27 January is the day in 1945 when Soviet troops arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, liberating the remaining prisoners and revealing to the world the horrors of the Holocaust.

In 2000 Italy designated 27 January as an annual day of commemoration for the millions of victims of the Nazi era: principally Jews, but also ethnic Roma, homosexuals, people with physical and mental disabilities and political opponents. The United Nations made the date an annual international day of remembrance in 2005.

In Rome the Casa della Memoria e della Storia in Via S. Francesco di Sales 5 is organising a programme of events for the occasion. 22 January sees the opening of the exhibition on the experience of military prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps, with photographs and original drawings done by Italian soldiers during their internment from 1943-1945. The exhibition runs until 13 February. Over the following days there will be a series of book presentations, film screenings, discussions and lessons for Roman schoolchildren, culminating in a two-hour live broadcast from the Casa della Memoria for Radio Rai3 on the forms, tools and mechanisms of memory.