Reflections on Italy . . . and the Holocaust

Since my last week in Italy was a blur of getting ready for the banquet, grading the students' analytical papers, blogs, and finals, I didn't get around to posting my thoughts about teaching about the Holocaust while living in Italy until now, and I'm not sure that I have yet digested everything I thought about for the past six weeks.

Even though it is true that 85% of Italy's Jews survived the Holocaust, that statistic wasn't true for the border area in which Gorizia is located, and one sees that absence in the fact that the synagogue is no longer in use. One sees the death toll in the memorials to those who died.

Occasionally, I also saw contemporary evidence of the kind of prejudice that produces genocide (and not only bottles of wine with Hitler labels and Mussolini labels either). For example, Angela identified one of the cafes near the hotel as a place where elderly Fascists hang out, and one day she translated a poster for a play that had been put on in March. The title seemed to single out Jews, homosexuals, and one other group. I planned to get a photograph of the poster, but the shutters over the window were closed every time I went by after that. Did the proprietors see us staring at the poster? Were they embarrassed? or away from Gorizia?

If this group seems intent on keeping prejudice alive, others seem equally intent on remembering the Holocaust and everything that happened, so that nothing like it will ever happen again. Not only are there memorials throughout the region, but Jay and I found a CD at the Italian equivalent to the Dollar Store when we were out looking for gag gifts for the student banquet. The title is Shoah: Musica Per Non Dimenticare (or Music to Remember).

The CD, which was issued in 2008 by Azzurra Music, includes the following cuts: La vita e bella theme song; Schindler's List theme song; "Eli Eli," identified as an Israeli folk song; "Yerushalaim Shel Zaav" (also identified as an Israeli folk song); the theme song from Il postino (The Postman; "Shalom Alejem"; "Yedid Nefesh"; "Barcarolle" (from La vita e Bella); "Sher"; "Notturno/Opera 9 n. 2" from Il Pianista; "Remembrances" (from Schindler's List); "Erev Shel Shoshanim" (an Israeli folk song); and "Buongiorno Principessa" (from La vita e bella).

I suspect that most cultures incorporate these extreme differences (one only needs to read a newspaper or watch the news), but teaching a class on the Holocaust this summer made me especially aware of what CAN happen. I suppose that all right thinking people wonder exactly how to nourish positive responses and make sure that hate is eliminated before it takes hold. Certainly my students were consistently horrified and kept asking, "How could this happen?" "Why didn't people do more?" To which I occasionally retorted, "What are you doing about climate change today?" "The treatment of people in the developing world?"

Closing Out the Intellectual Part of the Odyssey

Even though Jay and I are physically back in Atlanta, I still need to finish grading the final blogs that the students wrote. All did well on the final exam and occasionally surprised me by commenting on how moved they were by the experience of reading about the Holocaust and viewing so many Holocaust films.

Indeed, many expressed the feeling of being "blown away" by the experience of watching one of the very earliest of Holocaust documentaries. Set at the abandoned camps of Auschwitz and Majdenek, the film includes excerpts from contemporary Soviet, Polish, and French newsreels as well as footage shot at the internment camp at Westerbork in the Netherlands, or by the Allies' "clean-up" operations.

The title is extremely rich in allusions. On December 7, 1941, Hitler signed a directive that declared anyone guilty of endangering the "security or state of readiness" of German forces and who was not to be summarily executed simply vanished into the "night and fog" of Germany. Prior to the "Night and Fog" decree, political prisoners were treated according to international law, which Hitler felt was too lenient.

However, Hitler's code name is a reference to Goethe, Germany's most acclaimed poet and playwright, who used the phrase to describe clandestine actions often concealed by fog and the darkness of night.

One of Resnais' collaborators, the poet and novelist Jean Cayrol, who had been imprisoned at Mauthausen as a result of his work with the Resistance had written about his experience in Poèmes de la nuit et brouillard.

