I would define it a particular day if stating this didn’t recall the title of the enormous film by Ettore Scola which narrated the unforgettable hours of Mastroianni and Loren in the intimacy of their solitudes while Rome hosted Hitler. Therefore, April 25th does not recall those moments at all but for the Ciociaria, for the entire Province of Frosinone, the particularity of this Liberation Day is there.
In fact, on this 25th April 2024 the Province of Frosinone saw its Banner decorated with the Gold Medal for Civil Merit. A symbol which is, finally, after 80 years, the recognition of what this land and its people have suffered, not only passively, as the historian recognized Paolo Mieli in his Lectio Magistralis, but operating a resistance ante litteram, before the Resistance.
The credit for the recognition absolutely goes to the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi. It was he who recognized the truth and wanted to make the gesture, not by chance on April 25th, to henceforth do justice to what happened: not only the horror of the violence of the colonial troops following the Allies ( Mieli also made it clear that it was not only the dark-skinned soldiers who perpetrated those monstrosities: it was convenient to attribute the bestiality only to Moroccans and Algerians) but what happened before, in the previous eight months, those who saw the terrible occupation of Germans, which counted hundreds of bombings, destruction of cities, an enormous number of civilian victims not yet fully quantified: a people, that of Ciociaria, massacred twice. From the occupying Germans and the liberators. Despite this, a people who never gave up, who knew how to risk being shot by hiding Allied agents, looking after wounded soldiers, hiding their opponents. A people “who were able to see beyond the horror and did not allow themselves to be dragged into hatred”. Mieli said.
THE SPEECH OF THE MAYOR OF FROSINONE, RICCARDO MASTRANGELI
“For our country, April 25th is a day of Peace, Democracy, Rights and Equality in which we remember and thank again the Catholic, Communist, Republican, Socialist partisans, shareholders, liberals, Jews and the allied liberation forces, but above all it is the date of foundation of our democratic experience, of which the Republic is the guardian with its Constitution.
The province of Frosinone, from today, will also remember April 25th as the date of this important ceremony, with the awarding of the gold medal for civil merit, in the presence of the Hon. Minister of the Interior. Matteo Piantedosi – who personally oversaw all the initiatives relating to the awarding of this prestigious recognition, and to whom our territory is grateful for the testimony of attention and closeness paid to him – and to the presence of the authorities, the mayors and the many citizens who attended who I greet this morning .
“Territory of significant strategic importance, as it is located close to the “Gustav Line” and crossed by Via Casilina, the main connecting artery between the Capital and the South of the country, from 10 September 1943 it was the scene of a violent military occupation and suffered devastating bombings which caused the destruction of a large part of the building and cultural heritage”, we read in the motivation for the award. “The population, the object of ferocious barbarism and forced into displacement, supported by heroic courage, profound faith in freedom and very high moral dignity, tolerated the loss of a large number of fellow citizens and unspeakable suffering, offering a shining example of self-sacrifice, unshakable firmness and patriotic love. 1943/1944 – Province of Frosinone”.
To the “immense suffering suffered”, our territory responded with “extraordinary resilience”.
In reconnecting the thread of memory of the war events, we cannot fail to refer to the Gustav Line, the devastation of the Abbey of Montecassino and the City of Cassino, as well as many other inhabited centers in the area, together with the memory of the rapes of the colonial troops French in Ciociaria (the Marocchinate), underlining, at the same time, the strength, determination and great dignity of the citizens of the province who, rolling up their sleeves, worked towards reconstruction, despite the malaria epidemic. The best-known episodes of the war period in our territory are certainly linked to the military history of the battle of Cassino, a matter of interest to many scholars from all over the world, since the soldiers who participated in it came from all over the world. Even if to a lesser extent, the drama of the war involved many other centers, small and large, near and far from the front.
Many local historians have contributed to preserving and passing on the memory of the tragic events of the Second World War: we cannot fail to remember the figures of Maurizio Federico, Constantine Jadecola, Angelino Loffredi, Paolo Sbarbada, Alessandro Campagna.
In the last months of 1943 the opposing German and Allied sides were positioned on a line over 50 kilometers away from Alatri and Anagni, and precisely on the famous Gustav Line, a formidable defensive deployment prepared by the German army in the autumn of 1943. This line defense went from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, crossing the Sangro valley, the Mainarde massif, Cassino and the Aurunci Mountains. Without interruption, minefields, shelters, barracks, trenches and every other defensive arrangement were arranged along this line, which required an enormous effort not only in economic terms, but also in terms of human resources management, as we would say today. Displaced and rounded up Italian workers… represented very convenient labor for the German army.
Lazio was certainly among the Italian regions most marked by the passage of the war. Two open fronts – that of the “Gustav Line” on the Garigliano and that of Anzio/Nettuno – on which intense fighting takes place, the very high concentration of troops, primarily German, the pounding Allied air activity, the forced evacuations and the difficulties of supplies, requisitions and anti-partisan repression troubled the life of the population of this region.
