Milan, 16 January 2018
Our member Roberto Pontremoli (born in 1937) held the conference "Witnessing to remember - Holocaust Memorial Trail", very touching, rich in history but also in personal memories.
Roberto begins by saying: "I am here to testify the numbers and cruelty of the huge tragedy of the Shoah: having avoided the suffering of discrimination, I feel it as a duty to those who have suffered the consequences of persecution." A series of interesting references to historical, religious, social and economic context of that period follows, an analysis rich in elements, aimed at trying to understand together the reason for that immense tragedy. But if we can never understand the reason as a whole, it is true that all of us have a duty not to forget, to always be able to recognize those signals and prevent the renewal of such horror.
Roberto concludes by inviting everyone not to forget those who suffer and to be members of human society, and quotes the verses of the Persian poet Saadi of Shiraz, written at the entrance of the UN Palace: "All the sons of Abraham form one body, they are of the same essence. When Time afflicts a part of the body with Pain, the other parts suffer. If you do not feel the pain of others you do not deserve to be called Man".