OTTAWA – A wide-ranging programme of events promoted across Canada for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the initiative of the Italian Embassy, and implemented by Italy’s diplomatic and consular network, successfully concluded yesterday. 

The final events took place from 2 to 5 February, when Professor Mario Venezia, President of the Rome Shoah Museum Foundation, visited Ottawa and Montreal at the invitation of Ambassador Alessandro Cattaneo, for an extensive programme of initiatives and meetings with Canadian counterparts.

On 4 February, Professor Venezia visited the Montreal Holocaust Museum – accompanied by Ambassador Cattaneo – and he was welcomed by Vice-President Adam Atlas, Executive Director Daniel Amar, and Holocaust survivor and member of the Museum’s Board of Directors, Eva Kuper. The visit (in the pics abvove and below) provided an important opportunity to initiate dialogue on potential future collaborations between the Rome Shoah Museum and its Montreal counterpart.

Professor Venezia also met with leading figures from B’nai Brith Canada – the country’s oldest Jewish organization, committed to the promotion of human rights as well as solidarity initiatives, research, and awareness-raising activities – including Paola Samuel, Director for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, as well as representatives of local institutions such as the Museum of Jewish Montreal.

In the evening, Professor Venezia attended as guest of honour the Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration event organized by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy in Montreal. The event centred on the screening of the documentary Il respiro di Shlomo (Shlomo’s Breath) by director Ruggero Gabbai, which recounts the testimony of Shlomo Venezia, followed by a conversation with Professor Venezia, Shlomo Venezia’s son and producer of the documentary (in the pic below, a moment from the evening).

The following day in Ottawa, Professor Mario Venezia visited the National Holocaust Monument, where he was received by the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES) of Ottawa – the leading institution engaged in educational initiatives to combat antisemitism – in the presence of its Director, Kara Goodwin.

Later that evening, Professor Venezia took part as guest of honour in an event organized by the Italian Embassy in Ottawa in partnership with CHES and B’nai Brith Canada, held at the auditorium of the Ottawa Art Gallery to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. The event was attended by a large audience comprising representatives from Canada’s institutional, diplomatic, cultural and academic spheres, Holocaust survivors, and relatives of the victims.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Alessandro Cattaneo (in the pic above) underscored the profound significance of the commemoration in light of the resurgence of antisemitism on a global scale, which makes it all the more necessary to promote a conscious and informed education on memory among younger generations. Recalling that Italy was among the first countries to enact, in 2000, legislation establishing Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Ambassador reviewed the various initiatives organized across Canada by the Italian diplomatic and consular network for the occasion. He noted that preserving the memory of the Shoah and commemorating its victims is not only a moral obligation, but also a means of safeguarding the foundational values of our democratic societies.

The screening of the documentary Il respiro di Shlomo was followed by a conversation (in the pic above) with Professor Venezia, moderated by Professor Costanza Musu of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. Speakers included, in addition to Ambassador Cattaneo and, via video message, director Ruggero Gabbai, Mina Cohn (President of the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship, CHES) and Simon Wolle (CEO of B’nai Brith Canada) – in the pics below.

The Ottawa event concluded the series of initiatives promoted by the Italian diplomatic and consular network in Canada, at the initiative of the Embassy, to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. These also included the screening of Ruggero Gabbai’s documentary Liliana on 27 January at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre in Toronto (see our related article with photo gallery: Identity, True Identity and Memory: “Liliana”) and on 2 February at the Holocaust Education Centre in Vancouver.

The result was a long and rich calendar of events aimed at building an international, cross-border and shared Memory of the Shoah.

All photographs were kindly provided by the Embassy of Italy in Canada