The carnations glow red next to the Castle wall. It is the memorial tribute to the martyrs of the long night of ’43. Taking Corso Martiri della Libertà from the 4S, you can see them clearly. Placed on cardboard that remember the victims of the Nazi-fascist massacre. The hoisting of the flag to the tune of Mameli confirms the sacredness of Liberation Day. Little by little, people gather beyond the barriers. Among the speeches of the various institutional representatives, the most recurring reference is to the constituent father – among the founders of the action party – Piero Calamandrei. It is the prefect Massimo Marchesiello who adopts the concepts expressed by the jurist. “The Resistance must represent the symbol of national unity – says the government representative –. The date of April 25 must not be a divisive event, but must be a moment of cohesion and sharing”. Precisely because the value references that animated the partisan struggle “inspired the birth of our Constitution”. A charter, adds Marchesiello, “born right where the partisans fell”. The quote from an anonymous chronicler describing the entry of the Allies into Ferrara in 1945 is the key to outlining the contours of a “collective responsibility” towards a “homeland that loves all its children with the same affection, beyond beyond any ideological affiliation”.
Even the mayor, Alan Fabbri, starts with a reference to Calamandrei and then gets to the role that our city had in those dramatic days at the twilight of the Second World War. “Ferrara played, for better or for worse, a central role in the transition from the regime to freedom – says the mayor –. As early as the 1920s, fascist violence broke out in the city, becoming a terrible and consolidated model. The human story and politics of Giacomo Matteotti, whose centenary since his killing this year marks, is a dramatic example of this”. Then, the reference to the Jewish community. “One of the most important Italian Jewish communities animates the city with its thousand-year history – he continues –. Between 1943 and 1945 the Jews of Ferrara were persecuted and deported, while reprisals and massacres stained the city and its countryside with blood and violence” . “Knowing and protecting the memory, in the name of freedom – he concludes – was what moved us, in naming squares and streets, in organizing events and in-depth studies, in preserving the memory and decorum of the monuments and places that symbolize this which meant the Resistance”.
The tribute of blood on the altar of freedom was tremendous. “And Italy owes a lot to the sacrifice that many carabinieri made for the liberation of our country”, says the president of the National Carabinieri Association, Carmelo Perez. The invitation to “national pacification” and to ensure that the Liberation is not “used as a political instrument” comes from the president of the student council, Martino Ravasio, while the comment is up to the president of the Anpi, Roberto Cassoli. He also starts by quoting Calamandrei, to remind – especially the younger ones – what the Resistance was. “It started 25 years before 1945 – he says – when the fascists began to set the cities on fire.” Don Minzoni, Giacomo Matteotti, Antonio Gramsci, the racial laws. Cassoli also makes a long examination of historical character to arrive at sculpting a concept. “What the war was, what the Resistance was – he says – must not fall into oblivion. Because indifference is already a form of violence.” And here, more than Calamandrei, Gramsci’s words echo.
