Wednesday, January 31, 2018 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm. Italian Cultural Institute - 601 Van Ness Ave, Suite F - San Francisco (CA). Free Admission | RSVP. I Only Wanted to Live. In Commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Nine Italian citizens survive deportation and internment in the Auschwitz death camps. Nine stories through which we follow the most significant events of this harrowing experience: the enactment of the racial laws in Italy, the futile escape attempts, the deportation, the separation from other family members, the miraculous survival in Auschwitz, and liberation with the arrival of the allied soldiers.

Words that we may not be hearing for the first time, but which narrate the many aspects of these tragic accounts: from the most intimate and personal to the more well-known and cruel. These individuals, through their testimonies, are not afraid to reveal feelings of tenderness and compassion, as well as moments of happiness.

Director Mimmo Calopresti made this film by viewing and selecting from the hundreds of Italian testimonies collected in the archives of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, as well as archival footage and photographs taken from the personal photo albums of the survivors.

The film is kindly made available by the USC Shoah Foundation and Wildside Media.