Factory where Primo Levi worked becomes museum

ROME – The paint factory in Italy where author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi worked was reopened as a museum and cultural center for Holocaust memory and civic action.

Inauguration events took place this weekend for the Train of Memory House in the Siva factory in Settimo Torinese, where Levi worked for nearly 30 years. The factory in the northern Italy town was closed down and abandoned two decades ago.

Levi, whose books include the Holocaust memoir “Survival in Auschwitz” and “The Periodic Table,” worked there as a chemist and manager from 1947 to 1975.

The new complex includes an exhibition prepared by the Holocaust memorial museum at Auschwitz and another exhibition on the plight of refugees. It will host concerts, lectures and other events. There is also an exhibit on Levi’s life located in the office he used when he worked as the plant manager.

The center was initiated by Settimo Torinese, the civic action organization Terra del Fuoco and the Train of Memory organization, which promotes Holocaust education. Over the past decade, the Train of Memory has brought 25,000 Italian high-school students on study trips to Auschwitz.