The historical culture association “Heirs of History” and the ANMIG foundation on the occasion of May 1st, International Workers’ Day, want to raise a memory, a noble thought to some of our fellow citizens who served their homeland during the conflicts that occurred in course of the 20th century.
They were boys, young men who responded to the call to arms, animated and aware of writing pages of history to pass on to future generations.
And these young people, before wearing the uniform of the weapon of destination, were workers.
There were many farmers, sea workers, artisans, traders, workers, but also teachers and professionals.
And it is on this aspect that the “Eredi della Storia” association and the AMNIG wish to delve deeper into some aspects that the protagonists of those conflicts had to face.
Many of our fellow citizens upon returning to their families at the end of the war found themselves, in addition to having serious physical and psychological difficulties, some returned mutilated, without employment or work, because in the meantime the economic and social fabric had changed of our city.
Many companies were closed, some could not withstand the serious economic crisis caused by the war economy.
Several of our fellow citizens returned to carry out the activities they practiced before the war, such as Luigi Capursi, known as mèst Gigin, who during the Second World War worked at the Savoia-Marchetti factory assembling part of the wooden planes supplied to the Italian Army. At the end of the war, Capursi opened his shop in Via Tenente Galeppi, becoming a point of reference for citizens who needed furniture and wooden artefacts.
Mèst Gigin started a collaboration with the radio technician Vincenzo Rutigliano, also a veteran, building and assembling valuable furniture for the radio, for the Molfetta families and for the neighboring cities.
Men like the shipowner Ignazio Salvemini, whose fishing boats were requisitioned during the war period, which were used for the transport of goods and food, of soldiers, and subsequently after 8 September carried out an intense liaison activity from the front Greek-Balkan towards Puglia, transferring soldiers and equipment of the royal army. At the end of the war he returned to full possession of his fishing boats and resumed his fishing activity, offering various jobs to war veterans.
People like Onofrio Bufo, another good craftsman of our city, was a house painter, who returned to his loved ones at the end of 1945, after having been the victim of deportation to the Leipzig concentration camp, he too bore the marks on his body of a crazy and cruel war.
After the war, Onofrio Bufo was a very active protagonist in the political and social life of our city, contributing to the creation of the local section of the Christian Democracy, he was also the last veteran to hold the role of ANMIG president of Molfetta, his the idea of opening the doors of fighting and weapons associations to young people, in fact in 2000 the Eredi della Storia association was born.
And on May 1st we cannot fail to remember all the women who, left alone because the men were engaged in military operations at the front, became the protagonists, the points of reference of a war economy made up of hardship, sacrifices, limitations, but also of ingenuity, intelligence, know-how, in short what was needed and useful to provide sustenance to those who remained in the family, the children, the adolescents, the elderly.
We remember all the women who carried out housework, too often, still not considered today, but also women who had replaced their men in the countryside, in the artisan workshops, in companies, those who carried out the work of seamstresses.
Women like Giacoma Galeppi and Carmela Pisani, seamstresses, Maria Marseglia at the head of the “MMM” yarn company. In the field of clothing the Cecchini sisters, Laura Pansini, the trader Carmela Ferrarese, in the field of medicine Donna Pia Maggialetti, founder of the radiology center of Molfetta, Donna Nietta Costa-Messina of the Villa Giustina clinic, and many others.
In short, a May 1st that is the feast of all workers, that pays homage to any type of work, that gives honor and dignity to any type of work activity carried out by human beings, regardless of the place, the place in which it is carried out.
A human being who must channel and direct all his good intentions in order to constantly and continuously improve the working conditions and the environments in which they take place.
There are many, too many, accidents, sometimes with tragic consequences, which still involve those who work in the world of work today.
Happy May 1st.
Angelo Belifemmine
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