On 12 August 1944, soldiers of the Waffen-SS invaded the Italian mountain village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema and killed around 560 people, including 130 children. For decades, officials avoided talking about what had happened. It was not until April 2004 that the military court in La Spezia started a trial of several perpetrators who were still alive, and the following year ten former SS members were sentenced to life imprisonment. However, they were neither extradited nor convicted in Germany, as the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office discontinued its own proceedings in 2012.
"We see the 'ÜberLeben erzählen' exhibition as a contribution to the examination of these crimes, which, at least from a judicial perspective, the Stuttgart public prosecutor had suspended in 2012," says anthropologist Maria Lidola, who led the exhibition project along with cultural scholar Sarah Seidel. "Our choice of location was thus very intentional". From 20 November to 5 December 2024, the exhibition will be on display at the StadtPalais in Stuttgart, within sight of the Ministry of Justice and Migration.
A bridge connecting then and now
"ÜberLeben erzählen. Sant’Anna di Stazzema 1944/2024" was developed in the context of an interdisciplinary exhibition and teaching project at the University of Konstanz – with funding from forum.konstanz, the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the Teaching Innovation Fund. 80 years after the massacre, university teachers Maria Lidola and Sarah Seidel visited the site along with students and Petra Quintini, a co-initiator of the project. While there, they made audio, photo and video recordings documenting the stories of eye witnesses and their descendants as well as legal and political actors. In seminars back in Konstanz, they dug into issues of remembrance – for example, the role of memorial sites – as well as silence and reflection on the past in the form of art, music and literature.
"The aim of this student project was not to just retell the events of the massacre, but rather to try to grasp what happened from today's perspective. Our goal was to tell a story, of the massacre that took place, of survival, and how the survivors have lived on until the present day", explains Sarah Seidel. "The special thing about the project was the connections that were made between eye witnesses and students, who otherwise often only learn about the Nazi period in textbooks. Because of the eye witnesses' advanced age, this is an opportunity that will not be around much longer". They describe all of the encounters teachers and their students had as being very personal and touching. "For us, this was the strength of the project. Getting to know individual people and their experiences is much more moving than simply learning facts and figures", Maria Lidola says.
The sisters Siria and Adele Pardini accompanied a group of students to their childhood home where almost 30 people were shot and killed, including their mother and two sisters. Minutes before entering the house, Siria talked about caring for the flowers on the memorial plaques, which she has been doing every week for decades. Then, in the kitchen, she pulls a tin from the shelf, which had been preserved for her father. Suddenly the past becomes very present. Today, the glass preserves memories.
On 20 November 2024 at 18:30, the doors will open to the exhibition "ÜberLeben erzählen. Sant'Anna di Stazzema 1944/2024" at the StadtPalais in Stuttgart. It can be viewed there daily during normal opening hours until 5 December 2024. In May 2025, the exhibition will be on show in Konstanz.
Student Amélie Kroneis reports in the University of Konstanz's online magazine campus.kn how she experienced the exhibition project and the excursion to Sant'Anna, where the exhibition opened in August 2024 on the 80th anniversary of the massacre.
Key facts:
- Exhibition "ÜberLeben erzählen" (stories of survivors) from 20 November to 5 December 2024 at StadtPalais in Stuttgart
- Project leaders: Sarah Seidel, literary scholar at the University of Konstanz, and Maria Lidola, anthropologist at the University of Konstanz, in collaboration with Petra Quintini, co-initiator of "Campo della Pace" and ambassador for remembrance work.
- Funded by forum.konstanz, the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the Teaching Innovation Fund of the University of Konstanz
- Aims of the project: Exploring the possibilities of storytelling, remembrance and commemoration with a focus on survivors' stories and reflection of the events
- Project activities: Seminar "Erinnern und Gedenken. Das Unbeschreibliche erzählen" (Narrating the indescribable) (Sarah Seidel) and seminar "Narrative Anthropology" (Maria Lidola); excursions to Sant'Anna di Stazzema from 10 to 17 May 2024, and on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the massacre for the installation of the exhibition "Raccontare la sopravvivenza", which took place from 11 to 25 August 2024, and for the study of contemporary witnesses' reports as well as of legal and political reappraisals.