04/25/2024
Pistoia celebrated the National Liberation Day from Nazi-Fascism in front of the monument to the fallen in Piazza della Resistenza.
Mayor Alessandro Tomasi, in his speech he recalled the murder of Giacomo Matteotti of which this year marks the hundredth anniversary: an example, said the mayor, which is still valid today. Many people were present, individual citizens, associations and civil and military authorities.
And to underline that April 25th was also and above all one popular celebrationtook place in Bring the traditional lunch to the Borgo in the street, with over 500 people at the table and dozens of volunteers Arci Ho Chi Minh Clubwhich has been organizing it for 20 years, and among the stands of the associations.
The text pronounced in Piazza della Resistenza by Mayor Tomasi:
Good morning everyone,
I thank the civil and military authorities, the combat and arms associations, the Anpi, all the members of the Cudir and the citizens present this morning to celebrate together, in front of the Monument to the Fallen of the Resistance, the liberation of our country from Nazi-fascism.
Today is first and foremost a celebration, and as with all holidays, when we wake up in the morning we wish our children and the people we love a happy birthday.
Maybe we do it with a message or a phone call.
Today the first thing we must say, even shout, is long live Freedom.
And tell our kids, our children:
thanks to all those people who fought to deliver it to us.
Partisans, men and women, soldiers, ordinary people who, by hiding someone from reprisals, by secretly passing a piece of bread, by not collaborating with the fascists and the Nazis, like the boys of the Fortress, contributed to freeing us.
Two beautiful words: Freedom and Gratitude. That’s what the celebration is about today. Of Freedom and Gratitude.
This year we also remember the centenary of the Matteotti crime, and today it is right to remember this martyr.
Matteotti was killed by the fascists after the denunciatory speech he gave to the Chamber on 30 May 1924.
“We – Matteotti said to the Chamber – defend the sovereignty of the Italian people (sovereignty belongs to the people, article 1 of the Constitution), to whom we send our highest greetings and believe we are reclaiming their dignity by asking for the annulment of the elections affected by violence”.
Matteotti gave the speech in the midst of a majority who shouted at him, interrupted by verbal attacks from those who wanted to prevent him from speaking.
He delivered that speech against the abuses of fascists but he also delivered it for the opposition, to encourage it to have courage and to fight, to make a real, tough opposition in the place designated for it.
At the end of his speech he said to his party comrades: Now you can prepare my funeral eulogy.
It is clear that Matteotti understood the direction in which the country was going, towards dictatorship, the deprivation of freedom, and he knew the risk to which his battle and his attempt to awaken the dormant consciences of many would subject him.
He was killed because he represented a danger to the dictatorship.
There were also very important conferences in the city where the figure of Matteotti was reconstructed from a historical point of view not only for this denunciation but for his political activity before the advent of fascism.
But allow me to reflect.
What is his most important legacy?
I was born into a left-wing, socialist family. A humble family, like many there were and there are many, and who like many others were guided in their lives by a certain vision of the world.
Politics permeated the life of families in an ideal way much more than today.
It struck me that even in the humblest families, even among the last of the militants, books were purchased that told the story, the Resistance, politics. There was certainly no shortage of books about Matteotti in my house.
Because I remember well that in my family, in those humble homes mentioned earlier, when we talked about fascism and war we immediately connected to two things: Mattotti’s murderers and those who signed the racial laws.
Killing a political opponent was the most cowardly and heinous act.
Matteotti was idealized by ordinary people as a hero. Like the first Martyr. He is an untouchable figure. He is an example of courage, of the first opposition to fascism. He is an example unlike those who turned their backs the other way, very often for convenience.
So I’ll tell you that I was also very struck by what Walter Veltroni said here in Pistoia, during an interview on the occasion of the presentation of his book.
He said that history is complex and that after the Liberation, do you know what the sewers of Rome were full of? They were full of fascist party cards.
This is a sign that, although in a period certainly characterized by the use of violence, of force, in which it was fear that guided people’s choices, and also convenience, there had still been a support of the people because the antibodies were still missing to dictatorship.
