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Shalom Italia A Film by Tamar Tal Anati Community Engagement & Education DISCUSSION GUIDE www.pbs.org/pov POV

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Page 1: DG - The War Show · 2018-10-22 · The Holocaust The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored perse-cution, plundering and murder of over 9 million individuals by the Nazi regime

Shalom Italia

A Film by Tamar Tal Anati

Community Engagement & Education

DISCUSSION GUIDE

www.pbs.org/pov

POV

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|2DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

LETTER FROM THE FILMMAKER

Recent research in the fields of behavioral psychology and neuroscience has proven that memory is not a static record of an

earlier event—far from it. In fact, every memory is a mutable story that we amend and fiddle with every time we remember

that particular incident. Each of us has an inner conflict between what actually happened and the story we tell ourselves. There

is no one truth of one moment. The truth of any particular moment can only be constructed from the faulty and selective

memory banks of everyone involved. The truth can only be found somewhere between those stories that people have made

up for themselves.

I was drawn to this story of three brothers because I feel that it best expresses the daily conflict we all face between the re-

liability of memory and the satisfying stories we tell ourselves about our lives. Memory is a personal story of a personal ex-

perience, and we never know what really happened when we hear a story. In this film, we have three versions of the same

events, providing a deeper and dramatic understanding of the human brain and its emotional response to trauma. My hope

is that the film will illuminate not only the lives of the three brothers, but also how we all deal with memory and how physi-

cal facts can be twisted into a story right before our eyes, live and on camera. I hope it will also show how the manufacture

of a new memory can allow us to redefine ourselves and affect the rest of our lives.

Tamar Tal Anati

Director, Shalom Italia

Filmmaker Tamar Tal Anati.

Photo courtesy of Nir Segal

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|3DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

2 Letter from the Filmmaker

4 Introduction

5 Potential Partners

5 Key Issues

5 Using This Guide

6 Background Information

6 The Holocaust

7 A Note on History

7 Jews in Italy

9 Selected People Featured

in Shalom Italia

10 General Discussion Questions

11 Discussion Prompts

15 Taking Action

16 Resources

17 How to Buy the Film

Writer

Faith Rogow, PhDInsighters Educational Consulting

Background Research and Reporting

Ione BarrowsCommunity Engagement and Education Associate, POV

Guide Producers, POV

Eliza LichtVice President, Content Strategy and Engagement, POV

Alice QuinlanCommunity Engagement and Education Manager, POV

Design:

Rafael Jiménez

Copy Editor:

Natalie Danford

Thanks to those who reviewed this guide:

Tamar Tal AnatiDirector, Shalom Italia

TABLE OF CONTENTS CREDITS

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In Shalom Italia, three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a

journey through Tuscany in search of a cave where they hid

as children to escape the Nazis. In contrast to typically dark

Holocaust stories, this quest is full of brotherly banter, food

and Tuscan landscapes. It straddles the boundary between

history and myth—a profound and endearing exploration of

individual and communal memory. The brothers’ survival is a

model of resilience—for their descendants, for survivors of

other atrocities and for a world experiencing a resurgence of

authoritarian leadership.

INTRODUCTION

|4DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

The three brothers in the woods of Toscana.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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Shalom Italia is well suited for use in a variety of settings

and is especially recommended for use with:

• Your local PBS station

• Groups that have discussed previous PBS and POV

films relating to the Holocaust or historical

memory, including Inheritance and Hiding and

Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust.

• Groups focused on any of the issues listed in the

“Key Issues” section

• Faith-based organizations and institutions

• Cultural, art and historical organizations,

institutions and museums

• High school students, youth groups, and clubs

• Civic, fraternal and community groups

• Children of Holocaust survivors

• Academic departments and student groups at

colleges, universities and high schools

• Community organizations with a mission to

promote education and learning, such as local

libraries

Shalom Italia is an excellent tool for outreach and will

be of special interest to people looking to explore the

following topics:

• aging

• brothers/family dynamics

• genocide

• heritage

• history

• The Holocaust/The Shoah

• Italy

• Jewish identity

• memory

• psychology

• resilience

• “righteous among the nations”