Adding Photographs to Older Posts

Since we were having problems with the internet in Italy, I wasn't always able to post photographs to earlier blogs. I've tried to correct that problem. If you go back, you can see the illustrated version.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggedy Jig

Note that I didn't call it the end of The Odyssey, for I plan to post more adventures as they come up. Just don't expect them to occur as regularly as they did when we were traveling around Italy.

The trip home WAS something of an ordeal, as Jay and I got on a charter bus to take seven of the students (AND my colleague Herr Professor Doctor Michael Nitsche) to Marco Polo (the Venice Airport) for our trip home. Even though our flight wasn't supposed to leave until noon, we had to leave the hotel at 5:30 AM because two students had 10 AM tickets. Once we got to the airport there was some drama because of a threatened strike, but all flights took off more or less according to schedule.

After hanging out in the airport for several hours with three students (one of whom had the same flight as us) and drinking our last cups of good Italian coffee, we got on the plane and had a totally uneventful flight into JFK. In fact, the only (small) drama was that the captain hit the tarmac just a bit too fast.

We knew we had a three-hour layover at JFK, which included the thrill of going through customs. Far less drama than the last time we returned from Italy and Romania when the TSA staff was totally rude and surly and told us that we had to throw away the bottle of Lemoncello we had purchased for Andy. (We didn't, but THAT's another story) At least this time they let people know right from the beginning that they had to check any wine they had purchased at the Venice Airport rather than wait until their luggage had already gone to the plane.

Because of thunderstorms in Atlanta, the three-hour layover turned into a five-hour layover. As a result, we arrived home at 1:30 AM, or 24 hours after leaving Italy.

A Voyage into the Veneto

Just to let everyone know that we weren't abducted by aliens. Nor did Jay crash our car into an Italian ravine. On the other hand, Internet access even at the hotel was a bit iffy for the better part of a week, at the little country inn where we spent the weekend almost impossible.

Then, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Jay and I took off by car to visit some smaller cities that are difficult or impossible to reach by train. Given some recommendations by my colleague, Angela Dalle Vacche who grew up in Venice, we took off on Friday morning, with plans to visit Asolo, Brassano del Grappa, and Treviso. Furthermore, the concierge at the hotel where the program is based gave us a recommendation for a charming farmhouse that had been converted into a small inn. Not only do the owners have vineyards and an organic vegetable garden, but they make their own very good red wine.

Here's the outside.

The family lives in the right side of the house while the six bedrooms in the inn are in the former stable and hayloft. Dedicated to authentic detail, the young woman owner and her parents had sought out original doors and furniture as well as wonderful embroidered linens. Just about everything worked but the Internet. And given the surroundings, who really cared about the Internet?

Here's the dining room.

You can see above some of the attention to detail. In addition, the owners prepared a delightful breakfast both mornings: home made bread and preserves, wonderful coffee, and yogurt. On the first morning, we were able to eat outside on the patio. Unfortunately, on the second, it was raining cats and dogs. At least we were able to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere.

Although we managed to do all that had been recommended, we discovered some other activities, primarily automotive and went on to Asiago (from which the cheese originated). It was an extremely pleasant visit--even though rain on Saturday afternoon and much of Sunday did manage to dampen some of our enthusiasm.

Asolo is a charming little city in the mountains, and the lovely mural below appears on the facade of the cathedral there.

In addition to the beautiful church, we wandered through the cobblestone streets and discovered another of the winged lions, which colleague Bob Wood had trained me to look for.










From Asolo we drove to Brassano del Grappa, where we had a delightful pizza luncheon at an little outdoor cafe--as you can see from my very pleased face at the opening of today's blog.

After our lunch, we visited a grappa museum and learned about how the development of grappa originated in alchemy. The final step at the museum was to taste various types of grappa, and we finally purchased a small bottle of the traditional version.

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Here's a picture of an earlier grappa still.







