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At almost 100 years old, the artist Linda Olivetti Kohen returns to the high school from which she was kicked out in 1938
Linda Olivetti was a student at the Liceo Cesare Beccaria, in 1938 she was attending the first year of high school. She was 14 years old and, following the racial laws of the fascist regime, she had to leave school. She did it together with other students, including her brother Mario and cousins ​​Linda and Cesare Treves. The Olivettis, a Piedmontese family belonging to the oldest Italian Jewish community, managed to leave Italy for Buenos Aires. Thus they were saved.

The artistic training
Linda has lived in various countries in South America: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay where she still resides. Since she was a child she revealed her artistic talents, her father, an engineer, painted her, and took his daughter to visit the Pinacoteca di Brera. Linda also remembers the mosaics in the Gallery and her father who showed signs of fossils in certain marbles. First in Buenos Aires and later in Montevideo, where the family had moved, not being able to continue the classical training begun in Italy, Linda dedicated herself to learning artistic techniques at the best ateliers and schools in the two cities.
In 1942 he began to exhibit in a group show. She follows the marriage with Rafael Kohen, the birth of two children. She linda continues her training with well-known artists and painting. Established as an internationally renowned painter, her works have been exhibited in galleries and museums in South America, the United States and our country.
At almost 100 years old he participates with his works in the 2024 Venice Biennale Stranierieverywhere.

Knight of the Republic
On 30 October 2023 Linda Olivetti Kohen received the honor with which the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, awarded her the title of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic.

L'event on April 19th at the Liceo Classico Cesare Beccaria follows an initiative of January 26th promoted by ANPI Codè Montagnani-Marelli section Beccaria high school. On that occasion, the students were illustrated about the school life of their peers in the years of fascism, starting from the documents in the school archives. Documents collected and analyzed 20 years earlier by groups of students coordinated by a history professor.
Their research was taken up by a working group of ANPI in collaboration with CEDEC e Children of the Shoah. The documentation certified the expulsion of 20 boys and girls of Jewish origin and one anti-fascist boy. As far as we know, Linda Olivetti Kohen is the only one among them
students kicked out to still be alive.
The testimonies of the descendants of the expelled students and a video by Linda Olivetti were the most important moment of the January initiative.
This initiative, a few days before the 79th anniversary of the Liberation, confirms Anpi's commitment to making students aware of what happened in their schools with the racial laws of 1938 and to promoting the democratic and anti-fascist values ​​contained in the Constitution.
On the occasion of “The National Night of Classical High School"At 18.00 hours Linda Olivetti Kohen will return to her high school after 86 years and will receive recognition from the same school, from the Municipal Administration and from the Anpi.
The event is sponsored by Town Hall 8.
There will be:

• Laura Gamba, Headmaster C. Beccaria;
• Representatives of the municipal administration;
• Primo Minelli, Provincial President of ANPI;
• Maxia Zabdonai, RAI journalist - interviews Linda Olivetti Kohen