Committee for the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide
there is a tree for every person that opted for good over evil.
Who are the RIGHTEOUS?
The term Righteous comes from the Bible, which states that "whoever saves a life saves
the whole world" and it was applied for the first time in Israel with reference to those who
rescued Jews from Nazi persecution in Europe. The concept of Righteous has been used again
to recall the attempts to stop the extermination of the Armenians in Turkey in
1915 and by extension to all those, anywhere in the world, who have tried or are trying to
prevent crimes of genocide, to defend human rights in extreme situations, or that struggle
to safeguard memory from the recurring attempts to deny the truth about the persecutions.
How the COMMITTEE FOR THE GARDENS OF THE RIGHTEOUS WORLDWIDE was formed
The Committee for the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide first started in Milan in 1999
and was officially formed in 2001. It is chaired by Gabriele Nissim, a historian and author of several books
on the subject (Ebrei Invisibili, L'uomo che fermò Hitler, Il Tribunale del Bene,
Una bambina contro Stalin) and includes among its founding members Pietro Kuciukian,
chairman of the International Committee of the Righteous for the Armenians,
a member of the Union of Armenians in Italy, the author of books on the Armenian genocide
and on the Righteous for the Armenians (Le terre di Nairi, Dispersi, Voci nel deserto)
and honorary consul of Armenia in Italy.
Sarajevo witnessed the formation of Gariwosa, the section of the Committee for Bosnia-Herzegovina
(Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide Sarajevo), chaired by Svetlana Broz, the author of
Good People in an Evil Time.
The Committee's aim is to heighten awareness and understanding of the Righteous.
more
Especially by:
- creating places of remembrance (small "gardens" in parts of the world that
witnessed genocides, mass extermination and crimes against humanity in the 20th century).
These gardens are to be planted with trees symbolically representing the Righteous,
following the example of the Yad Vashem Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem;
- setting up prizes to be awarded to those who have distinguished themselves on the
issue of the Righteous (either with specific action or by taking a stand to safeguard memory);
- reflecting on the experience of the Righteous in the genocides of the 20th century -
both in historical, philosophical and legal terms - by means of a series of cultural activities:
conferences with leading international experts, debates, book presentations, essays, research,
documentaries, discussions in schools, publications;
- involving local, national and international institutions;
- developing an Internet site with a collection of documentation, papers and links with other sites.
What we do
After planting Gardens for the Righteous in certain symbolic places, such as Yerevan,
in Armenia, and proposing one for Sarajevo, the Committee involved Milan's City Hall
in the creation of a Garden of the Righteous in memory of those who have opposed genocides
in every corner of the world and who still oppose crimes against humanity wherever they
are committed today. The very first Garden of the Righteous in the world thus
came into being on 24 January 2003, at Monte Stella in Milan. In November 2008 an association
was formed to manage the garden, consisting of the Committee itself along with Milan's
City Hall and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
In the meantime, gardens and other spaces dedicated to the Righteous have sprung up all over
Italy, including those in Palermo, Padua, Turin, Linguaglossa and Levico Terme.
more
In December 2000, in Padua, we organized our
first international conference on the subject of the Righteous,
in cooperation with Padua City Hall's Department of Culture and with Padua University.
Entitled There is always an option to say "yes" or "no". The
Righteous against the genocides of Armenians and Jews, the conference compared the
events connected with the extermination of the Armenian population in Turkey in 1915-16,
with the only consultation conducted on the issue so far, namely that of the Yad Vashem
Commission for the Righteous, linked to the Holocaust.
In December 2003, in Milan, we organized the international conference The Righteous
in the Gulag. The value of moral resistance to Soviet totalitarianism. One section
was entirely devoted to the Italian victims and it saw the participation of some of the
leading dissidents of that time in the USSR, and of key exponents of the debate in Italy.
Following that conference, a tree in the Garden of the Righteous Worldwide was
dedicated to Andrei Sakharov and, in November 2005, the Parco Valsesia was dedicated
to the Italian victims of Stalinism. In June 2008 a delegation of the Committee, led by
Gabriele Nissim, went to St. Petersburg, to the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery -
which commemorates the victims of Soviet persecution - to inaugurate a stele dedicated
to the Italians, in the presence of the highest authorities of the two countries.
Over the years, we have organized debates, book presentations and seminars with students,
such as a cycle of meetings at Milan's Casa Armena with certain exemplary figures on their
experience of moral resistance: the consul Antonio Costa in Rwanda, professor Jurij Malcev
in the GULag, the publisher Ragip Zarakolu in Turkey, the lawyer Mehrangiz Kar in Iran.
At the Casa della Cultura we have presented, among others, Pietro Kuciukian's book
Voci nel deserto and invited Khaled Fouad Allam to speak about relations between
Islam and the West. Svetlana Broz from Sarajevo came to Milan's Bicocca University to talk about
her struggle for remembrance and reconciliation in Bosnia. Every year, in Bologna, a final conference
is held on the work done by the schools belonging to the "Storia e memoria" network; this is an
educational project on the Righteous in the history of the 20th century, to which our Committee
provides scientific and logistic support.
All over Italy we organize presentations of Gabriele
Nissim's books on the subject of the Righteous, and for this we were received in
Rome by the President of the Republic and by the Chamber of Deputies, and in
Strasbourg by the European Parliament.
The Gariwo website
The Gariwo website is the Committee's main instrument
for publicizing the subject of the Righteous and the exemplary
figures whose names have often remained unknown. The website takes the acronym of the English
version of the Committee (Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide) and includes an
Italian version and a shorter English version, which refers to the events, initiatives
and material of greatest interest to international readers.
Our website provides references about all our activities, in the Events section, as well
as a collection of documentary material, biographies, articles, reports, exhibitions, book
and film reviews, videos, links, educational programmes, reflections and further insight
into relevant issues.
