Holocaust Remembrance Day - Two events of fine literature at the Italian Cultural Institute

As every year the Holocaust Remembrance Day represents for the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco a relevant historical day to be honored.
The calendar of January 2012 offers two cultural events, both related to survey of Italian literature: Carlo Ginzburg's “Threads and Traces: True False Fictive” and Enrico Deaglio's “La banalità del bene. Storia di Giorgio Perlasca”.

On the first occasion, one of the most important historian, writer and essayist in Italy, Carlo Ginzburg, will present the English language translation of his book “Threads and Traces” - Il filo e le tracce. Vero Falso Finto - realeased in Italy in 2006 by Feltrinelli.

Noted professor of Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy), now retired from chair in History of European Cultures, will appear in conversation with Massimo Mazzotti, Associate Professor at UC Berkeley.
Threads and Traces is a brilliant collection of essays that carefully studies questions about history. What constitutes historical truth? How do we draw a boundary between truth and fiction? What is the relationship between history and memory? How do we deal with the historical conventions that inform, in different ways, all written documents? Interwoven with compelling autobiographical references, Threads and Traces brings moving witness to Ginzburg’s life as a European Jew, the lasting strength of his scholarship, and his deep engagement with the historian’s craft.

One chapter in Threads and Traces is dedicated to Primo Levi and refers to the manipulation of historical events in terms of the Holocaust. Quoting also Montaigne, Voltaire, Stendhal, Auerbach, Kracauer, this is an important remark concerning historians today and relation between historical truth and inventions.

Carlo Ginzburg, son of Leone and Natalia Ginzburg, is the author of numerous books that have been translated into English including “The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller”. He also received his PhD from the University of Pisa in 1961 and has held teaching positions at the University of Bologna, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and UCLA.

The second book presentation shows Italian journalist Enrico Deaglio appearing in conversation with Francesco Spagnolo (The Magnes Collection, UC Berkeley), to discuss Deaglio’s book entitled “La banalità del bene. Storia di Giorgio Perlasca”. The book is a real-life account of Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian who posed as a Spanish Charge d'Affairs in Budapest during World War II and tricked the Nazis in order to save the lives of 5,000 Jews.

Deaglio and Spagnolo will discuss, in particular, the institutionalization of memory - in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The film “Perlasca, an Italian Hero” was later made by Alberto Negrin, based on the book. An abbreviated version of the film will be shown (with English subtitles) following the conversation with the author.

Thursday, January 26 (6:30pm) - Holocaust Remembrance Day: Carlo Ginzburg
Monday, January 30 (6:30pm) - Holocaust Remembrance Day: Enrico Deaglio

Admission at the Institute for the events is free.
For further information visit http://www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it/IIC_SanFrancisco/

Roberto Natalini
contributor