The creaking wheels of suitcases, murmurs, the hurried steps of passengers, and from the public address system of the railway station in Milan, you can hear: "The train to Rome leaves in 10 minutes from platform 3".
Trains do not depart from one platform of this magnificent station. They used to be. They were taking people to their deaths.
"The journey lasted for days and it was terribly cold.
"I remember that there were many people on the train and there was no room. My father held me in his hands," Liliana Segre, an Italian senator and one of the 22 survivors who were loaded by the Italian fascists on January 30, 1944, into one of the wagons that took them to the Auschwitz camp, told the BBC in Serbian.
Lilijana Segre was 13 years old at the time, and besides her father Albert, another 600 people were taken by train, including her two uncles.
She is one of 25 children who survived in the infamous camp on the territory of present-day Poland. A total of 766 children were taken from Milan.
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Platform 21 was a forgotten place for many years, and today it is a Memorial Center.
But not far from this ominous place, for four decades there has been a restaurant dedicated to the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, the man who sent people to their deaths.
"They killed my father immediately" - says Lilijane Segre
Today, Lilijana Segre is 93 years old and a distinguished Italian senator.
At the mention of the story of Auschwitz, her eyes freeze.
"When we arrived, they tattooed me with the number 75190. I worked in a factory where ammunition was made.
"They killed my father immediately," Segre told the BBC in Serbian.
This vital woman visits the memorial center in Milan every year.
While she is talking to the young people who come there, you can see on her face that she is happy that the new generations want to know what happened in the Auschwitz camp.
Before she, her father and uncles were transferred to Auschwitz, they tried to escape to Switzerland in December 1943.
However, the police caught them and took them to the San Vittore prison in Milan, where they were held for 40 days.
Then, one night, they were brought to the railway station and, in transport wagons intended for the transport of goods and animals, transferred to Auschwitz.
From December 6, 1943 to January 30, 1944, Jews were brought to the station at night, during the curfew.
More than 800 people were deported from there to Auschwitz, of which only 22 survived.
Among them is Liliana Segre.
Before the deportations began, every evening a van with goods would arrive at platform 21 from the main post office, which is located opposite the Milan railway station, which would then be loaded onto the train.
"That van was used to transport Jews.
"He would pick them up at night at San Vittore prison and take them to the station," Talia Biduza, director of educational programs at the Shaw Memorial Center, told the BBC in Serbian.
For decades after the war, platform 21 was an almost forgotten place and a neglected place.
Today, visitors can enter the train carriages in which the Jews were transported to the camp because the memorial center was opened in 2013.
"In a train car that had room for seven horses, about seventy people would fit," Deborah Gresani, an employee at the Memorial Center, tells me.
Even today, there are no seats or benches in the carriages.
There is not a single window, except an opening above the barred door, through which the air would enter.
The names of all the men, women and children who have been identified - 605 of them - are projected on the walls of this terrifying place.
The railway station, a magnificent building, was built during the reign of Mussolini.
Ulize Stakini, a famous architect of that time, used white marble for construction, as a prestigious material used during the dictatorial regime, symbolizing power.
When it was opened in 1931, trains with 24 platforms ran to many Italian and European cities.
From one platform, a train headed for the Nazi camp Auschwitz.
"Only in the early 1990s, the non-governmental organization Sveti Eđidio launched an initiative to open a memorial center," Gresani told the BBC in Serbian.
"Today, this is a place of remembrance, but also an educational center visited by pupils and students."
'Indifference is the same as complicity'
At the beginning of 2023, the Milanese artist Aleksandar Palombo drew two murals on one of the walls of the train station in Milan, turning the Simpson family from the popular animated series of the same name into a Jewish family during the Second World War.
One mural shows Homer, Marge and their children waiting in line to board the train to Auschwitz.
The yellow stars that Jews had to wear during the era of fascism and Nazism were attached to their coats.
In the second drawing, a family of five was represented in camp uniforms, visibly tortured, with sad and scared faces.
However, that mural was destroyed months after it was painted.
The artist then stated that this anti-Semitic act emphasizes the danger of indifference, forgetfulness, but also hatred and racism.
At the entrance to the Shoah Memorial Center, it says "Indifference" (Indifference) in big letters.
That word was also chosen by Senator Segre, who dedicated her life to educating young people about the horrors of Auschwitz.
"Indifference is even more dangerous than violence." Because when you are attacked, you know who to defend against.
"There is nothing more terrifying than when people turn their heads at the evil they witness," says Segre.
Watch the video: Ivan Ivanji's testimony about Auschwitz
Cells of evil to genocide
Word genocide was first used by Polish judge Rafael Lemkin in a book The rule of the Axis Powers in occupied Europe of 1944..
49 members of his family died in the Nazi camp, as well as his parents.
He was the only survivor.
For decades, that word referred to the genocide committed against the Jews.
"Since the United Nations passed the Resolution on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005, the genocide began to have a wider context," says Gabrije Nisim, president of the Garivo Foundation from Milan and founder of righteous parks around the world.
"During World War II, 35 million people were killed, six million of whom were Jews. Therefore, the Holocaust is not only a problem of the Jews, but a problem of the entire humanity," he adds for the BBC in Serbian.
He points out that "the responsibility of countries that were collaborators in that crime, such as Italy, Poland or the former Independent State of Croatia, is often forgotten".
He adds that, when it comes to genocide, we always look back at its last stage, actually extermination, while we rarely pay attention to the fact that every crime has a development path.
