Museo Novecento Florence Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day with Mafai Painting and Primo Levi Performance

On January 27, 2018, the Museo Novecento in Florence held a program to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day, organized by director Sergio Risaliti. This venue, located in the historic 13th-century ex-Leopoldine complex, carries a somber past; during 1943 and 1944, German forces detained workers involved in the March 1944 strike, leading to the deportation of 338 individuals to Mauthausen, of whom only 64 were liberated in 1945. The morning included a conference focused on artists Mario Mafai and Antonietta Raphael, arranged by Associazione Mus.e and curated by Elisabetta Stumpo, featuring a 1940 Mafai painting. In the afternoon, students presented "Il viaggio," reading from Primo Levi's "Se questo è un uomo," as Risaliti stressed the need to remember history in light of rising fascism.