On the way back to Gorizia, we stopped by the city of Treviso, where Benneton is headquartered. Another charming city on canals complete with ducks and a working waterwheel. However, discouraged by the steady rain, we cut our visit short and hopped in the car to return to Gorizia. On our way back, we hoped to find another delightful little cafe, but it was a Sunday afternoon, and in Italy--unlike the United States where one can dine 24 hours a day--it's difficult to find anything open. So, thought I'm ashamed to admit it...

Risiera di San Sabba and Holland Film, Europa, Europa

Yesterday, Angela, Jay and I took the students on a field trip to one of Italy's few concentration camps, the location we visited three years ago and that provided the inspiration for the course I'm teaching on the Holocaust in European film.

I can't actually remember who recommended that we visit the site, but the four of us (Jay and I along with Shannon and Stephen Dobranski) were all moved by the experience. Not only is the site a very informative museum of the times, but it is also a compelling memorial to the people who were kept there.

Since I ran off without a camera, you will once again need to go to the Internet for visual information. For some historical background, go to Risiera di San Sabba and Holocaust Education .

Nothing really does justice, however, to the fact that the site has been turned into a memorial, which one enters through this narrow and looming portal through which one can see the original rice husking factory. The addition is the result of a design competition that turned the original factory into a memorial space and gallery for a remarkable collection of art works, including the sculpture on the upper left and drawings by an artist from Gorizia, Zoran Music, a Slovene painter who was sent to Dachau and which he documented in a series of haunting paintings. Go to Music to read about him. Then Google Zoran Music to look at his art.

The one thing that doesn't appear clearly in any of the photos is that the present space simply provides an outline of where the crematorium had been. The Nazis had bombed it to eliminate all traces of what had happened there, but the architect, Romano Boico, chose not to rebuild it but to present it as absence.

The others aspects of the space that interested the students was an excellent documentary film (in English) of what had taken place between 1913 and 1975. Obviously the buildings were used as a rice husking factory between 1913 and the 1940s, were turned into a holding area and forced labor camp during the 1940s, became a public monument in 1966, and finally opened as a museum in 1975.

We returned to Gorizia, where we watched Holland's Europa, Europa which elicited probably the best discussion we've had yet, probably because the film is, despite some pretty harrowing moments, a comedy based on a real person's experience. Solomon Perel, whom we see at the end of the film, was a Jew who escaped persecution by hiding in plain sight, first in a Soviet orphanage and ultimately in a school for Hitler Youth. I'm definitely not doing it justice (but no summary would do justice to its episodic or to the twists and turns by which Solly manages to save both his life and his identity).

Lost in Translation

A rather frustrating morning--though I'm sure there is a perfectly logical explanation though it will probably be in Italian! Just about out of Euros I decided to brave what I had heard are frustrating ATMs in Gorizia. Since I found most of them out of operation, I went into one bank and stood in line for what seemed an inordinate amount of time only to learn that the bank doesn't give cash advances. Only the ATM outside, which I had already learned was not in service. On to bank two, where I was told to lock my purse in a safe outside. At least that's what I though the teller said. (I was stuck in a glass revolving door, which made me realize that I really DO have a bit of claustrophobia!)

Next month, this episode will seem very humorous, I'm sure. It certainly makes me wish I were a bit more knowledgeable in Italian.

Nothing to Do with Travels in Italy

However, I was on the Amazon page and saw the cover to the new book at Bram Stoker .

Seeing it for sale makes it seem real.

In the spirit of shameless self promotion, get your local library to order a copy.

A Very Hot Day in Gorizia

This morning I walked to the castle a bit later, so it was much warmer. Consequently chameleons galore. I got pictures of the little critters as well as pictures of more architectural sights. When Jay returns with the camera cables (assuming he doesn't lose THEM...he DID find the missing glasses). You'll see how they blend in with their surroundings. Who knows? I may be surrounded by lizards and not know it, a thought that creeps me out a bit.



I also went on to the museums and saw fashion, archeological stuff, paintings, and a whole lot of exhibits of World War I, the only exhibit that had English (quite good actually) materials. The materials did little to glorify war (and certainly not that war).