"When we talk about the generation of evil that leads to genocide, we can imagine cells of evil, like Peron 21.
"As individuals, we can always stop evil, like conductors directing passengers on a train going in the wrong direction."
Fascism in Italy is still alive
Not a small number of Italians still believe that the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was called Duce, did a lot of good for Italy.
A few years ago, on the eve of the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Italy in the Second World War, a banner was placed in Milan's Loreto square that read: "Glory to Mussolini".
It was in that place that Mussolini's body was first exposed after he was killed by Italian partisans, and then hung upside down.
Near that square, for 40 years there has been a restaurant "Kod Oskar", which glorifies and celebrates the figure of Benito Mussolini.
It's lunch time, the restaurant is full, but we are waiting for an empty table that I reserved for my friend and me.
On the wall I see a picture of a child, actually a baby, wearing a fascist "fez" cap.
The black cap was part of the official uniform of the police in the era of fascism, which was also worn by the youth of the fascist party, the so-called Balila.
In addition to this photo, there are many other pictures, various propaganda materials, decorations and symbols on the same wall.
I read one of the quotes of the German general Erwin Rommel that "the German soldier amazed the world, while the Italian soldier amazed the German".
On the manifesto next to it is written that "Italy belongs only to Italians", and there is also a quote from Mussolini: "It is better to live one day as a lion than one hundred days as a sheep".
Wine bottles with labels showing Mussolini's figure in various uniforms - from a soldier to a supreme leader - are lined up on a shelf.
Across from our table sits a couple in love, while at the table next to several men and a woman.
There is a bottle of wine with Mussolini's face on their table, and I don't see any discomfort on their faces because of the environment they are in.
Most of the other guests are foreigners who are happily eating.
The portions are huge, and the prices are affordable.
Marija Rebugi, daughter of the owner of this restaurant, says that "Oskar" is a Milanese institution - in both good and bad contexts.
"The restaurant was opened in 1981. Back then, this was a pizzeria and it's true that people came here who had a kind of nostalgia for Mussolini," she told the BBC in Serbian.
"My father was in the Italian army, as a member of the Folgore regiment, which was connected to the fascist movement.
"When he left the army, he opened a restaurant. I have often heard him tell guests that his restaurant is apolitical."
She also says that in the restaurant, which is actually a family business, because her sister, brother and mother also work there, the guests feel "like at home".
"As in any house, people either get along or they don't," adds Rebugi.
"Those who support both right and left politics come here, some guests don't even notice where they are, but they know that we have the best carbonara pasta in town."
Since 1952, a law named after the then Minister of the Interior, Mario Shelba, has been in force in Italy, banning fascist parties, as well as any movement that would promote that ideology.
However, due to the two later judgments of the Constitutional Court, the law is almost never applied.
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Two dates show that fascism is still deeply rooted in Italy today.
Every April 30, the day of Benito Musoni's death, fascist followers gather in his hometown of Predapije.
Every January 7th in the capital city of Rome, it has been celebrated for 46 years the death of three neo-fascists.
This year, in their honor, hundreds of people gave a fascist salute by raising their hands in the air, and the right-wing government of Đorđe Meloni decided to keep quiet about it.
Who was Benito Mussolini?
Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in Italy after the First World War, supported by armed groups - the Black Shirts - who intimidated opponents.
Fascists seized power in Italy in the early 1925s, destroying democratic institutions, and Mussolini became Italy's dictator in XNUMX.
He supported the dictator, General Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War and supported Adolf Hitler in World War II.
Mussolini adopted some of Hitler's policies, especially the 1938 laws that stripped Jews of all civil rights.
More than 7.500 Italian Jews were killed or died in the Holocaust.
Mussolini was executed on April 25, 1945, after being captured by Italian partisans.
A few days later, the bodies of Mussolini and other executed fascists were unloaded in Milan's Piazza Loreto, later renamed the Square of the Fifteen Martyrs, in honor of the 15 Italian partisans who had been executed there.
The corpses of Mussolini and the fascists were then hung upside down, and people threw stones at them.
"We should take children to migrant camps"
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is celebrated every January 27.
On that day, thousands of pupils and students from all over Italy visit the Memorial Center at the train station in Milan.
Ana Foa, a professor of history at the Sapienza University of Rome, believes that the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust should be primarily aimed at the young generation, but in the right way.
"It often happens that teachers and professors do not have enough knowledge to adequately tell the horrors of the Second World War," she tells the BBC in Serbian.
He explains that the problem is that history is told half-heartedly to students.
Remembrance Day should serve to make new generations aware not only of crimes against Jews, but of crimes around the world, of violence, discrimination and hatred.
"We need to bring them closer to the past by teaching them about today's problems," says Foa.
One of the biggest problems of today's Italy is migrant crisis, that is, the influx of a large number of people from Africa.
The number of migrants in this country has almost doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year.
More than 150.000 migrants have arrived from Africa on the Italian island of Lampedusa, but many do not reach the shores of mainland Italy - the sea takes them forever.
The total capacity in about 5.000 centers for the reception of migrants, as many as there are in Italy, is about 80.000 places, but that number has been exceeded many times over.
These centers are often overcrowded and the conditions of stay are difficult, and they are not far from those of staying in a prison.
Ana Foa points to that.
"This day should be an example for crimes that should never happen again, and that's why we should take the students to centers where migrants are housed," says Foa.
Watch the video: The woman who survived the Holocaust and forgave the Nazis
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