Day of Remembrance, Pisa names a roundabout after Norma Cossetto
Below is the full intervention of mayor of Pisa Michele Contiheld during the extraordinary municipal council held in the afternoon, as scheduled for the celebrations organized by the Municipality of Pisa on the occasion of Remembrance Day.
Michele Conti: “To the Authorities, to the guests of this Municipal Council, to the Executive Council, to fellow Councilors,
I address my greeting, thanking you for your participation in this extraordinary session, commissioned by the Municipality of Pisa on the Day of Remembrance, to celebrate the anniversary sanctioned by a law in March of the State, the number 92 of 2004. It was in fact that year that the Italian Parliament , restored dignity to the institutions and people involved by establishing the Day of Remembrance to preserve and renew the memory of the tragedy of the Italians and of all the victims of the sinkholes, of the exodus from their lands of the Istrians, Rijeka and Dalmatians after the Second World War and of the more complex affair of the eastern border.
A belated but necessary law, because it made it possible to fill a serious gap in our country, that of having confined within the communities that had suffered the long drama of the sinkholes and the subsequent exodus, without the narration of those events being fully inserted. title in the public as a national heritage.
As stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, “those events represent a very painful page in our history and the attempt, perpetrated over time, to cover up their dynamics and historical contours was an unacceptable operation. Just as unacceptable are the theses of denial: in fact in no case are they led to be considered admissible reasons or ideological can turn the violation of human dignity or reduce the serious historical responsibilities they have to such dramatic events “. I make my own the words of the Head of State, who with a simple but powerful gesture, which is worth a thousand words, already two years ago indicated the path that we all must follow to honor historical memory and to restore truth and dignity to the victims of sinkholes; I am referring to the photo of 13 July 2020, which became iconic, when during the laying ceremony of a wreath at the Basovizza foiba, he held hands with Slovenian President Borut Pahor. Two heads of state who, through a “painful memory, sow a seed of peace and civilization”, which leaves no room for ideological interpretations or denial theses, unfortunately still advocated by some biased minorities.
Even Pisa, which many years ago welcomed a community of Istrians, Julians and Dalmatians who resumed the journey of their life here, brutally interrupted by the violence perpetrated on the border, wants to dare as every year its contribution to shared memory and remembrance: the calendar of initiatives organized to celebrate the anniversaries will end after this extraordinary city council, with thenaming of the roundabout between via Maccatella and via di Cisanello after Norma Cossetto: a young student who lived in that difficult eastern border who was captured, tortured and tortured and then thrown, probably still alive, in the deep darkness of a foiba together with other civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict, a tragic fate that it was common to other thousands of our compatriots. A figure to whom the President of the Republic Ciampi awarded the gold medal for civil valor in 2005. I also like to remember that in 1949 a deputy of the PCI, Concepts Marchesi, wanted the University of Padua, where the girl was studying, to confer an honorary degree in literature on Norma Cossetto. A city space in Norma Cossetto means that her memory is honored in Pisa too and all the women who have suffered violence, torture and all kinds of suffering in those terrible years will be remembered together with her.
Those who do not remember have no future and the commitment of the institutions must be full and non-formal, to build a shared memory and a civil conscience in every citizen, preconditions for a world of peace and democracy “.
Source: Municipality of Pisa – Press office
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