It would have been nice to have written material on the fashion exhibits, as there was material on lace making, weaving, ceramics, and hat making. Of course I didn't take any photographs inside--except for one photo for my friend Sara who observed once that so many Renaissance paintings have dogs in them. This museum had a painting of Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus, and there were two dogs in the foreground obviously NOT paying attention to what was going on right behind them. Also a really remarkable Saint Jerome though I stupidly didn't get a photograph of that.

More Fauna in Gorizia

This morning on my walk up to the castle, I encountered two new residents of Gorizia, a snail nestled into the ivy on one of the walls and a very lively lizard who skittered across the same wall about a block away. In fact, I may well be surrounded by chameleons as this one was so well camouflaged that I probably wouldn't have seen him if he hadn't moved.

And speaking of critters, I'm remiss for not mentioning the winged lion over the castle entrance. As you can see above, that lion is on the cover of Bob Wood's quite remarkable Gorizia Notebook (Finishing Line Press), a book of poems inspired by one of the summers that Bob spent here. And to make it even more of a family affair, the photograph on the cover was taken by Stephen Dobranski, the husband of Shannon, who manages all of LCC's study abroad programs. And a lot of other things, truth be told.



I also ran into another example of the Gorizia lion, this time on a memorial to the dead from World War I.



The students have mostly gone off on their journeys (primarily to Cinque Terra), so I'll probably spend a leisurely weekend, catching up on my work and maybe doing some sightseeing.

Arrivederia,

Carol

Not So Lively Today

After all these years of teaching I still can't always predict what will work with students. After being impressed with the students' insights yesterday on The Boy in Striped Pajamas, I was looking forward to more insights today. The assignment was an essay by Laurence Rees, "The Nazis" A Warning from History." Rees is also the director of one of the documentaries we've watched this term, Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. If you're interested in understanding Rees and the team that put that documentary together, there's an excellent web site-- PBS, where you can see some of the passion that intrigued me in his essay.

One of his most interesting observations was what he himself describes as a "rather prosaic observation that the vast majority of people just want to get on with their lives and make the most of their situation." He goes on to note that Nazi Germany targeted certain groups, including "work-shy people, homosexuals, those on the political left, and Jews" and that people who didn't belong to those risk groups were able to ignore what was going on.

Pretty much the same thing that comes across in The Sorrow and the Pity and in Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise, a novel that I read last weekend. Nemirovsky, a Russian Jew whose family fled when the Bolsheviks took over, died at Auschwitz. (Although I had read of Suite Francaise what motivated me to read it was seeing it at the home of a member of my bell choir. She told me that her book club was reading it.) Both works demonstrate that the French bourgeoise tended to collaborate with the occupying forces because they had too much to lose.

It's an obvious point but probably a truthful one, and I wonder whether my students' lack of enthusiasm stems from their own political apathy. I've been reading their blogs today and am alternately impressed by their insights and occasionally by their blindspots. For example, one student commented on the beggars and the Ferrari dealerships in Rome, and I wondered whether he had ever been in Atlanta. Obviously he has been since Tech is downtown! He just hasn't been encouraged to look around much.

Ciao,

Carol

Another Good Class Discussion

Buon pomeriggio,

Georgia Tech students are always interesting, and today's discussion of The Boy in Striped Pajamas (one of the films that they chose) showed them at their best. In fact, they were visibly moved after the screening yesterday.

This morning at breakfast, a number of them seemed to want to discuss their response to the film, and the discussion continued a bit later when we went to class. It's a powerful film, and I personally disagree with much of the early criticism that objected to the focus on one small German boy (whose father happens to be an SS commandant in a concentration camp).

