Fosse Ardeatine, Mattarella pays homage to the 335 victims. Meloni: “Deep and painful wound. Memory is a civic duty”

Seventy-ninth anniversary of the massacre of 335 civilians, political, Jewish, military prisoners, ordinary prisoners, assassinated by the Nazis on 24 March 1944 in retaliation for the action of the Gap partisans the previous day in via Rasella. “Today Italy honors the victims of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre – recalls the premier Giorgia Meloni with a note – A massacre that marked one of the deepest and most painful wounds inflicted on our national community: 335 innocent Italians massacred just because they were Italian. It is up to all of us – Institutions, civil society, schools and the world of information – to remember those martyrs and to tell the younger generations in particular what happened on that terrible March 24, 1944. May memory never be a mere exercise in style but a duty civic duty to be exercised every day”, concludes the premier.

The President of the Republic arrived at the Fosse Ardeatine Mausoleum at 10 Sergio Mattarella, who listened to the long list in memory of the victims and then entered the shrine for a private moment of recollection. The Minister of Defense also attended the ceremony Guido Crosettothe president of the Senate Ignatius LaRussathe Speaker of the House, Lorenzo Fontanathe mayor of Rome Robert Gualtierithe vice president of the Lazio Region, Roberta Angelilli.

“March 24 is an indelible date in Italian history. A date that recalls the martyrdom of men whose lives were despised and used for a cowardly and brutal retaliation. This is why it is significant to be here together with the President of the Republic Mattarella, the institutions, to the families of the victims to name those martyrs one by one, despite time passing discrimination and hatred persist. Our commitment is to fight them by keeping the memory alive”, comments the president of the Jewish Community of Rome Ruth Dureghello during the ceremony.

On Facebook the message of the democratic deputy Nicola Zingaretti: “335 dead among political prisoners, dissidents, Jews, killed in reprisal at the Fosse Ardeatine by Nazi hatred. One of the most tragic moments of the occupation of Rome and of our country. It is our duty to keep alive the memory of the victims and the places of their martyrdom. Because as Piero Calamandrei said to the young people of Milan: ‘If you want to go on pilgrimage to the place where our Constitution was born, go to the mountains where the partisans fell, to the prisons where they were imprisoned, to the fields where they were hanged – recalls the former governor of Lazio – Wherever an Italian died to redeem freedom and dignity, go there, or young people, with the thought, because our Constitution was born there'”.