St. Maximianus of Ravenna - February 21

Mosaic of St. Maximianus in the
Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy

February 21 is the feast of St. Maximianus, archbishop.

St. Maximianus of Ravenna (San Massimiano di Ravenna) was born in 498 in the city of Pola, in Istria, Italy. He was born just two decades after the deposition of the last Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus, in a period when Italy was politically divided between the Romans and the invading Ostrogoths. For most of his life Istria was under the rule of the Ostrogoths, but in 538 it was reconquered by the Romans. St. Maximianus, now a deacon of the Catholic Church, gave his loyalty to Emperor Justinian.

In 546 he was consecrated bishop by Pope Vigilius and named the first Archbishop of Ravenna. As archbishop, St. Maximianus completed the Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, and also comissioned the construction of Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna, the church of Santa Maria Formosa in Pola, a Benedictine monastery in Rovigno, and several other churches.

He died on February 22, 556. His feast is celebrated by the Catholic Church on February 21.

Throne of Maximianus (Cattedra vescovile di Massimiano), an episcopal
throne in Ravenna commissioned by Justinian as a gift for St. Maximianus.

Pola: Birthplace of St. Maximianus

Pola was founded in 178-177 BC as a Roman military post. In 46-45 BC it was established as a Roman colony called Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea and settled by Italian colonists. In 12 BC the city of Pola, together with the rest of Istria, was included in Regio X Venetia et Histria (the tenth region of Italy). Pola, like all the other Istrian cities, was an integral part of ancient Italy and remained culturally and ethnically Italian for the next 2,000 years. During the Middle Ages it was part of the Exarchate of Italy, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Republic of Venice. In the early 19th century it briefly formed part of the Kingdom of Italy. In the 20th century, between the world wars, it once again formed part of the Kingdom of Italy.

After World War II Istria was occupied by the Yugoslav Communists and annexed to Yugoslavia. The native Italians were terrorized, persecuted, murdered and forced to flee in a series of events known as the Foibe Massacres and Istrian Exodus. Between 1946 and 1947, the city of St. Maximianus was emptied of nearly its entire population: approximately 94-98% of the inhabitants of Pola were forced to leave Pola and migrate to Italy and other countries. Yugoslav immigrants later arrived to repopulate the deserted city. In 1991 Yugoslavia broke up and Croatia declared its independence; the city of Pola was then incorporated into the new country of Croatia, where it remains today.

St. Maximianus is one of the many figures of history who represents the Italianity of Istria, the millennial connection between Istria and Italy, and the lasting legacy of the Istrian Italians.

Triestine Girls: Reflections on the Istrian Exodus

(Written by Benedetta Grasso, taken from the magazine “I-Italy”, April 15, 2010)

What is generally called “The Istrian exodus” is a quite recent mass migration from Istria and Dalmatia of hundreds of thousands of Italians that had to flee to various countries in the world but particularly to the United States and Australia.

Between 1943 and 1960, in fact, almost 400.000 people escaped from that area due to ethnic hatred and the International politics triggered by World War II.

While other Italian immigrants came to the United States simply to escape poverty, the people living in these territories – constantly torn between Italy and other states throughout the centuries, being situated exactly at the North-Eastern border and having ethnically mixed citizens, Italian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and more – were involved in some of the most controversial and shameful moments of history. Italians had a very stereotypical image of the Slavs, considering them “barbaric” while the Slavs, under the regime of Tito, saw Italians as fascists. The most tragic events were the Foibe massacres in 1945 after the liberation of Istria, in which more than 5000 Italians were brutally killed and thrown into mass graves.

The reality of the times was far more complex and, even though the hatred was real, the communities were in some cases also very connected. Trieste in particular was a very thriving intellectual city which allowed for a pleasant daily life and “nourished” many writers, artists and political activists.

Although the exodus was anything but a happy experience, there is a very interesting documentary “Triestine Girls” which follows some very lively women who managed to create a new life for themselves in America.

That tragic time is recounted by them almost with irony and a certain nostalgia, obviously not for the war, but for their youth and the familiar memories. As teenagers, Americans appeared to them as “movie stars” with their cigarettes, their chocolate, their blue jeans: handsome soldiers who swept them off their feet and took them to the US to get married and live a safe life together.

This documentary will be screened at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute on April 29 2010 at 6PM.

To remember these events I-Italy would also like to re-propose an article written by Eleonora Mazzucchi for I-Italy (June 24, 2008) which clearly explains the historical background and contextualizes it.

