On July 21, 1997, lawyer Oreste Bisazza Terracini was in court in Rome for the conclusion of the first-degree trial of former SS captain Erich Priebke who commanded the unit responsible for the\u00a0Ardeatine Massacre\u00a0in Rome on 24 March 1944 in which 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for\u00a0a partisan attack. \u201cNever have you judged a man with such great guilt. Probably never, in your future as judges, will you encounter a guilt so terrifyingly vast. This is a guilt that does not expire,\u201d said Bisazza Terracini, addressing the military tribunal. In court, the lawyer represented the Jewish Community of Rome as a civil party. \u201cI do not have a weapon in my hand to raise against Erich Priebke, nor do I want to exact revenge. I only have my voice in my defense, in our defense, in defense of all of us,\u201d said Bisazza Terracini, asking for justice to be served.
\nThe following day, the verdict was delivered, and the former SS captain was convicted of war crimes. \u201cI sought justice, and I obtained it. I did not seek revenge. I could have likely obtained that as well,\u201d Bisazza Terracini explained to Pagine Ebraiche on the 25th anniversary of that verdict. This was a key moment in the lawyer\u2019s career. The internationally renowned attorney passed away on August 13, 2024, at the age of 85.
\n\u201cIt is sad news; he offered us his dedication and support for important causes,\u201d emphasized the President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni, recalling Bisazza Terracini\u2019s active commitment against antisemitism. Thanks to him, Di Segni explained, UCEI obtained the right to act judicially as an offended party on behalf of the Jewish world, a principle recently invoked in the case against Gabriele Rubini, a TV cook known as Chef\u00a0Rubio.
\nAs a child, Oreste Bisazza Terracini fled anti-Jewish persecutions. Born in 1939, he was saved in Switzerland by his mother, the actress Maria Laura Rocca, after September 8, 1943. There, the two were interned in a refugee camp, where Rocca met the future President of the Italian Constituent Assembly, Umberto Terracini. Returning to Italy at the end of the war, Mr Terracini married Ms Rocca and adopted little Oreste. \u201cFrom Terracini, I learned a great life lesson from his extreme simplicity in behavior. He was exactly the same in all interpersonal relationships, treating both the humble and the powerful in the same manner,\u201d Bisazza Terracini recounted in a 2018 interview with the daily Corriere della Sera.
\nThe interview focused on the lawyer\u2019s other passion, poetry. \u201cHe wrote about every human and Jewish feeling and condition. He wrote every day from 4 in the morning until 2 at night,\u201d remembered Di Segni. In the interview, the lawyer emphasized his connection to the Jewish culture. \u201cI am not religious, but my secularism does not exclude the heartfelt Jewish component that I feel within me. My family, strongly imbued with secularism, has never left much space for faith. Nonetheless, the theme of doubt and the divine is recurring in my poems.\u201d
\nVice President of the Italian League for Human Rights and President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers, he had recently followed with UCEI the case of antisemitic stickers\u2014featuring Anne Frank in a yellow-red uniform\u2014posted by fans of the football club Lazio during a match at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
\nTalking to Pagine Ebraiche, Bisazza Terracini did not hide his concern for the future of Holocaust memory in Italy. \u201cMemory should always be conscious. Oblivion navigates in the unconscious, and I believe that the unconscious of Italians tends towards oblivion, which should be removed with methods different from what many believe the Day of Remembrance can achieve.\u201d \u2028May his memory be a blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"