The current situation in Europe, its future, and the lessons that can be learnt from the continent’s history – these were the main topics of the meeting with the Vice President of European Commission Frans Timmermans “Citizens’ Dialogue on the Future of Europe”, attended by members of JU Academic Community, Polish young people, as well as the participants of the Italian Project “Trenno della Memoria” (“Memorial Train”), aimed at remembering the victims of the holocaust.
The audience in the Auditorium Maximum was addressed by the Rector of the Jagiellonian University Prof. Wojciech Nowak, who referred to the very difficult period in the history of the oldest University in Poland, that is, the Second World War. He told the group of several hundred young people from Tuscany about the tragic events, which started on 6 November 1939, when 183 professors from the Jagiellonian University and several other higher education institutions were lured to Collegium Novum building, arrested and deported to Nazi German concentration camps. Each year, the Jagiellonian University honours the victims of these events.
To mark the forthcoming International Holocaust Remembrance Day (on January 27), the first part of the meeting was devoted to the testimonies of Polish and Italian survivors of Nazi concentration camps - Lidia Maksymowicz and Italian sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci, who were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau when they were only several years old.
The Citizens’ Dialogue, which was held during the second part of the meeting, featured the Vice President of European Commission Frans Timmermans and the President of Tuscany Enrico Rossi. The discussion focused on the current situation in Europe, and the prospects for the future of the continent in the context of the lessons that can be learnt from its history, especially the Second World War. The questions from the audience were mainly related to such issues as Brexit, migration crisis, as well as the problems of hate speech, intolerance and racism.