After an initial phase in the summer of 1943, five months of intense fighting followed. We remember the battles of Montecassino, between January and May 1944, and those on the Anzio front, the failed bloody German counter-offensives of February and March and, finally, the last push by the Allied troops which, in less than four weeks, brought to the liberation of Lazio. It should be highlighted that the German presence was particularly significant.
An entire army, the 14th, strong of 145,000 men, and a good part of the 174,000 of the 10th army were located on its territory, concentrated in particular near the front on the Garigliano, to the east and south-east of the province of Frosinone, and of the of Anzio bridge, south of Rome. The province of Frosinone, in the bloody context of the second conflict, will pay a very high price to be able to allow the allies to deliver the decisive blow to bring Germany to its knees and thus free Europe from the Nazi threat. While the German troops were deeply involved in the battles on our territory, the Americans and the English were preparing the landing on the continent, that famous D-Day of 6 June 1944. The front runs from Le Havre to Cherbourg in Normandy. A surprise for the Germans who were waiting for the attack on the English Channel, at Pas de Calais, and did not want to admit that they were wrong.
Churchill’s promise
Churchill’s promise on the dramatic night of 2 August 1940 comes to mind, when all seemed lost: «Remember: we will never stop, we will never get tired, we will never give in; our entire people and the British Empire have devoted themselves to the task of cleansing Europe from the Nazi plague and saving the world from the new Middle Ages… and the morning will come.” And if that morning has arrived, it is also thanks to the extreme sacrifice of the province of Frosinone and its inhabitants, which was sacrificed for a long time in order to liberate Europe. Ours was a civil population that also experienced first-hand the immense drama of the violence at the hands of the French goumiers. Women, but also men and children, raped by the thousands; unprecedented, gratuitous, humiliating violence that has received no justice. I remember that in the province of Frosinone alone there were 60,000 cases of violence committed by General Alphonse Juin’s troops.
“Marocchinate” a hidden tragedy
For too long the tragedy of the Morocchinate ended up locked in the cellars of history, branded as an inconvenient truth that needed to be hidden. A tragedy, however, which we have the duty to talk about, as Alberto Moravia and Vittorio De Sica did with the immortal language of literature and the seventh art. We must not forget the responsibilities of those who have committed terrible crimes and the pain of the innocent victims. A wound – that of the thousands of women who have lost their lives or have been marked, throughout their existence, by illnesses, prejudices and unspeakable suffering – which remains indelible, impossible to heal. Vallecorsa, Esperia, Castro dei Volsci, Ceccano and Pofi were among the centers most affected by this terrible tragedy. The cry of pain of the women and of all the victims of the Moroccan attacks is an expression of the suffering of an entire land and of an inhumanity which, unfortunately, is perpetuated every time hatred and violence take over the values of peace and social cohesion , respect, dialogue.
The price paid by the City of Frosinone during the bloody war was also very high. Starting from 11 September 1943, until the end of May 1944, Frosinone was in fact continuously hit by bombs. Eighty percent of the city was razed to the ground, so much so that the Canadian soldiers exclaimed in a message to their command on May 31, 1944: “The city is empty and in ruins!”. Among the destroyed buildings, that of the Municipality, located in the current historic center, in Palazzo Berardi. The bloody fury of the war did not even spare the Church of the Annunziata, the entire medieval village that developed in the area of Via Cavour, the barracks of the Royal Carabinieri (the area on which the Bank of Italy was later built, where the headquarters are today Municipality of Frosinone), the final stretch of Via Vittorio Emanuele (now Corso della Repubblica). Considerable damage was reported to the Apostolic Palace, now the seat of the Prefecture, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the headquarters of the Turriziani Classical High School and the Church of Santa Lucia. Downstream, the railway station and the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Neve were destroyed. The city mourned hundreds of deaths; many injured. From a census of the following year, it emerged that the entire population of the upper part of the city, around 8,000 people, remained homeless. At the end of the war Frosinone was the most devastated provincial capital in relation to the number of inhabitants and the building stock .
In consideration of the tragic events experienced during the war, the capital was awarded the bronze medal for civil merit in 2004 by the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with the following motivation: «Frosinone, a city semi-destroyed by the repeated bombings suffered during the Second World War, soon resurrected from its ruins thanks to the civil virtues and industriousness of its citizens”.
Finally, let me remember that the city of Frosinone is particularly linked to the figure of Ormisda, patron saint of the capital with Silverio. Precisely this year, we celebrate the Hormisdian Jubilee Year, proclaimed by our Bishop, Monsignor Ambrogio Spreafico, on the occasion of the 1500th anniversary of the death of the Holy Pontiff. Hormisdas was a man of peace, the one who in equally difficult times managed to reconcile the Church of the East with that of the West. The hope is that the message of peace and reconciliation lies in the life and teaching of Hormisda they are testimony, sprouts, with even more firmness, in the hearts of all of us”.
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