MuMeSe

This Museum tells a story of rebirth and hope. Between 1945 and 1948 in Selvino, in the colony called “Sciesopoli,” 800 Jewish children and youth, survivors of the Shoah, were taken in. Here they found their lives again after being saved from Nazi-Fascist violence, now without families or homes to return to. Here they regained their identities and began to look to the future.
By a paradox of history, the large building designed by Architect Paolo Vietti Violi in 1932, where young people were educated about fascism, has become the place of rebirth for the victims of that same regime.
After 1948, Sciesopolis continued to play an important role as a summer colony and, during the school year, also as a kindergarten and elementary school: it is estimated that over nearly four decades it hosted at least 50,000 children.
The colony was closed in 1985, but the memory of that history, kept alive by Selvinesians, direct witnesses and their heirs, has never faded. With the disappearance of many of the children who lived in Sciesopolis, there was a need to collect their stories with books, research, documentaries, exhibitions, and activities, culminating in September 2015 in the large gathering for the seventieth anniversary of the Jewish presence.
With this Museum, the story of the Children of Selvino, who found their stolen childhood in Sciesopoli, is made available to all to keep the memory and message of hope alive.