• survivors

• World War II

|5DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection, designed for people who

want to use Shalom Italia to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues and communities. In contrast to initiatives that

foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations un-

dertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing

viewpoints and listening actively.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues

in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And

be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and

optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit www.pov.org/engage

POTENTIAL PARTNERS KEY ISSUES

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

|6DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

The Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored perse-

cution, plundering and murder of over 9 million individuals

by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and

1945. The victims of the Holocaust included 6 million Jews, or

nearly two out of every three Jews in Europe before World

War II. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the Nazis sought

to exterminate groups they deemed to be “racially inferior,”

including Jews, Roma, LGBT people, the disabled and the

mentally ill. Other victims, including Communists, Jehovah’s

witnesses and political dissidents, were targeted on ideo-

logical grounds. The Nazis rounded up men, women and chil-

dren from countries across Europe and deported them to

forced labor camps. Many of these detainees were sent to

"death camps," where they were killed through starvation,

torture, mass shoots and, eventually, poison gas cham-

bers. The Nazis referred to the policy of mass mur-

der of Jews as the “Final Solution.”

Sources

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“Introduction to the Holocaust.”

https://www.ushmm.org/learn/introduction-to-the-holocaust

Andrea in the car.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

|7DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

A Note on History

Audiences are encouraged to view this film in conjunction

with a review of the historical circumstances that forced the

Gnagnatti brothers to flee their home in Italy. Viewers are

expected to have a basic understanding of World War II and

the Holocaust. We recommend that those who are not fa-

miliar with these subjects, or who have not studied the Holo-

caust in several years, explore relevant historical resources.

Even the very knowledgeable will learn something new from

these resources. A regular study of historical atrocities is

vital to preserving freedom and justice in the present day.

As the Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi once said,

“Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.”

Sources

Levi, Primo. Sorgenti di Vita. RAI, March 25, 1983.

Jews in Italy

Prior to World War II, an estimated 50,000 Jews lived in

Italy. Unlike members of the more segregated Jewish com-

munities in other European countries, Jews in Italy were

largely secular, urban and assimilated into Italian society.

During the 1920s, Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party rose to

power and turned the Italian government into a dictatorship.

Starting in 1938, the fascist regime passed a series of in-

creasingly onerous laws that restricted Italian Jews’ partici-

pation in social and economic life. Jewish children were

removed from public and private schools; Jews were banned

from civil service, the military and the banking and insurance

industries; and Jewish business owners were forced to sell

their assets to non-Jews. During this period, many Italian

Jews were driven out, often emigrating to more tolerant

countries.

At a memorial for Holocaust victims from Florence,

Emmanuel said that he knew nearly every name.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

|8DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

In September 1943, the Nazis occupied Italy and installed

Mussolini as the head of the wartime government. Under the

German occupation, the regime initiated deportations of Ital-

ian Jews to concentration camps and death camps, where

they were murdered. Most Italian authorities were not eager

to facilitate the extermination of Jews, and some gave ad-

vance warning to Jewish communities before the Nazi

roundups. In total, 8,564 Jews were deported from Italy and

Italy-occupied territories between 1943 and 1945; the major-

ity of them perished in death camps such as Auschwitz-

Birkenau. At least 30,000 Jews survived the Holocaust in

Italy, some as detainees in Italian internment camps, and

some in hiding.

Sources

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “The Holocaust in Italy.”

https://www.ushmm.org/learn/mapping-initiatives/geographies-of-the-

holocaust/the-holocaust-in-italy

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Italy.”

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005455

Vitello, Paul. “Scholars Reconsidering Italy’s Treatment of Jews in the

Nazi Era.” The New York Times, Nov. 4, 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/nyregion/05italians.html

The childhood home of the Gnagnatti brothers.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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SELECT PEOPLE

|9DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

Reuven “Bubi” Gnagnatti – the youngest brother and

instigator of the search, lives half of the year in Israel and half

of the year in Pagliericcio, Italy

Andrea Gnagnatti – the middle brother, a rock climber and

physicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science

Emmanuel “Meme” Gnagnatti – at age 84, the eldest

brother, a world-renowned archeologist

Selected People Featured in Shalom Italia

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Immediately after the film, you may want to give people a

few quiet moments to reflect on what they have seen or

pose a general question (examples below) and give people

some time to themselves to jot down or think about their

answers before opening the discussion:

• If a friend asked you what this film was about, what

would you say?

• If you could ask any of the brothers a single

question, what would you ask?

• Was anything in the film especially familiar or

surprising?

• Describe a moment or scene in the film that you

found particularly disturbing or moving. What was

it about that scene that was especially compelling

for you?

At the end of your discussion, to help people synthesize

what they’ve experienced and move the focus from dia-

logue to action steps, you may want to choose one of

these questions:

• What did you learn from this film that you wish

everyone knew? What would change if everyone

knew it?

• If you could require one person (or one group) to

view this film, who would it be? What do you hope

their main takeaway would be?

