Primo Levi, the Germanies, Europe: private and unpublished correspondence on display in Turin

From January 24 to May 5, 2025, the exhibition Giro di posta. Primo Levi, the Germanies, Europe, promoted by the International Center for Primo Levi Studies and curated by Domenico Scarpa.

The exhibition, based largely on unpublished documents, presents a rich network of private correspondence that now becomes accessible to the public, offering a glimpse of Europe and Germany split in two. Weaving the web are Levi’s German and German-speaking interlocutors, but not only them. The letters on display, which range from short pencil messages on makeshift sheets to impeccably typed letters on letterhead, cover nearly fifty years of European history.

Auschwitz is the focal point of this narrative. Already the title of Levi’s If This is a Man stood as a question addressed to readers, but the events narrated occurred in German and at the hands of Germans. The translation of the book into German, begun in 1959 and published in 1961 marked a turning point. From that moment, a dense network of correspondence connected Levi with numerous interlocutors: ordinary readers, writers, former camp prisoners and even people who were “on the other side” in Auschwitz.

On the occasion of the80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (January 27, 1945 - January 27, 2025), the “mail round” of the title becomes a reflection on the Shoah and its role in the Europe to be rebuilt after the war but soon divided between two opposing blocs. The correspondence network stands out for several reasons: some letters were sent to multiple recipients to stimulate confrontation; correspondences touched East and West Germany, trespassing into other countries; and Levi wrote in four languages-Italian, French, English and German.

The exhibition, included in the museum ticket, is part of the LeviNeT project, coordinated at the University of Ferrara by Martina Mengoni, editor of the volume Primo Levi. The correspondence with Heinz Riedt published by Einaudi. The project, funded by the European Research Council, envisions the progressive publication in open access (on the already active website www.levinet.eu) of Levi’s “German” correspondences by 2027. The layout is curated by Gianfranco Cavaglià and Anna Rita Bertorello, while the graphic and visual design is by Ars Media.

The exhibition is divided into five sections: Primo Levi. An Early European Thought; Hermann Langbein. A formidable man; Heinz Riedt. An Anomalous German; Giro di posta (the section that gives the entire exhibit its title); and The Readers. The exhibition also includes tools to ensure accessibility for people with visual impairments, such as tactile maps and QR-codes that allow access to audio content via mobile devices.

To mark the opening of the exhibition, the International Center for Primo Levi Studies, in collaboration with the Italian Postal Service, created a special dedicated philatelic cancellation. On the opening days, two officers of the Italian Post Office will be present at Palazzo Madama to stamp philatelic postcards created for the event, with selected themed stamps.

Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.

Installation photos: Studio Gonella

Primo Levi, the Germanies, Europe: private and unpublished correspondence on display in Turin

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