We recall the initiative promoted by the Jewish Community of Trieste, the Torchlight Procession on December 7th, at 6:30 pm from Piazza della Borsa. We strongly invite you to join us by bringing a suitcase, as requested by the organizers, or a black or pink triangle to wear on your chest, to remember the persecution and extermination of homosexuals.
The President of the Circolo Arcobaleno Arcigay Arcilesbica of Trieste
David Zotti
“Working for memory means thinking about the future”
“A SUITCASE FOR IDA AND THE OTHERS”
A torchlight procession on Wednesday, December 7, commemorating the first deportation from Trieste.
The initiative calls upon all citizens to join together in a commitment to defend rights
On Wednesday, December 7, the Jewish Community of Trieste is organizing a torchlight procession open to all citizens in memory of the deportees.
The choice of date is no coincidence. On December 7, 1943, the first convoy of Jews destined for Auschwitz departed from Trieste. 159 people boarded those cattle cars, of whom only nine returned alive at the end of the war.
Among the survivors was Ida Marcaria, who passed away a few weeks ago. Ida and her entire family were taken from their home in Piazza della Borsa. Her life as a free and happy young woman ended, like that of all deportees, with her arrest.
Ida can be considered a symbol of the many lives lost to Nazi-Fascist persecution. For this reason, the torchlight procession will depart at 6:30 pm from Piazza della Borsa, her home, and will silently make its way to the Central Station.
Many of the deportees of December 7, as well as many others, reached the station from the prisons on Via del Coroneo, but the decision to depart from a private home was made to symbolize the path from freedom to extermination.
“"The invitation," explains Mauro Tabor, Councilor for Culture of the Jewish Community of Trieste, "is to bring a suitcase or at least to reflect on the essential items we would pack if we had just ten minutes to leave the home we love and set off for an unknown destination." "In light of the passing of time and the dwindling number of witnesses, we, our children, our grandchildren, we worthy human beings, must find a way to make people understand, to remember. We owe it to them and to what could happen if they were forgotten.".
For this reason, the banner leading the march will feature a quote from Vera Vigevani Jarach, one of the Plaza de Mayo Mothers, who fled Italy due to the racial laws and saw her daughter Franca disappear in the ferocity of the Argentine dictatorship. "Working for memory means thinking about the future.".
The torchlight procession in memory of December 7, 1943, aims to rally those who today find themselves experiencing discrimination, marginalization, or prejudice, and all those citizens, associations, and organizations who wish to reaffirm their commitment to defending everyone's rights: to avoid the risk, once again, of looking without seeing or listening without hearing.
As a sign of respect there will be no other flags or signs in the procession.
