United Nations Celebrates Contributions of Auschwitz Survivor, Humanist Author Primo Levi at Holocaust Event, 4 May
Author Primo Levi shared his vision for a more just and human world in 14 books, memoirs and essays that have been published together in three volumes in English titled The Complete Works of Primo Levi. To celebrate his universal appeal and contribution to humanism, the United Nations Department of Public Information will organize a round-table discussion in partnership with the Centro Primo Levi New York titled “After the Holocaust — Primo Levi and the Nexus of Science, Responsibility and Humanism”. The event will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on 4 May in the Trusteeship Council Chamber on the occasion of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day on the Hebrew calendar).
The round-table discussion will explore themes found in Primo Levi’s writings including: scientific ethics, history and memory, language and transmission, and justice and responsibility. The event will feature short welcome remarks by Cristina Gallach, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information; Stella Levi, Holocaust survivor and Member of the Board of Directors, Centro Primo Levi New York; and Dario Disegni, Vice-Chairman of the Primo Levi International Study Centre in Turin, Italy.
Following the screening of a film clip on Primo Levi’s life, produced by RAI Teche, influential passages from Primo Levi's work will be read by Ramu Damodaran, Chief of United Nations Academic Impact, Department of Public Information; Carla Esperanza Rivera Sánchez, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations and Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations General Assembly Committee on Information; and special guest John Turturro, actor and director.
A panel of scholars and experts will examine Primo Levi’s writings. They include Natalia Indrimi, Executive Director of Centro Primo Levi New York, who will also serve as moderator; Lidia Santarelli, Nuremberg Trial Project, Harvard University; Francesco Cassata, Professor of History of Science, University of Genoa; Maaza Mengiste, writer and author; and Roger Cohen of the The New York Times.
Primo Michele Levi was an Italian chemist and writer from Turin, Italy, born on 31 July 1919. He was the author of several books, novels, collections of short stories, essays and poems. His best-known works include If This Is a Man (1947), his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and his unique work, The Periodic Table (1975), linked to qualities of the elements, which the Royal Institution of Great Britain named the best science book ever written. He was involved in the partisan resistance to the German occupation and has spent two months in a fascist internment camp, 11 months in Auschwitz, and a further nine months in various Russian refugee camps. He died on 11 April 1987 in Turin.
The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme of the Education Outreach Section was established in 2006 to further Holocaust education and remembrance to help prevent genocide.
Centro Primo Levi is a New York-based organization inspired by the humanistic legacy of writer and chemist Primo Levi. The Centre offers public and academic programmes and publications on the history of Italian Jews and Judaism. Its main focus on twentieth-century totalitarianism expands to a history of over 2,000 years in an ongoing effort to present the experience and perspective of a minority and its relation with mainstream culture in ancient and modern societies.
The event is open to journalists. For accreditation, please visit the United Nations Media Accreditation Unit website. To register for the event, please visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance.
For information about the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, please contact Kimberly Mann, Chief, Education Outreach, at e-mail: mann@un.org.
For information on the Centro Primo Levi, please contact Natalia Indrimi, Executive Director, at e-mail: natalia@primolevicenter.org.