Presentation of the work of Boris Pahor at the meeting of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
As part of the presentation, the Slovenian delegation played a clip from the documentary film Stubborn Memory (A stubborn memory), and then panelists from Slovenia, Italy and France will shed light on the life and work of Boris Pahor from different perspectives. They read the thoughts of his friend Evgen BavĨar and published the first and last editions of his most famous book, Necropoliswere available for viewing.
Thus, the international community – through the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – commemorated Boris Pahor’s efforts to raise awareness and his concern that “when he is gone, no one will notice the horrors that happened and may happen again”, with the aim of that raising public awareness of his life’s work and efforts to ensure that the darkest parts of history never repeat themselves.
As Boris Pahor said, “every person can choose between good and evil”. That is why Slovenia joined the IHRA’s efforts to bring his messages and literary opus of more than 40 works, including novels, short stories, essays, diaries and polemical writings, to as many people as possible. His terrible personal experiences, the persecution of Slovenes by the fascists and suffering in the Nazi camps, which he connected with the fate of his nation, left visible traces in his prose. Throughout his life, he warned of the dangers of totalitarian regimes, of which he himself was a victim, and stressed the need to remain self-confident and upright in all circumstances. The work of the IHRA is aimed at raising the awareness of the current generation about past atrocities so that the factors that could lead to such atrocities can be prevented in time. These are vividly described in the works of Boris Pahor and can be a model for the entire international public.