While these antibodies were present in some enlightened people like Matteotti, they were not yet present among the population.
So today we must work to ensure that examples like Matteotti’s are always alive, precisely to cultivate these antibodies that must never be missing.
Young people, people need concrete examples, concrete behaviors and not rhetoric.
In this sense, I will tell you about the Einaudi Institute project that I wanted to support.
The Municipality of Pistoia contributed 5 thousand euros to the educational trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau which involved around 150 students. The last group returned to Pistoia just in the last few days.
I want to read you some of their thoughts, because they are testimony to how certain initiatives can make a difference.
This is the testimony of a student of the evening course:
Auschwitz and Birkenau made such an impression on me, leaving me with a deep sadness that I will never be able to forget. At that moment I thought about the suffering of these people, especially that of disabled children, like my daughter Ivanna, who really couldn’t defend themselves, I was left with a lump in my throat. These places of extermination made me reflect and I asked myself how man can become perverse, cruel and crazy towards his peers. (Malarin Cesar Pimentel David)
Another testimony:
The most impressive thing was seeing the objects of the deported people: suitcases, glasses, shoes, bowls and even the cut hair with which, the guide explained to us, nets and socks were woven for the sailors. I still see in my mind their faces displayed in the photos. I was struck by the smell of burning bones, which I thought was just a rumor. The Birkenau museum also struck me a lot, especially the train tracks where the prisoners arrived and were left in the two sectors (male and female) separated by a barbed fence to be selected. Now there is a green field there that was once just mud. To think that all those innocent people were killed, or tortured, that they died of starvation and disease, is truly terrible and was shocking to me. (Valentina Silvestro)
This is the thought of a student: If I could I would do it again 1000 times because it gave me the opportunity to reflect on important and still current topics. In particular, the large size of the camps and the great organization within them made me reflect on how everything was designed to KILL without the possibility of salvation. It was an important opportunity also because we must not forget what happened in the hope that it won’t happen again in the future. (Giulia Marcianò).
Others have also arrived, and for this I thank the students, the head teacher Elena Pignolo and professor Massimo Vannucci. It would be nice to collect them all in one publication.
Already these that I have read to you are enough to understand how important certain initiatives are to cultivate those antibodies to dictatorships, to wars, necessary in every era.
Those antibodies and those values cultivated with the Liberation and imprinted in the Constitution.
The blood, commitment and thought of those who liberated the country flowed into the Constitution.
Can we say that today this text is fully implemented? No.
However, we know that it gives us directions to aim for.
What does it mean to fight fascism today? Not in a historical and sterile vision, not in the logic of political exploitation that comes from the right or left.
Fighting fascism today means fighting against something that from time to time stands in the way of realizing a reality towards which the Constitution tends.
For example, let’s read article 3: All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, personal and social conditions.
This means that we must fight racism, because we are all equal.
Or article 32 on health.
The Republic protects health as a fundamental right of the individual and interest of the community.
We must fight for public health!
Article 21: Everyone has the right to freely express their thoughts.
Think about how powerful this freedom is. Think about how powerful Matteotti’s speech in the Chamber was, the expression of his thoughts. His words represented a threat to the dictatorship.
Article 31: The Republic facilitates the formation of the family and the fulfillment of related tasks with economic measures and other provisions.
Are young people today really given the chance to start a family?
Article 36: The worker has the right to remuneration proportionate to the quantity and quality of his work and in any case sufficient to ensure a free and dignified existence for himself and his family.
Is it really like this today?
Evidently there is still a lot to do.
To fight totalitarianism – and for us it is less dangerous than in the past and much clearer on how to do it – we must fight to ensure that what is written in this simple and powerful text is achieved.
Today is a day of celebration. I hope that each of you started it by celebrating and I like to think that tonight, in every home, we say long live Freedom once again! Long live Liberation! And thanks to those who freed us!
Happy April 25th!
Marta Quilici
