities thanks to their work and their availability.
We thank all of you, especially the “Bambini di Selvino” together with the sponsors and donors, in the knowledge that this is only a starting point for continuing to do research and reach the progressive recovery of Sciesopoli, in memory of the 800 Jewish children who survived the Children of Selvino. We apologize for any omissions.
- Aharon Megged for his book The jurney to the promised land. The story of Selvino’s children
- Alessandra Colombo and Silvia Entronchi for consulting the IAMA archive
- Andrea Jarach for the collaboration in drawing up the map
- Andrea Turri for shooting with the drone
- Anna Scandella for the illustrated story for children “Aliyah Bet”
- Bernardino Pasinelli for archive research, the exhibition “Sciesopoli, the children’s home of Selvino” and the website www.sciesopoli.com
- Bruno Maida for giving voice to the story of Selvino’s Children on Radio 3
- Carmelo Ghilardi and Angelo Bertocchi (Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Selvino from 2009 to 2014)
- Fabio Benis and Diego Piazzalunga for the work to secure the Sciesopoli roofs
- Fabio Toncelli and Enzo Labor for the video “Children of the Promised Land”, broadcast by RAI 3
- Francesca Muci and Gady Castel for the documentary “La casa dei bambini”
- Gianmario Da Dalt, Aldo Dalesio, Alberto Favalli, Olivia Busnelli for shooting, video and audio editing
- Gianna Sternfeld Pavia and Anna Sternfeld for archive materials on Mario Pavia
- Giorgio Mortara for fundraising and relations with Jewish institutions
- Giovanni Bloisi for his extraordinary journey by bike, in memory of the Children of Selvino
- Giovanni Maria Epis for collaboration in the recovery of Sciesopoli roofs
- Lara Magnati and Stefania Olmi for their project, archive research and collaboration to recover Sciesopoli roofing
- Magda Films for the documentary grant “La casa dei bambini”
- Maurizio Savoja for discovering the IAMA archive
- Miriam Bisk, president of the Children of Selvino Association for his tireless commitment and for the video testimony on his parents “Children of Selvino”
- Nadia Lana for research on the IAMA archive
- Nitza Sarner, Tali Amitai, and Avner Zeiri son of Moshe Zeiri, for the testimonials and publication in Hebrew of the letters of the father Moshe Zeiri, Wait for me and I will return, 2016, Yad Vashem
- Paolo Carrara (Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Selvino from 2014 to 2016)
- Patrizia Ottolenghi for her commitment in making the history of Sciesopoli known
- RAI, Radio 3 for having granted the use of Bruno Maida’s voice
- Sara Grigis (former Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Selvino)
- Sergio Luzzatto for the book “I bambini di Moshe” ed. Einaudi, 2018
- Stefano Schiavo for his willingness to allow visits to Sciesopoli
- Tami Sharon for video shootings in Israel and his testimonies
- Valeria Dani for her research on the enhancement of the memory of Sciesopoli for the Jewish Cultural Heritage Foundation in Italy
- Vera Paggi, RAI journalist for her videos on the history of the Selvino’s Children and the attention paid to Sciesopoli since 2010
- Vinicio Grigis (former Mayor of Selvino)
- Walter Mazzoleni for his testimonies.
A special memory is dedicated to Gaetano Puglielli, architect of the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, Director of Sciesopoli safety work in 2019, who died prematurely without being able to see the end of the construction site.
