Professor Ferrando’s speech warms up the square on April 25th in Pavia: «The accounts with fascism have never been fully resolved»

PAVIA. Resisting means not being indifferent. Anna Ferrando, professor of transnational history of culture in contemporary Italy at the University of Pavia, gave heart and passion to the ritual oration in Piazza Italia. Starting from the informal «Happy April 25th» with which she began after the ritual thanks to the authorities.

Incandescent matter

Extreme passion and competence. “If at almost 80 years of age – he said – April 25th appears to be incandescent matter in our country, it is because we have not wanted to fully come to terms with fascism”.

Yet, 80 years ago, someone decided to “cross the line of indifference”. «The Resistance – the teacher recalled – was an assumption of responsibility in the face of one’s past, but also the reconquest of the national dignity trampled upon by fascism». And on the ways in which dignity was trampled upon, the teacher explained with specific, documented, chilling examples. Like the experience of a very young Tina Anselmi who, with her classmates from the Bassano del Grappa teacher training institute, was forced to see 43 young people hanged from trees after a roundup by the Nazi fascists.

Or, again, like thesniff horribles for the Resistance, 1944 with the Fosse Ardeatine, Sant’Anna di Stazzema, Marzabotto. It was all this hatred, all this death that pushed many to overcome “the nausea of ​​war” and take refuge in the mountains, engaging in the fight against the Germans and fascists. A fight which in turn cost blood and mourning, even in Oltrepo, a land of partisans. «A place that reminds us of the harshness of the occupation – the teacher recalled – is the castle of Cigognola, headquarters of the Sicherheits, a place of interrogations, torture and torture».

Even if some, returning from the tragic Russian campaign, were unable to overcome the nausea of ​​the war. «I remember my grandfather’s blue eyes, excited, when as a little girl he told me “I can’t talk about these things”. He did not respond to the calls from the Italian Social Republic, even if this meant risking his life.” Professor Ferrando also gave voice and role back to the many women who made it possible to overthrow the fascist regime.

Secular exclusion

“The 20 years of fascist dictatorship weighed even more heavily on women because they were grafted onto the centuries-old exclusion of women from the public sphere.” And then, even sewing uniforms for the fighters became a “political” act. And then, the “different ideas of Italy that the anti-fascist parties expressed were indispensable for rediscovering the profound meaning of democracy”. Also to overcome the cruelties of the fascist occupation of Ethiopia, between 1935 and 1936, a series of atrocities “which alone would be enough to demolish the myth of the Italian good people”. She served her blood to cleanse other blood, to give us the Italy that we know and take for granted. With a warning never to be forgotten: «Resisting means not being indifferent».