IainCloke

By IainCloke

Samudaripen

It’s rained most of the day but we went for a late afternoon walk and discovered this recently dedicated commemoration of the Nazi and Fascist campaign to wipe out the Romany people as well as the Jews. The sculpture is in Majella stone and depicts a woman with a child in her arms, with the skirt entangled in the wire, which manages to free herself and continue the journey. Alongside a wheel, symbol of the journey, of the journey of a people.
Memories of this history are really only just being recognised. A network of internment and concentration camps across Italy also funnelled people towards Auschwitz.
This statue is accompanied by a plaque of Spinelli’s poem ‘Auschwitz’:

Sunken in face
extinguished eyes
cold lips
silence
a torn heart
without breath
without words
no tears.

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