Page 23 - NONOSTANTE IL LUNGO TEMPO TRASCORSO…Le stragi nazifasciste nella guerra di liberazione 1943–1945

ENG It’s been just over 80 years since September 8th,
1943: an important date which marks a turning
point in Italian history, having started a series of
painful and dramatic events that inspired the long
path towards the reconquest of freedom and the
beginning of democracy.
Women and men belonging to the same pop-
ulation found themselves deprived of a reference,
in an invaded Country, humiliated and severely
wounded by bombings and raids. A Country on its
knees, which managed to find its moral and ma-
terial redemption at a very high price in terms of
human lives.
From September 8th 1943 to April 25th
1945, the Italian soldiers, as well as the whole
country, fought bravely and valiantly. Their blood
tribute, at times unknown and underestimated,
strengthened the ethical foundation of the Ital-
ian War of Liberation. This Resistance stimu-
lated Italy and revived its spirit in the following
years of the 20th century.
It is within this framework of tragic events
that the exhibition has been conceived and cu-
rated by the Military Public Prosecutor Marco
De Paolis: an exhibiting space that, “despite the
long time”, represents an important historio-
graphic cause for reflection for what concerns
nazifascism, anti-semitism, massacres, perse-
cutions and forgotten people. Proofs that should
not be locked up in archives, but instead must be
shown to the public, so that “memory and truth
could be at the base of democracy” to quote our
President of the Republic.
The considerable collection of documents,
pictures, relics, videos and judicial files leads us
in the understanding of nazifascist crimes against
the civilians and the Italian soldiers, which were
committed during one of the most critical mo-
ADMIRAL ments in our national history. This exhibition hon-
ours all those who were slaughtered in their moth-
GIUSEPPE CAVO erland or in the main battlefronts, as well as those
who were deported and imprisoned in lagers. I am
DRAGONE referring to political opponents, Jews and ethnic
minorities persecuted by the nazi regime, but also
to soldiers who refused to fight alongside that
Chief of same oppressive regime.
Defence Staff I would like to mention two events, among the
many that this exhibition recalls, distant in time
and space but close because of their common
themes: violence, cruelty and disdain of human pi-
etas. September 1943: the “Acqui” Division did not
surrender their weapons and fought strenuously
against the Germans, in what culminated as the
Kefalonia massacre; August 1944: along the Goth-
ic Line, during the War of Liberation, hundreds of

STORIA GIUSTIZIA MEMORIA HISTORY JUSTICE MEMORY 23

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