27011945-27012009

On January 27th 1945, Soviet troups reached the Polish city of Oświęcim (better known by its German name Auschwitz), where they discovered its sadly famous concentration camp and freed the few remaining survivors. Since 2001 in Italy, Remembrance day is celebrated each year on January 27th to commemorate the victims of Nazism and Fascism, of the holocaust and in honour of those who risked their own lives to protect the persecuted.

This rose mounted on barbed wire stands outside one of the cells of the Risiera di San Sabba, a former rice-husking facility that was built in 1913.

After September 8, 1943, the Nazi occupation forces used the San Sabba premises as prison camp, headquarters where deported prisoners were sorted out to be sent to Germany and Poland, raided goods depot, prison and extermination camp for hostages, partisans, political and Jewish prisoners. On April 4, 1944 a crematory plant was installed and made operative.

(...to be continued)