ILMC Foundation between Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp , but also of the camps of Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Theresienstadt and the major sites of imprisonment and deportation opened by the Reich during the Second World War, the Conservatory of Music “N. Piccinni” of Bari and the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature (ILMC) of Barletta, in collaboration with the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendency of Puglia (the musical archive of the Foundation is protected by the Ministry of Culture) have organized 𝐢𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨 “𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚” 𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚̀ 𝐢𝐥 29 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐨𝐨 20.00 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐲 𝐍. 𝐑𝐨𝐭𝐚 𝐝𝐢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐢 and which, between morning and evening, will involve teachers and students of the Bari Conservatory. The 𝐄𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐝𝐢 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚 “𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨̀ 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢”, directed by Maestro 𝐏𝐚𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐨, the soprano 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐢, the tenor 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞 and the baritone 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐨 𝐃𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐬.

Like last year's inauguration of Cesare Savino's violin at the Bari Conservatory after restoration by luthier Bruno Di Pilato, this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day concert will also feature another instrument recovered from the concentration camps, which will be played again after 80 years. It is the 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐨 𝐝𝐢 𝐃𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐮, which belonged to the Italian prisoner Manzi. Information about the musician who played it in the concentration camp is scarce, but it is known that Manzi stole the violin from the Dachau concentration camp's instrument collection during the turbulent days of his liberation. Together with another prisoner, Manzi took two violins, but to date, the other instrument and his fellow prisoner have disappeared without a trace. Upon returning home, Manzi, likely out of fear (the violin wasn't his), hid the instrument in a ditch in the garden, where it remained buried for decades. There are several reasons why Manzi and his fellow prisoner, despite not being musicians, took musical instruments before leaving the camp; as described in Primo Levi's book The Truce, during the return journey of former deportees, and in the absence of money, any valuable item (such as violins) could be exchanged for a pair of shoes, a shirt, canned food, medicine, a night's lodging, and more. Some time ago, the violin's last owner (a musician and collector from Puglia) met with the violin maker Bruno Di Pilato, whom he told that the instrument had been acquired years earlier by a grandson of Manzi's; the latter confirmed that the violin belonged to his grandfather and that he had brought it with him from Dachau.

After more than thirty years of research work, 2025 promises to be full of important recognitions for the ILMC Foundation of Barletta: 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐨, 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐅𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐚̀ 𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐥 27 𝟐𝟕 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐨 𝐚𝐝 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐳 (𝐎𝐬́𝐰𝐢𝐞̨𝐜𝐢𝐦, 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚) on the occasion of the opening to the public of the former accommodation of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and its transformation into 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨 𝐼 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡 ... 𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐨 (ARCHER at House 88, so named after the street number of Höss's apartment) by the Counter Extremism Project. The house where Höss and his family created an idyllic life for themselves has recently appeared in the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest and several documentaries; Mark D. Wallace, former US ambassador and now CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, announced to the world press that in the ARCHER at House 88 in Auschwitz there will be a permanent exhibition of the concentration camp music recovered and recorded by the pianist from Barletta, a permanent exhibition in which the concentration camp music production recovered and recorded by the pianist from Barletta will be reproduced in perpetuity as 'Eternal Music'.

Months ago Lotoro participated in the 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐁𝐁𝐂 𝐝𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐫-𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐡 (cellist of the Birkenau women's orchestra), which will be broadcast on January 27, and played some pieces written in Auschwitz in front of what was once Rudolf Höss's house in Auschwitz; in a gesture of profound symbolic and moral significance, together with Ambassador Wallace he placed the mezuzah (a case containing a Jewish prayer that is placed in front of Jewish homes) on the doorpost of Höss's house. Together with Lotoro, 𝐢𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐡𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝, author in 2004 of the redesign of Ground Zero in New York after the collapse of the Twin Towers and who will be responsible for developing the design of ARCHER.

𝐋𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐨 𝐡𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨: “Through my life’s work, I have sought to champion the resilience, even the beauty, that can come from a legacy of hate. ARCHER at House 88 seeks to do the same in its effort to transform Höss’s former home into a symbol of the fight against ideological extremism. I can think of no more fitting destination for these works that I have recovered, which will forever be performed in rooms that once housed ultimate evil. My hope is that they will provide a musical accompaniment to the work of undoing the very hatred that created the unspeakable conditions in which they were written.”