UNESCO has celebrated the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, established by the United Nations in 2005. The event, organized thanks to contributions from the Permanent Representation of Italy and those of Germany, Belgium and Munich, was introduced by UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.
In the main hall of the UNESCO headquarters, Italian pianist and conductor Francesco Lotoro, who collected and studied music composed in the concentration camps, conducted the Apulian soloists of Ensemble Lemuria. Thanks to the contribution of the Fondazione Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria di Barletta, chaired by Maestro Lotoro himself, the audience listened to the sound of the violin that belonged to the Polish musician Jan Stanislaw Hillenbrand, found in Auschwitz and restored by luthier Bruno Di Pilato.
The event, moderated by Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director – General for Education, also featured footage of some of the survivors’ testimonies, made available by the USC Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles, founded 30 years ago by Steven Spielberg. Until next February 9, at UNESCO, it will be possible to visit the exhibition Blue Skies, by Belgian artist Anton Kusters, that photographed the skies above extermination camps for six years.
