On October 7, 1943, more than 2.000 Carabinieri stationed in Rome were arrested by the Nazis, with the backing of the Fascist leader Rodolfo Graziani, the Minister of the Armed Forces for the newly established Italian Social Republic, who had just ordered their disarmament. This was the first act of a tragedy that continued with their deportation to concentration camps, giving the Nazi-Fascists greater freedom to carry out their crimes, beginning with the imminent roundup of Roman Jewson October 16 at dawn.
\nThese two events are deeply connected and should be understood together, as highlighted by UCEI President Noemi Di Segni during a ceremony organized by the Carabinieri military police leadership and Jewish institutions at the barracks dedicated to Captain and hero Orlando De Tommaso. Posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor, De Tommaso fell in the battle at Porta San Paolo in Rome while aiding a wounded comrade under Nazi fire.
\nThe ceremony was attended by General Giuseppe La Gala, commander of the Carabinieri Schools, General Marco Lorenzoni, commander of the Carabinieri Cadet Legion, and Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, who recited a psalm. UCEI President Di Segni stated that the arrest and deportation of the Roman Carabinieri revealed the “diabolical planning based on a dual strategy: to eliminate those who uphold the sacred duty of protecting life and to rely on those who embraced base concepts of hierarchy and submission to facilitate the path to the concentration camps.”
\nTherefore, Di Segni stressed, “it is our duty today to reaffirm clearly and unequivocally the meaning of legality and the rule of law,” as these principles are essential to the defense of life. This message remains painfully relevant considering the horrors of another October 7, that of 2023. “The coincidence of dates is entirely accidental,” Di Segni noted, referring to the pogroms by Hamas, yet the parallel is “extremely significant” and “chilling.”<\/p>\n