by InTrieste
The Risiera di San Sabba, on the outskirts of Trieste, holds a grim distinction in Italy’s wartime history. It was the only concentration camp on Italian soil equipped with a crematorium, and it also served as a transit point for Jews from the region who were deported to Nazi extermination camps. For these reasons, it has been the site of Friuli Venezia Giulia’s main Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony for the past 25 years.
That tradition will continue on Tuesday, with a public ceremony scheduled for 11 a.m. in the inner courtyard of the National Monument. Earlier in the morning, at 9 a.m., officials will pay tribute to Giovanni Palatucci at the Coroneo prison, followed by a march to Trieste’s central railway station, recalling the deportation convoys that once departed from the city. Twenty new Stolpersteine—the brass “stumbling stones” embedded in sidewalks to commemorate victims of Nazi persecution—will also be laid.
Commemorations will extend across the region. In Udine, 18 events are planned at museums, libraries and cinemas. The program includes the installation of eight new Stolpersteine and an evening concert at the Teatro Giovanni da Udine by the Regional Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paolo Paroni. The program is dedicated to composers affected by censorship and persecution, including Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.
In Pordenone, following the official ceremony, a performance at 11 a.m. for schools—and a repeat in the evening at the Teatro Verdi—will feature storyteller Alessandro Maione alongside students, recounting the lives of individuals honored by the city’s Stolpersteine.
In Gorizia, the synagogue will be the focal point of the commemorations, with guided visits scheduled throughout the day. Later, at 5:30 p.m., the Kulturni center will host the presentation of Il convoglio, a book that traces the stories of deportees sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
