Turin – Museum of the Resistance

This is the city’s Second World War museum, telling the story of the conflict from the perspective of people who were part of it.

I didn’t take many photos as this is a museum without exhibits, by their own definition. For Italians this means that they are given headphones so that they can hear all of the videos and interactive features. For those speaking English, there are subtitles.

The staff were incredibly helpful, offering a quick guided tour of the museum so that I could understand how it was laid out. The screens on the above photo are activated by hand movement and fortunately a staff member came to assist when it was too complex for me. The staff were excellent, some of the friendliest I can recall in a museum.

This is just a representative display, highlighting how many people were killed by firing squad between 1944 and 1945.

The screens showing videos from people who lived through the experience.

This represents the four principles of the Italian constitution, those of yes to freedom, yes to democracy, yes to equality and no to violence.

Visitors could leave a message with their thoughts on a post-it note at the end of the museum visit.

An unfortunately blurry photo, but there were underground war shelters under the museum. These were only rediscovered during renovation work to the building, which must have been an interesting adventure for the staff who first went back down into them. They were used by the newspaper which was located in the offices above and the marks on the wall are where benches used to be.

Modern benches placed into the shelter.

What I think is an original no smoking sign.

All in all, a nicely put together museum with staff who seemed really proud of what there was available. For those who don’t speak any English or Italian a visit is perhaps mostly pointless, but it’s an interesting concept to tell the story of those involved in the resistance movement during the war.