To visit at the Memorial of the Shoah in Milan (Binary 21) the exhibition “Ships of Hope” Aliya Bet from Italy, 1945-1948, open until June 28, 2018.
The exhibition was inaugurated in the presence of the vice-president of the Memorial, Roberto Jarach, the vice-Ambassador of Israel in Italy, Ofra Farhi, the Director of the Eretz Israel Museum, Ami Katz, and the curators of the exhibition, Rachel Bonfil and Fiammetta Martegani.
The exhibition traces the migration of the Jews who survived the Holocaust to Palestine and their stops in Italy, especially in the ports of Liguria and Puglia.
The exhibition also includes photographic and video documents about Sciesopoli, the home of the Children of Selvinos.
Of note is the presence of the Life Senator Liliana Segre and Gianna Sternfeld Pavia, widow of engineer Mario Pavia, one of the architects of the installation of those ships and whose history is dedicated a notice board.
The exhibition will be open until 28 June 2018.
Photo of the opening of the exhibition – thanks to Enrico Grisanti – with “Life Senator” Liliana Segre and Gianna Sternfeld Pavia.
Photos of the steamer “Faith” blocked in La Spezia in April 1946 by the British: the Jewish refugees on board went on hunger strike to obtain permission to set sail.
Photo by Moshe Zeiri with two Jewish girls received in Selvino, in the Bergamo mountains, in 1946 (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, code no. NY_07541).
Among the photos there is a map on display at the Memorial of the Shoah in Milan that shows the ports from which the boats loaded with Jews left.
The Aliya Bet exhibition in Milan
So the survivors of the Shoah began to live again with the help of Italy
by Eliana Di Caro, April 10, 2018 (source: “Il Sole 24 Ore“)
From La Spezia to Taranto, from Vado Ligure (Savona) to Santa Maria di Leuca, from Civitavecchia to Metaponto (Matera): There were many ports scattered throughout Italy from which 34 fishing boats left illegally loaded with Jews survived the Nazi extermination, out of a total of 56 boats set sail in Europe, to complete the Aliya Bet, to the letter “ascent”, the journey of the Jews to the Promised Land.
An interesting exhibition that opens to the public tomorrow, April 11 (Memorial Day in Israel) in Milan, at the Holocaust Memorial, tells the story of the welcome and support that Italians offered to Jewish refugees from 1945, when – after the war – for those who escaped the Final Solution opened a new and unknown chapter, to 1948, the year in which the State of Israel was proclaimed. As the images, already on display in the Eretz Museum in Tel Aviv and recovered through a long research work from the families of the survivors, document, part of the 250 thousand Jews fleeing to central Europe landed in Italy. Where, thanks also to the support of the Jewish Brigade, they were placed in refugee camps and, in some cases, in structures where they lived as in a kibbutz, to be prepared for the life they would have done in the future State of Israel. This was the case, for example, for the children of Sciesopoli, the colony of Bergamo where about 700 orphans of the Shoah were educated and raised by the Zionist Moshe Zeiri: they changed their name, learned the Hebrew language, began to live again, as Sergio Luzzatto beautifully recounts in his book “The Children of Moses” (Einaudi).
The first ship left Monopoli (Bari) on August 21, 1945. She was the Dalin led by the Paduan Enrico Levi, and on board she housed 37 Jews. Over the course of the three years, more than 21,000 people were saved and they made the journey of hope.
The case of the two steamers blocked by the British in La Spezia in 1946 (Palestine was then under British mandate) is striking: with over a thousand people on board, the Faith and the Phoenix remained still for a month, and the refugees went on hunger strike to obtain the necessary permits from the English government. In one of the four videos that can be seen on display at the Holocaust Foundation, there is the testimony of some of them who remember how difficult it was to fast after their experience, and how Italians supported their battle every day (“they wept and brought us food, they couldn’t bear the idea that we didn’t eat”, says a refugee).
The exhibition will then go to Rome and, hopefully, the deputy ambassador of Israel Ofra Farhi, also to Southern Italy. “Certainly – Roberto Jarach, president of the Fondazione Memoriale della Shoah where it will be possible to visit until the end of June, points out – Milan has played an important role, having been a point of coordination, thanks to the activities of Raffaele Cantoni (later president of the Jewish Communities, ed), and sorting. It is in the wake of that memory and spirit that since 2015 our headquarters has hosted 8,500 refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle East.
“Ships of hope. Aliya Bet dall’Italia 1945-1948”, curated by Rachel Bonfil and Fiammetta Martegani. Holocaust Memorial Foundation, Edmondo Sraffa Square 1.
Info: 022820975 www.memorialeshoah.it
