Quando, again medium girls, cThey led to visit the mausoleum of the Fosse Ardeatinethe unconsciousness and guilty joy that every derogation from school lessons causes in young minds had not allowed us to fully grasp the historical scope of that strange place a little garden and a little cemetery, which spoke to us about our grandparents and a reconquered freedom. A freedom that now breathed as a natural thing, like the air of Roman spring that caressed the punched meadows of Margherite.
Yet a new and unusual emotion had made its way into our still naive conscience And over the years those who have had the good fortune to have passionate professors and honest and aware parents have managed to feed that feeling of gratitude towards those who had returned a free world to us: A feeling that must still be protected as precious, despite 80 years since the day of the liberation of our country from the murderous and cowardly fury of a dictatorship that had dragged him to war.
In the stone coffins under the vaults of the Ardeatine are collected the remains of the 335 hostages massacred on March 24, 1944 In retaliation at the attack in via Rasella. It is an massacre desired by the Nazis with the diligent collaboration of the Italian fascists who have mercilessly compiled the lists of Jews and anti -fascists to please the German ally.
Serena Dandini (photo by Gianmarco Chieregato).
Not to forget
But as he tells us Michela Ponzani in his beautiful book Women who resist (Einaudi) those coffins would not be there if the mothers, the widows, the daughters of the victims of that tragic day had not been rebelled at the mass burial who had been foreseen for reasons of hygiene and practicality by the American command in Rome.
“Women who resist” by Michela Ponzani (Einaudi)
Months had passed from the massacre and the love and courage of these women wanted to go looking for traces, small finds, sometimes a ticket or just a piece of fabric mended for Recognize one by one their loved ones in that mass of bodies in putrefactionand report dignity and justice on earth.
Ponzani is a historian who dedicates himself to meticulous research in the archives, he listens to testimonies and collects memoriesand in his book highlights not only the life of the heroes, but also that of heroines who made history, even if often forgotten or relegated, as has also happened in the partisan struggle, to a role of handmaids.
A lively and necessary book that frees the resistance from any embalmed and rhetoric celebration and above all by the propaganda denials of our time.
All articles by Serena Dandini.
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