President Sergio Mattarella on Friday
marked the 78th anniversary of the World War II Nazi massacre in
the Tuscan village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
On August 12, 1944, 560 unarmed people were murdered, including
130 children.
It was the second worst WWII Nazi atrocity in Italy after the
September 1944 Marzabotto massacre which killed over 770 people.
"Seventy-eight years have passed since the days of the
Nazi-Fascist massacre committed in the 'frazioni' of Stazzema,"
the head of State said.
"Horror struck our lands, our people, as testimony to the
effects of perverse enemy ideologies on the dignity and liberty
of people.
"The killers, officers and soldiers of the SS who carried out
the massacre helped by local Fascists, showed to the full their
inconceivable inhumanity, striking hundreds of innocent people,
slaughtering the elderly, women, and children, exterminated with
ferocity, leaving martyred and burnt bodies".
He said "the memory of the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre is,
for the whole of Europe, a constant impetus to maintain in first
place the issue of respect for people's lives, peace as the
necessary historic horizon, and participation in common
prospects for life and development.
"The deep mark of such a great horror is carved in indelible
characters in the conscience of the Republic.
"From the reaction to that abyss came the moral and civic
redemption of our people, the second Risorgimento of our
country.
"This laid down the roots of a civil co-existence which found
its pillars in the Constitution".
Mattarella concluded: "The Italians owe great recognition to the
few surviving witnesses, to the victim's relatives, to those who
worked over the years to reconstruct circumstances and events,
to recompose individual stories.
"Their testimony has been precious, helping to build a living
memorial, closely linked to the values and principles that
regulate the life of our community: a permanent warning to the
generations to come".
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