February dialogue books

Enrique Angelelli
«Only the Gospel, with the commentary of our life»
by Anselmo Palini
Ave Editrice, 2023
In Argentina in the second half of the twentieth century, crossed by serious socio-economic inequalities and governed by brutal military dictatorships, the voice of Bishop Enrique Angelelli rose loud and strong in defense of his people.
Having become inconvenient, it was silenced forever, but his testimony continues to remain alive and, even today, is an important reference for those engaged in the fight for justice and peace.

Auschwitz never ends
by Gabriele Nissim
Rizzoli, 2022
The memory of the Holocaust is one of the elements on which we have built our cultural identity since the second half of the last century. The memory of that horror allowed us to face the battle against anti-Semitism head-on. Some believe that if that memory were to disappear, a new space would open up for the circulation of ideas that have never been completely defeated. Yet, as Gabriele Nissim reminds us, that "lifebelt to hold on to" to combat the re-emergence of the most barbaric ideologies of the twentieth century "can become a dangerous shortcut": "instead of directly addressing contemporary prejudices, the scandal of the past is used, which in the end it gets everyone to agree but without touching the aporias of the present." Here then is "the discourse in some ways "sacred" on the uniqueness of the Shoah, the expression of an absolute evil that has affected only the Jews in the entire history of humanity", risks fueling a wrong perception: a hierarchy of horror which seems to belittle or relativize the tragedies that have befallen many other peoples throughout history. Gabriele Nissim – founder of the Gariwo foundation, created to recognize the Righteous who opposed every genocide – argues instead that the memory of the Shoah must be transformed into a magnifying glass, through which to recognize the horror wherever it manifests itself. Considering the reflections and questions of fundamental figures such as Primo Levi, Simone Veil, Hannah Arendt, Yehuda Bauer and Raphael Lemkin, this book guides us to investigate the mechanism that leads to mass atrocities.


By the editorial staff
NP February 2024