President Mattarella at the Fosse Ardeatine on the 77th anniversary of the massacre
Mario Limentani, one of the last survivors of the concentration camps, died
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August 12, 2021 "On August 12, seventy-seven years ago, the SS soldiers carried out a massacre of defenseless civilians in the hamlets of Stazzema, one of the most frightening of the entire war. Hundreds and hundreds were the dead. Children slaughtered together with their mothers and to their grandparents. Stazzema was considered a refuge for the weakest, for the displaced. Instead it became a bloody land, the scene of atrocious cruelty and a ferocious contempt for human life, up to the destruction of the burning of victims in the square of Sant'Anna . So much horror can never be forgotten. It is inscribed in the witness that the more mature generations hand over to the young ".
With these words the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in message, recalls the 560 people killed in Sant'Anna di Stazzema, in Tuscany, A massacre considered one of the most atrocious crimes committed against civilian populations after World War II in Italy
"In so much pain, in this abyss of inhumanity - underlines the head of state - the roots of the regained freedom sink, in our country and in Europe. 'annihilation"."
Europe that has become a community is the peaceful and far-sighted response to that nationalism that has generated so many conflicts in our continent. The Republic today bows in front of the Stazzema shrine. A profound feeling unites the Italians to the families of the victims of the massacre and to the valiant survivors who all their lives have borne the burden of such great pain, continuing to spend themselves to make known, to remember, to transmit, with the strength of their testimony, the simplest and most powerful message: never again ".
"The redemption from oppression and from so much suffering - Mattarella still remembers - was possible thanks to the spirit of solidarity and justice, to the respect for inviolable rights, which our people knew how to make prevail. Democracy and freedom now require to be continuously nourished. from civic values and a sense of community. Also for this reason, Mattarella underlines, the memory of the most dramatic moments remains a precious heritage also to face the challenges of the new times and the necessary innovations ".