Day of remembrance: medals deported to Nazi concentration camps

In occasione del Giorno della Memoria a Firenze si è svolta nel Memoriale di Santa Croce la cerimonia di consegna delle medaglie d’onore del Presidente della Repubblica ai deportati della provincia di Firenze nei lager nazisti durante l’ultimo conflitto mondiale.

Were 28 This year the awards conferred by Prefect Luigi Varratta and the mayors of the municipalities of origin of the awarded: Florence, Barberino di Mugello, Capraia e Limite, Certaldo, Empoli, Firenzuola, Marradi, Palazzuolo sul Senio, Pelago, Pontassieve, Scandicci, Sesto Fiorentino and Money.

The ceremony was held in the basement of the Basilica of Santa Croce, now called Memorial, until 8 February that host the exhibition "1938-1945. The persecution of the Jews in Italy. Documents for a story ", organized by the Ministry of Interior and the Prefecture just to honor Memorial Day 2015.

Some innovations have characterized the ceremony: the reading of poetry Trilussa "Lullaby of the war" and the testimony of the student Andrea Cappelli. Past and present that are combined together on the Day of Remembrance to offer a different time of reflection "on one of the darkest pages we experienced in Europe", said the Prefect Luigi Varratta opening the event.

"The suffering of the deportation of many Italians in the German concentration camps - went on addressing the awarded - was not in vain because it was born our country free and democratic. I wish these ceremonies should not remain events in themselves and why this does not happen you need a constant effort, daily, of all and at all levels to keep guard, not to underestimate the dangerous outbreaks that are seen today in the world. Memory is commitment that we must cultivate ourselves first and then unknowingly pass on to our children so that they may develop antibodies to fight any form of discrimination, intolleranza e odio razziale”.

Immediately after the prefect intervened Andrea Cappelli who brought his young witness. What studente, now in his second year of Economics at Sant'Anna of Pisa, from high school has twice been to Auschwitz with the Train of Memory, in 2011 and 2013, as president of the regional parliament of the students. He also visited the concentration camp at Dachau, destination for a school trip with classmates in high school Antonio da Sangallo Chianciano Terme, where is. At the end of those trips Cappelli has felt the need to convey everything he had seen. So he visited dozens of schools, from medium to universities, has participated in conferences and debates, has developed projects together with municipalities.

"The monsters of the world are fed with inaction - said the student - not the defeats to enlarge them, but the sacrifices which in this case are those who can not compete against the force of media concepts xenophobic and racist. Give in to demagogy, intolerance, stereotypes paves the way of hatred. Our task is to be carriers of active memory ".

It is then passed to the delivery of the medals of honor; two were withdrawn in person by former deportees Donatello Artenzioli and Renzo Montini, while the other twenty-six, memory, were assigned to the family of Luciano Acidini, Alberto AGRESTI, Elio Bartolozzi, Giorgio Biagiotti, Max Boris, Augustine Catti, Alfredo Cioni, Siro Cocchi, Giuseppe Collini, Armando Donatini, Nunzio Donatini, Mario Fans, Benito Giuntini, Guido Lucchesi, Giuseppe Marinari, Giorgio Mengoni, Giuseppe Morozzi, Mario Piccioli, Amedeo Pierantoni, Candido RADICCHI, Aldo Rovai, Carlo Rosati, Sergio Rusich, Remo Scalini, Vincenzo Scarpa and Angiolo Terinazzi.

Michael Lattanzi

By the number 49 - Year II 28/01/2015