In fact, the film does a lot of different things: it explores what happens when families disagree (the mother and the eight-year old boy come to question the prevailing ideology while the father and daughter continue to accept the party line); it looks at history through the eyes of two naive characters (one a Jewish boy in the concentration camp, the other the German) neither of whom understand what is happening; and finally it reveals what happened to people during the Holocaust, demonstrated most clearly by clothing hung on hooks outside the gas chamber. Absence speaking louder in this case than presence.

I confess that I picked up a number of details when I saw it this time. The first time, when I saw the film in the theater, I was so taken with the children that I didn't notice the chimneys in the background. They are almost always there--at least in the scenes that take place outside. I also didn't notice how the film demonstrates that everyone seems to be "fenced in." It's most obvious in the case of the concentration camp, but the family is also behind a gated fence, and Bruno is discouraged from exploring beyond his own yard. In fact, almost everything seems to reinforce that people were encouraged to keep in their place.

One of the most interesting things about this particular DVD, which I shared with the students, were interviews with John Boyne, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based; Mark Herman, who adapted it and directed it; and most of the major actors all of whom had done their homework to try to understand the period. In addition, the video commentary was done while the movie was being filmed so viewers had a good chance to see exactly how some of the shots were set up. Very interesting for students who are making their own films (though with hand held cameras instead of lights and all the equipment that are available to major studios). While many DVDs now include extras, this is one of the most interesting I've encountered.

Ciao for now

Another Beautiful Day

Buongiorno,

Another uneventful walk up to the castle this morning. For those of you who aren't here, go to Baroque Church and imagine me looking DOWN over that church. Then imagine that I am standing almost directly above the building where I teach.

I mentioned several days ago to the students that I hadn't seen any of the guard dogs against which the signs warn, and one of them piped up that he had --apparently behind the gate. What he described sounded like a mastiff rather than a Rottweiler or Doberman. I'd imagine that would be a sufficient deterrent, sign or no sign, as one of my colleagues at Tech had two of them, and they were certainly imposing beasts.

What I have seen are cats. Lots of cats. The prevalent type seems to be a dilute tabby that looks like Furball though with shorter hair. I encountered an extremely friendly small tabby yesterday on my walk and hoped to see her again this morning. Instead, I saw a young black cat who resembles my mom's former cat Cleo. That one was a bit more skittish.

In addition to cats and dogs, the best part of my walk is the smells. Lots of honeysuckle and roses as well as flowers that don't have a strong perfume but which smell glorious all the same.

I guess you can see that my adventures are pretty tame. For insights into a different kind of adventure, go to Jay's Motorcycle Adventures .

Ciao for now.

Finished the Page Proofs

'Nuff said though eventually I will need to compile an index. Ah, yes, the fun never ends.

The Dogs of Gorizia

Before I go into my adventures of today, however, I thought I'd share with you a picture of my hotel room. Go to Grand Hotel Entourage . That's our room pictured, and imagine me sitting at my laptop at the desk on the left.

With Jay away I've started a new routine, which is to walk up to the castle and around the grounds, about a 45 minute walk. Lucy would really enjoy all the smells though she might be less enchanted by the sights. Since the castle is at the highest point in Gorizia, I can see in all directions.

On the way up to the castle, I pass by some lovely big homes, all gated. Many of them have signs on the gates that I interpret as "Stay out. Premises guarded by attack dogs" because there is almost always an image of a Doberman, Rottweiller, or Mastiff. What's funny about these signs is that I have yet to see a big, fierce dog in Gorizia. Indeed, most of the dogs are small: mostly mixed breeds, terriers, Pomeraneans, spaniels. The biggest dogs I've seen are a couple of yellow labs, and even they are smaller than yellow labs in the states.

The students come back this evening, so work continues as usual tomorrow. With luck I'll be able to finish reading the proofs of my book today.

The Mice are Away, and the Cat is ....Working

Jay is somewhere between Milan and Bologne, and the students are in Rome, so I spent the whole day working. Actually I did get in a pre-breakfast walk to the Gorizia Castle, which you can see at Castle . You can also see more of it at Touring Gorizia .

Here's a view from the castle looking over toward Slovenia.