• Complete this sentence: I am inspired by this film

(or discussion) to __________.

GENERAL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

|10DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

Andrea in the woods.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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DISCUSSION PROMPTS

|11DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

Memory

Meme says, “Now, after 70 years, I have the courage to dare

to remember again. Because for 70 years I’ve simply erased

this terrible memory from my mind.”

Why does it take courage to remember? What’s lost to fam-

ily and society if survivors don’t share their memories?

Bubi, the youngest brother, pushes his siblings to find the

cave where they hid, saying, “For years I’ve wanted to find

that cave, the place to which we owe our lives.” Meme, the

eldest, grudgingly agrees in order to make his brother

happy, but sees no need: “Six years of misery, why search

for it? I don’t want to remember.” Middle brother Andrea

seems happy to revisit what he recalls as a childhood ad-

venture: “We lived in the woods, played Robin Hood and col-

lected mushrooms. We were all together.”

How does each brother’s view help him cope with the legacy

of their family’s past?

While Meme is less than thrilled to be back in Campoli

because, “it does nothing but remind [him] of the suf-

fering and the uncertainties,” Andrea recalls the

place fondly. Meme speculates to his brother that the differ-

ence in their reactions stems from their age difference, not-

ing, “You were just a kid and I became a grown-up before

my time.”

How does age shape perception?

What was your reaction to hearing Andrea say, “Those were

wonderful times… I had fun during the Holocaust”?

The Gnagnatti brothers walk through the woods searching

for the cave they hid in as children.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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DISCUSSION PROMPTS

|12DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

History

Both prior to and during the Holocaust, Jews were often sin-

gled out as not being “authentic” Italians, even when gener-

ations of their families had been born in Italy. (The same was

true for French and Polish Jews and those of other European

nationalities in their respective countries.) Yet at the start of

the film, Bubi says, “I always dreamed of returning to Italy.

After almost 70 years, I'm Italian again.”

What does it mean to be “Italian again”? To have a national

identity? How are lines drawn to determine who is and isn’t

a member of a particular nationality? What insights might

the lessons of Jewish history provide for debates over na-

tionalism today?

Bubi meets Nada, an old woman in the village who remem-

bers her family helping his family. Meme doesn’t remember

her and is skeptical. He says, “Sounds like a story she made

up. No, maybe she didn’t make it up, but it’s a legend that

developed in the village.”

Why would such “legends” develop? How might those rea-

sons relate to Meme’s reluctance to accept the story as

truth?

What did you learn from the brothers’ recollections about

the realities of going into hiding?

The brothers recount the places they fled to escape

death: Florence, then Campoli, then Villa a Sesta to

the cave. They didn’t just fear officials or soldiers, but also

neighbors who might become informants. What was the im-

portance of informants to the success of fascism? What was

the importance of civilians (like Nada’s family) who re-

sponded to injustice with kindness and had the courage to

defeat fascism?

Everyone in the film has different recollections about the de-

tails of their experiences. They recognize that they will never

know exactly what happened, but agree that, as Andrea

says, “The absolute truth isn’t important now.” Why isn’t the

“absolute truth” important? What is the difference between

the following:

• knowing the details and knowing one's personal truth?

• accepting that memories are sometimes faulty and

using the variations in people's memories to deny that

events occurred at all?

• preserving details and preserving history?

Emmanuel, Andrea and Bubi in Toscana.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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DISCUSSION PROMPTS

|13DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

Legacy

Bubi has a surprising revelation about his aversion to sar-

dines possibly being rooted in the family’s reliance on the

fish when there was nothing else left to eat: “We'd each get

a third of a little sardine, per day, per person, and we had to

make do with that for as long as possible.”

As you think about your life and your community today,

what key memories are foundational to the way things are

now? How do memories of the past shape the present?

Meme looks at names on a memorial wall at the synagogue

of his childhood and says, “There are things that after 70

years I still can't grasp. I knew almost all these people, in-

cluding uncles, aunts and cousins. It was a network of affin-

ity, love, human relations, people with whom we shared our

everyday life. They all just disappeared.”

How could you help future generations grasp the loss, not

just of the individual people whose names appear on a me-

morial wall, but also the community of “affinity, love, human

relations” that they created?

Bubi returns to the cave with his family, including his grand-

children. They erect a sign at the cave to mark their own

family history and also to honor the families in the nearby

village who protected them, “for the courage they displayed

in supporting us, which put them at great risk.”

