The Betrayed Care 1944-2024

Trieste  27-28 MARCH 2024

At the San Giovanni Park on 27-28 March 2024 eighty years after the deportations from Trieste’s hospitals: history and memory

Initiative awarded with

Medal of the President of theRepublic

Events organised by the MUSEUM OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF TRIESTE “CARLO AND VERA WAGNER” with the DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH AND DEPENDENCIES OF THE GIULIANO ISONTINA UNIVERSITARY HEALTHCARE COMPANY and the DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TRIESTE

On 28 March 1944, SS squads appeared at the directorates of the two main hospitals in Trieste, demanding the handing over of inmates belonging to the ‘Jewish race’, based on the lists of names requested in the previous days. As a result, 24 people were arrested at the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital, 13 at the Chronic Hospital and 10 at the Maggiore Hospital. All these patients, including six over 80 years old, were taken to the Risiera di San Sabba to be deported to the Nazi Lagers.

No one returned.

This project aims to commemorate those tragic events, while also proposing dissemination and training activities aimed especially at the new generations.

It is a necessary reflection that winds its way through history, memory, bioethics and medicine today.

Many everyday clinical practices in medicine – such as informed patient consent to treatment or experimentation, genetic screening, sterilisation, the inclusiveness and gratuitousness of healthcare systems – can be better understood in the light of these stories.

Secondary school students, university students – both medical and humanistic – and health and social workers: doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, midwives and social workers are therefore invited to participate in the first place.

As the journal ‘Lancet’ recently pointed out “the study of medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust can help to prepare medical professionals to stand up against antisemitism, racism, and other forms of discrimination, and to embrace and defend our shared humanity in their professional roles and as global citizens”.

PROGRAMME

All events are open to the public. Highlighted in blue are the ECM accredited events (7.7 training credits) for doctors, nurses, midwives, psychologists, psychotherapists, social and health workers.

Wednesday 27 March 2024

FRANCO AND FRANCA BASAGLIA THEATRE Via Edoardo Weiss 13

AKTION T4 AND NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

08.30 Registration of participants ECM and opening remarks.

08.45 MICHAEL VON CRANACH – Introduction. The role of doctors and medical personnel in the Nazi euthanasia programme.

09.30 MICHAEL VON CRANACH talks with the descendants of the victims of Aktion T4 and with the sisters ANDRA and TATI BUCCI: deported as children to Auschwitz and destined by Joseph Mengele to the Kinderblock, they travelled on the same convoy that left Trieste on 29 March 1944 on which the patients arrested the day before were loaded.

10.30 a.m. MICHAEL VON CRANACH and writer ROBERT DOMES present the film “Nebbia in Agosto” by Kai Wessel (Nebel im August, DE 2016, 126m) about the Nazi euthanasia programme through the story of one of its young victims. The story is taken from a study of a medical record from the Kaufbeuren Psychiatric Hospital.

12.40 Discussion. Moderator: FEDERICA SCRIMIN.

13.30 Break.

EARLY RESEARCH ON THE DEPORTATIONS FROM THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS OF TRIESTE AND VENICE THROUGH THE STUDY OF MEDICAL RECORDS

15.00 HELEN BRUNNER and LORENZO TORESINI – The first researches on the inpatients arrested at the Psychiatric Hospital of Trieste. The contribution of Dr Bruno Norcio.

16.00 FIORA GASPARI and LORENZO TORESINI – The deportations from the psychiatric hospitals of San Servolo and San Clemente in Venice.

Moderated by PEPPE DELL’ACQUA and TRISTANO MATTA.

MUSEO DELLA RISIERA DI SAN SABBA Via Palatucci 5

17.30 TRISTANO MATTA and MATTEO PERISSINOTTO – Guided tour of the Risiera Museum and the exhibition 7 December 1943: Destination Camp.

Thursday 28 March 2024

OSPEDALE MAGGIORE Piazza dell’Ospitale 1, Technology Pole

09.00 Institutional greetings and unveiling of commemorative plaque

SAN GIOVANNI PARK Piazzale Luigi Canestrini 2, former Direction

10.30 Unveiling of commemorative plaque.

11.15 Guided tour of San Giovanni Park by the La Collina Cooperative.

12.30 Break.

FRANCO AND FRANCA BASAGLIA THEATRE Via Edoardo Weiss 13

 THE BETRAYED CURE 1944-2024  

14.00 Registration of ECM participants and institutional greetings

14.30 TULLIA CATALAN and HELEN BRUNNER – Introduction

15.00 MICHAEL VON CRANACH – Lectio magistralis. The Importance of Memory.

16.00 ANNALISA DI FANT and UMBERTO ALBERT with the contribution of ANNA VAIVODA, RICCARDO MANDARA, FEDERICO STRANI, doctors specialising in Psychiatry, Trieste – The deportations from Trieste’s Hospitals

16.45 FEDERICA SCRIMIN introduces the scenic reading of documents on the raids of 28 March 1944

17.15 Testimonies of the descendants of the deportees. The experience of the families:

HELEN BRUNNER – The story of my great-uncle Egon Brunner (1888-1944).

