(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - WWII Liberation Day on April 25 means "freedom for all Italian citizens," President Sergio Mattarella said Friday. Liberation Day, which marks the day in 1945 when Italy was freed from Nazi-Fascist rule, "is a celebration of freedom and hope" and a "reminder of sacrifice", he said.
"The Italian Resistance showed the world the Italians' will for redemption, after years of dictatorship," Mattarella added in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper editor Ezio Mauro.
He added that although "there is no longer the need to regain the values of freedom, democracy, social justice", the right to democracy is "the entire country's heritage" and "it must be defended every day".
The president suggested that the term "resistant" apply to the military who refused to enlist in Fascist brigades and all persons who aided Jews, military allies, along with partisans. A postwar tradition has seen Liberation Day as celebrating the moment when a divided Italy rallied behind Resistance leaders to raise the country from the ashes of Fascism and recover a patriotic honour forged in the 19th-centry unification of Italy, the Risorgimento.
Mattarella commented that the Fosse Ardeatine site, a commemoration to 335 Romans killed by Nazis in 1944, was a reminder "that we can never let our guard down on strenuous defense of human rights, on the democratic system".
The date of Liberation Day was chosen by convention, as it corresponds to the day Milan and Turin were liberated by the Americans, on April 25, 1945. This was also the day when the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the insurgency in a radio announcement, announcing the seizure of power by the CLNAI and the death sentence for all Fascists (including Benito Mussolini, who was shot three days later).
By May 1, all of northern Italy was liberated, including Bologna (April 21), Genoa (April 23), and Venice (April 28). The liberation put an end to twenty years of fascist dictatorship and five years of war. It symbolically represents the beginning of the historical journey which led to the referendum of June 2, 1946, when Italians opted for an end to the monarchy and the creation of the Italian Republic, which was followed by the adoption of the republic's Constitution of Italy in 1947.
Later on Friday, Mattarella honored 12-year-old Ugo Forno, who was killed in June 1944 while fighting with friends and Resistance partisans to prevent the destruction of a Rome bridge by Nazi troops who wanted to stop the Allied forces entering Rome. Rome's Ugo Forno railway bridge was named in honor of him.
As well, Justice Minister Andrea Orlando announced a plaque will be placed in the ministry commemorating 14 magistrates who lost their lives fighting in the Resistance. Orlando added he will askMattarella to award them a posthumous medal of honor, given in Italy to citizens for "acts of exceptional courage and manifest civic virtue".