Silvia Bencini and Luca Bravi will present Auschwitz: Percorsi di memoria attiva (FrancoAngeli), together with Ugo Caffaz (Tuscany Region), Giovanni Gozzini (University of Siena), and Stefano Oliviero (University of Florence). The discussion will be moderated by Nura Abdel Mohsen (Fondazione Museo della Deportazione di Prato).

The Book
The volume explores educational pathways of memory, starting from the idea of “crossing through Auschwitz”—not merely visiting it, but transforming it from a crystallized monument into a tool for learning. It outlines a training model that—through places and objects serving as bridges between past and present—can be applied to any site of memory.

In this regenerative process of learning to know, recognize, and narrate multiple stories, the account of death always aims to reconnect with the possibility of life: to learn the “lesson” of Auschwitz, of Rwanda, of Srebrenica, up to the conflicts of today, and to the shores of Cutro and Lampedusa. The aim is not to declare everything identical to Auschwitz, but to search for a pedagogy of memories—a driving force for educational dialogue and democracy in the present.

The Authors

Silvia Bencini is a research fellow at the Department of Education, Languages, Intercultural Studies, Literature, and Psychology at the University of Florence. Her work focuses on the social history of education in relation to European memory policies and on historical-educational processes aimed at inclusion and minority participation.

Luca Bravi is a researcher at the same department of the University of Florence, where he teaches History of Communication and Educational Processes. His research focuses on the social history of education in relation to European inclusion policies, the history of media and their impact on educational contexts, and historical processes of inclusion through the enhancement of European memory. He has collaborated with the National Office Against Racial Discrimination of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and with the Tuscany Region on memory policies addressed to schools.