VOLEVO SOLO VIVERE/ I ONLY WANTED TO LIVE

Italy, 2006, 75 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Mimmo Calopresti.

The Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education was established by Steven Spielberg in the aftermath of his making Schindler’s List. Almost 52,000 interviews of concentration camp survivors, principally Jewish but not exclusively, were taped in 56 countries and 32 languages. Already ten documentaries have been made incorporating this material. Here is a very moving Italian contribution, taking the story from Mussolini’s 1938 racial laws until the liberation of the camps.

Yes, we have heard similar testimonies and seen much of the archival footage. But, this does not matter. The story needs to be re-told so that it will not be repeated.

What stands out in this film is the selection of witnesses and the articulate yet natural way in which they remember the horrors of their life. They are genial people who have survived, men and women who have transcended their suffering and taken advantage of the opportunities they have been given in life through surviving. You could listen to most of them for hours more and be gripped by what they tell you and be deeply stirred by the way they tell their stories. Italian fluency and emotion at its best.