“A wall of silence and oblivion – a mixture of embarrassment, political opportunism and sometimes serious superficiality – formed around the terrible suffering of thousands of Italians massacred in the foibe”. But “attempts to forget, deny or minimize are an affront to the victims and their families and an inestimable damage to the collective conscience of a people and a nation”. Thus the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the celebration of the Day of Remembrance at the Quirinale, “dedicated to the tragedy of the Italians and of all the victims of the foibe, of the exodus of the Istrians, Fiumeans and Dalmatians from their lands after the Second World War” .
“On the eastern border our Berlin Wall”
The President then retraced the history of those years and recalled that “our country, due to fascism, had contributed to unleashing a devastating and fratricidal world war; and it was also thanks to the contribution of civilians and soldiers to the struggle for liberation and to the the authority of the new democratic leadership, that Italy was spared the fate of its German ally, whose territory and population were dramatically divided in two. This, however – underlined Mattarella – did not prevent that the legitimate demands for the protection of the Italian population residing in the eastern border areas they were opposed, frustrated and denied. Our 'Berlin Wall' – certainly much smaller in size but with great intensity of suffering caused – passed through the eastern border, through the iron curtain that separated Gorizia in two, distancing and dismembering territories, families, affections, customs, belongings “.
“Distortion of reality transformed victims into culprits”
“The new international structure, which was created with the division into opposing ideological blocs, according to the logic of Yalta, meant that the suffering of the Italians of Istria, Dalmatia and Fiume. They were the ones who paid the highest price for the consequences that followed the war that was unfortunately unleashed with the conditions of the Peace Treaty that resulted from it. After having suffered the violence suffered upon the arrival of Tito's regime, those fellow citizens of ours, having abandoned everything, experienced the sad condition of feeling like exiles in their own homeland. Become the object of the distrust, if not hostility, of some of your compatriots.”
“Their suffering – the Head of State recalled – was not, for a long period, recognised. Un unacceptable distortion of the truth which pushed to transform all the victims of those massacres and the refugees of the forced exodus into guilty -accused indiscriminately of complicity and connivance with the dictatorship- and to remove, almost to the point of expelling it, the dramatic story of those Italians from the national fabric and history”.
“Hit for being Italian”
“The ferocity that was unleashed against the Italians in those areas – continued the President of the Republic – cannot be classified under the heading of acts, however ignoble, of revenge or summary justice against the occupying fascists; whose dominion had been – we know – intolerant and cruel for the Slavic populations, whose requests for autonomy and linguistic and cultural protection had been denied and repressed for many years”.
“The disappearances in the foibe or after internment in prison camps, the killings, the torture committed against the Italians in those areas, in fact, affected officials and soldiers, priests, intellectuals, employees and simple citizens who had nothing to do with the dictatorship of Mussolini. And even partisans and anti-fascists, whose only fault – Mattarella remarked – was that of being Italian, of fighting or even just of aspiring to a future of democracy and freedom for themselves and their children, of hinder the annexation of those territories under the communist dictatorship”.
“Consolidate the EU as an antidote and repudiation of totalitarian barbarism”
Then comes a reminder from the Head of State on the current situation: “Dark pages of history, even of Europe, seem to want to reappear. We have a strong antidote and we must consolidate and develop it more and more. The construction of the European Union, despite its delays and shortcomings, represented the repudiation of the barbarism caused by all the totalitarianisms of the twentieth century and the concrete and valid direction of travel to look to the future with confidence and hope”.
“In this context – added Mattarella – in the splendid lands we talk about, today, thanks to our common belonging to the European Union, there are no longer barriers or borders, but roads and bridges. Diversity no longer generates resentment or suspicion, but produces friendship and progress. With Slovenia and Croatia we cultivate and share, in Europe and in the world, the values of democracy, freedom, rights. And we work together for peace, development, prosperity of our peoples, friends and brothers. young people know it and live it”.
“Gorizia, the city symbol of the division, is today associated – thanks to a generous intuition of Slovenia – with Nova Gorica: two cities, two states, one European capital of culture 2025. We must now work hard, at a European level, because also the other countries of the Western Balkans which are candidates for entry into the Union – Mattarella reiterated – can complete the accession procedures without delay or delay. This is also a concrete response to the dangers of the possible re-ignition, in the region, of dormant conflicts of ethnic or religious nature, which risk taking history back to times that we never want to relive again”.
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