NEWS Italian President Mattarella Expressed Gratitude for the Jewish Brigade

By Adam Smulevich
 
“There were free men who landed in occupied Italy and spilled their blood for our freedom. To those fallen, from distant nations, we dedicate a grateful remembrance. Their blood is that of our brothers. Among them, we cannot forget the five thousand volunteers of the Jewish Brigade, Italian or not.”
 
With a powerful speech held on April 25, the day Italy celebrates the anniversary of the Liberation from Nazi-fascism, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella gave the best answer to those who, riding on hatred and hypocrisy, have tried to disregard the role of the Brigade.   
 
Among them were several pro-Palestinian groups, which in Rome (differently from what happened in other cities) have found the support of the National Association of Italian Partisans and forced the Jewish Community, for the second consecutive year, to celebrate April 25 separately in their own rally. 
 
On the same day, President Mattarella visited the former concentration camp of Fossoli, in Central Italy.
 
“This is one of the symbols in Italy of the violence that the ludicrous madness of Nazi-fascism had erected in the system,” Mattarella stressed during his intervention.
 
He then added: “In those wooden shacks, a decisive act of human tragedy was committed and thousands of people were persecuted: political opponents, Jews, and  Resistance fighters.”
 
Mattarella also mentioned three giants of the Memory of the Shoah with a connection to the camp of Fossoli: Primo Levi, who died 30 years ago, and witnesses Nedo Fiano and Piero Terracina.