VICENZA, Italy – Today marks the annual Italian remembrance of victims of the holocaust. In downtown Vicenza, the Prefect of the Vicenza province, Dr. Salvatore Caccamo, the Mayor of Vicenza, Giacomo Possamai, and a representative from Caserma Ederle, Chaplain Lt. Col. John Hubbs joined other community representatives in commemorating local victims. The local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Mediterranean 8862 from Caserma Ederle, was also present to render honors.
The event started in front of the Teatro Olimpico where in 1944 Jews and those who helped them, were rounded up to depart on a “death train” headed for concentration camps in Germany and Poland. The more than 100 attendees walked to the four most recent locations where holocaust memorial cobblestones are placed in front of the last known addresses of the Jews or people who helped them, who lived in Vicenza.
The brass cobblestones were started in Germany, by artist Gunter Demnig and since 1992 he has made 100,000 of them. The “Stolperstein”, as they were first called in Germany, are four inches by four inches and embossed with the names and dates of deportation and date and means of death in many instances. As of 2016, they are located in 1,200 towns and cities throughout Europe.
Today’s ceremony also included local Italian high school students reading short biographies about the victims. This is in line with Demnig’s goal to respect living relatives of the victims, and to educate future generations.
Possamai said the city plans to place more of these stones in memory of other local people who were deported during World War II.
The addresses of the “Pietre d’inciampo” as they are called in Italian, are at:
Piero Franco, Contra Porta Santa Lucia 44
Torquato Fraccon and Franco Fraccon, Contra Santa Corona 25
Guido Orvieto and Angelina Caivano Orvieto, Corso Palladio 84
Carlo Crico, Piazza delle Erbe 45
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