Italian Ministry of Education to Implement Roma-Sinti Resource “Giving Memory a Future”

The Italian Ministry of Education has passed a decree that will pave the way for USC Shoah Foundation’s multimedia resource Giving Memory a Future to be used in schools across Italy to teach about the Roma/Sinti experience during the Holocaust.

Giving Memory a Future, which launched in May 2014, was developed by USC Shoah Foundation and researchers at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, with support from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The site provides in-depth information about the history and culture of the Roma and Sinti people in Italy, the persecution they faced during World War II, and ongoing issues they deal with today. The site includes clips of Roma and Sinti Holocaust survivors from the Visual History Archive and has both English and Italian-language versions.

Italy's Ministry of Instruction, University and Research passed the decree "National Strategy for the Inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti Communities” as the government’s response to the implementation of the EU adopted communication 173/2011 "An EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020,” from June 2011. As part of the decree, a working group of experts will make Giving Memory a Future available to all educators as a resource for teaching about the Roma and Sinti, and will also organize a national contest for students which will incorporate the resource.

The resource was presented to Italian Parliament in October 2013, and has been presented at seminars and public presentations around Italy. Member of Parliament Milena Santerini most recently discussed Giving Memory a Future this weekend at the Council of Europe’s international seminar “A Policy Response Toward Inclusive Education: Introducing Roma History Teaching into National School Curricula.”