HEIDRUN SCHRÖTER- MORASCH – “Mother, we must look for them”.

RAYA HOFFMANN – My aunt Berta Weill (1878-1941).

SIBYLLE VON TIEDEMANN – The memory of the victims in Munich.

Moderated by TULLIA CATALAN and ALESSANDRA ORETTI.

18.30 PIERFRANCO TRINCAS – Conclusions.

18.45 ECM practices.

LECTURERS

– UMBERTO ALBERT, psychiatrist, professor of Psychiatry, Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste

– HELEN BRUNNER, psychologist psychotherapist

– ANDRA BUCCI, witness

– TATIANA BUCCI, witness

– TULLIA CATALAN, historian, lecturer in Contemporary History Department of Humanities, University of Trieste

– MICHAEL VON CRANACH, psychiatrist, former Director of the Kaufbeuren Psychiatric Hospital, honorary professor at the University of Munich

– PEPPE DELL’ACQUA, psychiatrist, former director of the Trieste Mental Health Department

– ANNALISA DI FANT, historian, curator of the “Carlo and Vera Wagner” Museum

– ROBERT DOMES, writer and journalist

– FIORA GASPARI, head of the Historical Archive of San Servolo, Venice

– RAYA HOFFMANN, witness

– RICCARDO MANDARA, physician, training in Psychiatry, University of Udine

– TRISTANO MATTA, historian, president IRSREC-FVG

– ALESSANDRA ORETTI, psychiatrist, director of the Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment Service ASUGI

– MATTEO PERISSINOTTO, historian, DiSU-University of Trieste

– HEIDRUN SCHRÖTER- MORASCH, witness

– FEDERICA SCRIMIN, obstetrician-gynaecologist

– FEDERICO STRANI, physician, training in Psychiatry, University of Udine

– SIBYLLE VON TIEDEMANN, witness and president Gedenkinitiative für die Euthanasie-Opfer Munich / Initiative in memory of euthanasia victims Munich

– LORENZO TORESINI, psychiatrist, former head of psychiatry at the Merano Mental Health Department

– PIERFRANCO TRINCAS, psychiatrist, director of the ASUGI Mental Health and Addiction Department

– ANNA VAIVODA, physician, training in Psychiatry, University of Udine

INITIATIVE IN COOPERATION WITH

 University of Trieste

 Municipality of Trieste, Risiera di San Sabba Museum – National Monument

 State Archives of Trieste

 Gedenkinitiative für die Euthanasie-Opfer, Munich / Initiative in memory of the victims of euthanasia, Munich

 WITH THE SUPPORT OF

 Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia

 German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs

WITH THE CONTRIBUTION OF

 Central European Initiative, Trieste

 IRSREC-FVG Istituto Regionale per la Storia della Resistenza e dell’Età Contemporanea

 Policlinico Triestino

 Televita

 The citizens who generously joined the fundraising campaign launched on 28 March 2023 on Gofundme

UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF

 Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano Isontina ASU GI

 Union of Italian Jewish Communities

 Italian Federation of Operators of Addiction Departments and Services – FeDerSerD

 Forum Salute Mentale

 Italian Society of Psychiatry

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF

 Liceo classico linguistico “Francesco Petrarca”, Trieste, class 4I

THANKS TO

Sabrina Benussi, Ambra Betic, Cinzia Cannarella, Antonietta Colombatti, Catia Di Barbora, Carlo Facchin, Daniela Gross, Anna Krekic, Giorgio Liuzzi, Gloria Pilastro and Michela Rondi.

The fundraising launched on 28 March 2023 continues with the aim of publishing the proceedings of the Conference either on the Gofundme platform https://gofund.me/cdfac212, or by means of a transfer to the IBAN of the Museum of the Jewish Community of Trieste IT43I0306902233100000008244 with the reason for payment “Donation for the initiative LA CURA TRADITA 1944-2024”. In the latter case you will be able to obtain a certificate valid for deductibility or deductibility in your income tax return.

Info on the initiative: museumcarloeverawagner@triestebraica.it