Why do you think it was important for Bubi to bring his fam-

ily to the cave site and involve them in acknowledging the

villagers who chose to help? What lessons do you think the

children learned about the role of bystanders or witnesses as

enablers of justice or injustice?

The Anati grandchildren come to see the site

of the former cave.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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DISCUSSION PROMPTS

|14DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

In one of the scenes, the family is gathered at a Passover

Seder—a ritual meal during which the story of a pivotal mo-

ment in Jewish history is retold. What rituals in your culture

or family help establish a collective history and how does

this contribute to your identity?

As Meme and Bubi wait for Andrea in the forest, Meme says,

“There is a belief in several tribes in Africa, India and Aus-

tralia that when the body dies, the soul finds a new body in

a rock. So they believe that there are rocks that hold the soul

of a father or a member from their tribe. When there are

cracks, like this one here, the people come and talk to the

soul, and believe that the soul can hear them through the

cracks.”

Picture yourself sitting in the same Italian forest as the broth-

ers. Whose souls do you imagine are in the rocks and what

would you want to say to them?

Additional media literacy questions are available at:

www.pbs.org/pov/educators/media-literacy.php

The Gnagnatti brothers share a meal during their trip

through Italy.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

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• Invite survivors of the Nazi Holocaust

or other genocides to tell their

stories, perhaps as part of a

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom

HaShoah) observance. Consider

recording the stories and making

them available to future generations

via local libraries or archives, and/or

creating a public exhibit of recordings

and artifacts from survivors in your

community.

• In the film, the family gathers for a

Passover Seder. Use your holiday

gatherings or life cycle celebrations

as an opportunity for family elders to

share the stories that comprise your

family’s history.

• Plan a family trip to visit the place(s)

where your grandparents or great

grandparents were born or raised.

• Convene a reading group to read

historical memoirs from the Holocaust

(or other genocides) and compare

their methods and styles with the way

Tamar Tal Anati and the brothers in

the film construct their memories.

|15DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

The three brothers entering the forest for

the first time, Toscana.

Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati

TAKING ACTION

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Italian Jews

CENTRO PRIMO LEVI:

http://primolevicenter.org/

The Centro Primo Levi cultivates education and debate on

Primo Levi’s work and the Italian Jewish past, as well as

current perspectives and conversations on the Italian

Jewish community.

EUROPEAN JEWISH CONGRESS:

“THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ITALY”

www.eurojewcong.org/communities/italy.html

This page offers an overview of the history of Jews in

Italy.

The Holocaust History and Remembrance

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

www.ushmm.org/ -

his museum’s website houses a broad collection of

information for student and general public audiences. Of

special interest is this page on the Holocaust in Italy:

https://www.ushmm.org/learn/mapping-initiatives/

geographies-of-the-holocaust/the-holocaust-in-italy

USC SHOAH FOUNDATION: THE INSTITUTE FOR

VISUAL HISTORY AND EDUCATION

http://sfi.usc.edu/

The website for the world’s largest collection of

videotaped oral histories from survivors of the

Holocaust and other genocides also includes

resources for teachers and research.

YAD VASHEM:

“THE RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS”

www.yadvashem.org/righteous

Yad Vashem is Israel’s Holocaust memorial and research

center. This page on its website is related to gentiles who

saved Jews.

Oral History and Testimony

Many organizations in the United States and abroad are

dedicated to recording and preserving the stories of

survivors of the Holocaust. Below are just a few examples.

The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

at The University of Michigan-Dearborn

http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu/

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jeff and Toby

Herr Oral History Archive

https://www.ushmm.org/collections/the-museums-collections/about/oral-history

New York Public Library American Jewish Committee Oral

History Collection

https://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommen-dations/guides/jewishoralhistories

RESOURCES

|16DISCUSSION GUIDE

Shalom Italia

Original Online Content on POV To further enhance the broadcast, POV has produced an interactive website to enable viewers to explore the film in

greater depth. The Shalom Italia website—www.pbs.org/pov/shalomitalia—offers a streaming video trailer for the

film; an interview with the filmmaker; a list of related websites, articles and books; a downloadable discussion guide;

and special features.

FILM-RELATED WEB SITES

SHALOM ITALIA

http://tamartal.com/shalom-italia

The film’s official website offers information about the film

in both Hebrew and English.

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HOW TO BUY THE FILM

To order Shalom Italia for home use, visit http://tamartal.com/shalom-italia

The See it On PBS logo is a trademark of the Public Broadcasting Service and is used with permission. All rights reserved.

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Front cover: The brothers dining. Photo courtesy of Tamar Tal Anati