Temporal Cross-References and Multidirectional Comparisons. Holocaust Remembrance Day on Italian State Television

This paper will analyze the connections between Holocaust memory and the presence of other genocides – or crimes against humanities – narratives in Italian TV commemorations of the Holocaust Day of Memory (Giorno della memoria) between 2001-2015.1 The research investigates the question of whether Italian television’s approach to the Day of Memory has been exclusively centered on the Holocaust, or whether it has been used also as a starting point to talk about other traumatic historical or current events such as the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan or Italy’s participation in Western policy against Islamic terrorism. With this aim, the paper will examine Italy’s State-owned network RAI’s programming in the week before and after the Day of Memory (January, 27) from 2001 to 2015, revealing how an increasing civic and didactic awareness of the Holocaust emerged from the TV programs here analyzed. The paper will trace this new television discourse, where the Holocaust began to be perceived as an unconditional warning and a constant term of comparison with other contemporary tragedies.