After breakfast, I spent the WHOLE DAY glued to the computer checking the proofs of my Bram Stoker book. Tomorrow I'll move on to the notes, but I literally didn't have the eyesight left to stare longer at a computer screen. I just wanted to get something on the blog lest you in the states worried that I had been abducted by aliens, run over by a scooter (not so many of them in Gorizia), or charmed by a handsome Italian.

Life in Venice

Angela, Jay, and I took the students into Venice today, from which all but two students went on to Rome; Jay will stay in Venice tonight and will go on to Milan tomorrow where he will meet up with his two motorcyling buddies, Hank and Josh.

I took the train back to Gorizia and look forward to a quiet weekend. The students will return on Monday, and I hope to have THEIR blogs graded. Jay will return next week, and I hope he manages to stay safe.

Because the students had planned to take a relatively early train to Rome, we had relatively little time in Venice though having Angela as a tour guide means that we saw Venice as the natives see it. We did one of Angela's favorite things, which is to go into the ghetto, where we had a delicious lunch, and one of the students bought a carnival mask. With Angela's help he was even able to do some negotiating.

GT students entering the Ghetto in Venice

As you can see from the photographs, we also had some time to see some of the standard sights of beautiful Venice.

Walk into Slovenia Today

Because we were a bit uncertain about where exactly to go (and knew we didn't want to go to the casino), we walked for about a mile and then turned back. Good thing too, as it began to rain once again almost as soon as we arrived at the hotel. Jay is getting a bit concerned about the weather as he and two friends are planning their own odyssey from Milan to Stuttgard and back to Milan. (To follow Jay's blog, go to jaysbiketour@blogspot.com)

Right now we're having real troubles posting photographs to our blogs, a problem that may stem from our own lack of expertise or unstable network connections. Hope we will be able to provide you with some of the beauty we have seen.

Had a really excellent discussion today with the students on the difference between documentaries and fictional films that are based on factual content. At least part of our discussion revolved around Life is Beautiful. It's described as a fable but concludes with the death of a central character, which is then followed by a voiceover that has the child describe the sacrifices his father made. Interesting and somewhat controversial film.

Delightful Day in Udine

Angela was kind enough to take Jay and me to Udine today. It was Republic Day in Italy, so everyone was out enjoying the holiday.

We spent some time this morning exploring a community flea market in Gorizia. Yes, flea markets are much the same no matter where one goes. Then on to the train station and Udine, where the campus is located.

We didn't actually go to the University of Udine though we did walk around it a bit. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely day wandering around the city, hearing live music on the square and eating, eating, eating. Angela had gotten a restaurant recommendation from Antonella, the concierge at our hotel, and her recommendation did not disappoint. Then after lunch on to a leisurely walk around the castle, then back to Gorizia. No major milestones, but a generally pleasant day.

On the way back from the train station, we went by a memorial to people who died in various concentration camps.

Visiting the Synagogue in Gorizia

Even though 85% of Italy's Jews survived the Holocaust, there are no longer enough Jews in Gorizia to hold religious services. As a result, the synagogue is open for only a few hours each week, and most of the building has been made into a combination community center and memorial. Outside in the courtyard is a tablet on which are written the names of the people from Gorizia who were taken away.

The photograph on the left was actually taken in the synagogue itself while the photograph on the right is of the courtyard.

I guess it's appropriate that the synagogue was open today, as the students and I discussed Italian films and watched clips of Life is Beautiful, The Truce (particularly when Primo Levi is shown trying to return to Turin from Auschwitz), and Facing Windows (a film that on the surface is more a story of illicit love than a Holocaust story--except that it also relates a tale of an elderly gay man who is remembering a love that was lost). Facing Windows is one of the few films that is brave enough to tackle the fact that so many different kinds of people were victimized during the Holocaust--Jews, gypsies, Communists and other political individuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the public library, which has a nice little sculpture garden. The hedgehog on the right was one of the sculptures.