Elena Colombo deported alone by the Nazis to the extermination camps. Elena is a Jewish girl from Turin who in 44 was sent to Auschwitz without her family. A unique case, and therefore even more terrible, in the whole Shoah Italian. Her story is told in the short film 'Elena's postcard', an original Stand by me production with Rai Kids. The filmed work is broadcast today, January 27, Memorial Day, at 16.05 pm on Rai3, at 16.40 pm on Rai Gulp and available on RaiPlay. Forno Canavese (Turin) hosted the preview in the lower secondary school Sandro Pertini.
A short film to tell kids about the Shoah
Luca Milano, director of Rai Kids, Fabrizio Rondolino, nephew of the Colombo family and the leading actors Mariandrea Cesari and Emanuele Casati were present at the screening. The ceremony was preceded by the dedication of the primary school of Forno Canavese to Elena Colombo. “La Postcard di Elena is a program for children and families, a story that has a universal value and helps to give a wider and more universal knowledge of the Shoah” said Milano. “It's a very emotional event, the story of a little girl sent to die in the indifference of the people around her.
I hope that the plaque at the entrance to the school can remind children of the importance of memory and help them understand what they want to become in life”. Thus Danila Franco representing the Jewish community. Directed by Raffaele Androsiglio, written and produced by Simona Ercolani, the short film lasts 25 minutes. In the cast the actress and voice actress Francesca Vettori (voice of La Pimpa and Eric Cartman of South Park) and Guido Ruffa, famous for having played Lupo Lucio in Melevisione for many years. With a language designed to speak to young people, in a continuous passage between past and present, between dream and reality, the film brings the story of Elena Colombo to the new generations.
Helen Colombo
A story reconstructed only in the last three years, through the help of witnesses who have provided news, memories and descriptions, in particular Piera Billotti, daughter of a neighbor from Turin, Laura Doglione, daughter of Bianca, a partisan relay who met the girl and her family before their deportation. Born on June 5, 1933 in Turin, Elena Colombo spent a quiet and carefree childhooda, when its existence is turned upside down by the promulgation of racial laws and the consequent persecution policy that forces the entire Colombo family to flee.
First he takes refuge in Rivarolo Canavese where he meets Bianca and then in Forno Canavese, where on 8 December 1943 they are all arrested. For circumstances not yet clarified, while the parents are taken immediately to Auschwitz, on the same train as Liliana Segre, Elena is entrusted to family friends with whom she stays for three months before she too is deported to Auschwitz, after writing one last postcard to Bianca. There he will die on the same day of his arrival, April 10, 1944. He was 10 years and 10 months old.
(Ansa images/RAI press office)
