«It’s a historic day for the province of Frosinone. The bombings and suffering are still deep scars today. The wounds of the past they shaped the present. And when all hope seemed to be lost we found a way resist. This award is a tribute to the victims and a reminder of the lessons of the past. Thank you minister, long live Italy, long live the province of Frosinone.” The said it president of the province of Frosinone Luca Di Stefano greeting the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosiin Frosinone for the celebrations on April 25th which will culminate with the award ceremony gold medal to the civil merit to the Province. For the prefect of Frosinone Ernesto Liguori «it is important not to disperse the memory. A memory that is still alive and emerges in the feeling of Ciociaria population».
The role of Frosinone and Cassinate
There province of Frosinone and in particular the cassinate they were on the front line in 1944: the breakthrough of the Gustav line resulted in the total destruction of Cassino, of its thousand-year-old heritage abbey and many other centers. The breakthrough was followed by mass rapes in which the women were the protagonists French colonial troops who abused women, children but also men and women elderly. «Our province – underlined the mayor of Frosinone, Riccardo Mastrangeli – has suffered devastating events violence: from bombings to roundups, up to the unspeakable morocconiture. Cassino, Montecassino but also Frosinone and many other towns devastated. Today we take the liberty of submitting to the minister the possibility of awarding the silver medal for civil merit, precisely by virtue of the martyrdom of our city, to the Municipality of Frosinone”.
Piantedosi’s message
«For no reason is it allowed to debase the unique meaning of the Liberation or fill it with contents extraneous to that precious juncture of Italian history, from which democracy originated. Any attempt to legitimize ideological battles, thus decontextualizing the anniversary of April 25th, is equivalent to appropriating everyone’s identity for the reasons of some”, continued Piantedosi. For the minister «on April 25th we celebrate those who knew watch beyond the warbeyond disintegration, beyond one’s own pain, for a greater goal: a project of United Italy and democratic. I’m not just talking about those who theorized democracy as a political project and defense with weapons. I am also talking about ordinary people, about those who have practiced and defended democratic sentiment in their daily lives, resisting the temptation to give in to hatred, despite having experienced every evil. Our Republic is founded on these people, as well as on principles.”
The minister has remembered L’Nazi occupation which in Ciociaria lasted from September ’43 to the spring of ’44 with requisitions and roundups, underlining the suffering of Anagni which was used as a military hospital centre, those of Alatri which became a massing point for German troops but also a center of destination for a large number of displaced people. And then the destruction of Cassino and Montecassino, i bombings on Frosinone «which was the hardest hit provincial capital with over 80% of the city fabric razed to the ground».
Mieli: «Here we lived through hell»
The journalist and historian also spoke Paolo Mieli: «The people of this provincefrom September ’43 to May ’44 he represented the sign stronger than Resistence. The Resistance of families who could have escaped and hidden themselves but remained here and, at times risking their own lives, hid Resistance agents, at a time when the Germans had requisitioned everything. These people knew they would be wiped out by bombs but they didn’t left its own Earth. Reducing the suffering of this people only to the violence of the French colonial troops is a historic reduction. This province has lived L’hell for eight months, knowing that there was a people who resisted as you Ciociaria did, makes me proud and Italy a better place.”
