Abstract

16 ottobre 1943 by Giacomo Debenedetti can be traced back to two different strands of Italian twentieth-century writing: on the one hand, the direct testimonies of the Holocaust and, on the other, literature dealing with the extermination of the Jews. Written in November 1944 for the Roman magazine “Mercurioµ, it is the result of a careful journalistic investigation and has enjoyed constant success over the last eighty years, with numerous reprints and translations. The stylistic virtuosity of Debenedetti’s writing, so far removed from its subject, expresses an emotional and ideological rebellion against the Nazi-fascist destruction of humanity.