Even remotely, everyone in their homes, we can take a moment to reflect in order not to forget and to reassert the values and challenges which unite us. On the 76th anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) has organized a commemoration on its Facebook page, which was streamed this morning and is still available for replay.
“335 Italians were slaughtered on this day in 1944. The Union of the Italian Jewish Communities would like to commemorate each one of them and pay homage to their memory,” underlined UCEI President Noemi Di Segni in her opening statement. General Military Prosecutor Marco De Paolis, historian Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi and UCEI’s director for Culture and Education Rabbi Roberto Della Rocca also made their statements. Some representatives of the National Agency for Youth then read out all 335 names of the victims.
The memory of those victims lives on and still has a lot to teach us. As Italian President Sergio Mattarella underlined in his message this morning, “Liberty and democracy were conquered by shedding the blood of many in order to prevent it from happening again in the future. After those terrible years of dictatorship and war, the unity of the Italian people led to Italy’s moral, civic, economic and social rebirth. That same unity is needed today, in these difficult times for the whole community.” A call to making good use of that terrible lesson also came from Ruth Dureghello, President of the Jewish Community of Rome.