Read article here: A Painful Piece of Italian History, Overlooked

A Painful Piece of Italian History, Overlooked

(Written by Eleonora Mazzucchi, taken from the magazine “I-Italy”, June 24, 2008)

The city of Pola (Istria) during the mass exodus.

Italians living in the former Yugoslavia during the Second World War break the silence about the sorrow they endured and the massive flight they were forced to make. It is a chapter in Italian history scraped from textbooks, in no small part because of the Italian government, and brought to the fore with an exhibit at the Italian Consulate. We spoke with celebrity chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, a native of Istria (now Croatia), who like many Istrians, has waited to see this piece of her history recognized.

The Second World War is the conflict they say we’ll never forget. Manifold atrocities, subjugations, sufferings and displacements are its legacy, the very exemplary of a brutality we are warned not to repeat, but even as we dutifully recall the war’s effects there remain episodes we speak little of today. Among them are the events that took place between Italy and the former Yugoslavia.

The tension between the two central European giants, that fomented tragedy for one population of Italians in particular, is rather complex and merits some explaining. Sizeable border areas, Istria, Dalmatia, and the Quarnero islands, now part of Croatia, and the cities of Trieste and Gorizia, disputed between Italy and Yugoslavia and at present Italian, contained both Slavs and ethnic Italians in the 1940’s. Italians who had established themselves in these parts for centuries refer to themselves as Giulianians (“Giuliani”), from the influence of the northeastern Venezia-Giulia region. The Association of Giulianians in the World (“Associazione Giuliani nel Mondo”, or AGM) is dedicated to commemorating the Italian presence in those areas and their subsequent, rather grisly diminishment following the Second World War.

Succinctly put, the Yugoslavian partisans of Josip Tito’s Communist government, in 1943 and in the immediate aftermath of the war, engaged in a politically and ethnically motivated campaign to rid Italians from Dalmatia and Istria. Open hostility broke out against Italians, seen as belonging to the nearby Fascist regime, and anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 of them (numbers are contentious) were killed. [Editor, between 20,000 and 30,000 Italians were killed]. Civilians, regardless of age or gender, were gunned down and thrown into mass graves, known as “foibe”.

Approximately 300,000 Italians left their homes in the territories soon to become Yugoslavia, forming a mass exodus that took them all over the world, including the Americas, Canada, and Australia, but for the most part, Italy. A Giulianian emigration had in fact begun during the First World War, but in far lesser numbers and under less dramatic circumstances. It is in order to amalgamate these dispersed peoples that the AGM was born, to bring light to a chapter of history largely forgotten, officially ignored by the Italian government for decades.

The Italian Consul General Francesco Maria Talò, who hosted the AGM a couple of weeks ago, would later say that he “felt a deep sense of shame for what Italy had not done” and had not recognized with respect to the gruesome history of the Giulianians. It is speculated that the Italian government chose not to discuss the 60-some year-old tragedy because of its long-standing sympathies with Communism and, perhaps more likely, because it would be forced to admit to brutalities Italy, on its part, had committed against Slavs during the war.

The AGM inaugurated its traveling exhibit, “Into the New Millennium with Our Roots” (“Con le nostre radici nel nuovo Millennio”), along with a documentary by Chiara Barbo and Andrea Magnani, “Triestine Girls” (“Le ragazze di Trieste”), at the Italian Consulate in New York. The exhibit, which the AGM is planning to permanently install in its headquarters in Trieste, consisted of several large panels outlining the history of the Giulianian diaspora. The black and white pictures, along with photocopied letters and historical documents, had both a deeply intimate feeling to them—many were retrieved from families—and a touch of the didactic. Indeed, the consolidation of this material, affecting because in part it resembles the personal effects lost after a shipwreck, brings to the public eye, for the first time, what AGM’s President Dario Locchi called “a lost page in history”. Locchi went on to explain that only 22 percent of Italians know anything about this piece of history, and among them, only 57 percent know of the consequent Giulianian flight.

The exhibit’s mission is to inform as large an audience as possible (it has been carried across continents), breaking the silence surrounding the suffering of a people and their forced exodus—an Italian emigration, Locchi underlined, vastly different from the Ellis Island variety. We come to know through the display, somewhat surprisingly, that some of our most beloved Italians and Italian Americans were of Giulianian descent, including screen siren Alida Valli, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, influential art-dealer Leo Castelli and racecar driver Mario Andretti. One such notable was present at the event itself, renowned celebrity chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, who provided the catering for the presentation and for whom the issue of exodus is profoundly, personally significant.

Talò touched on what may be one of the most interesting aspects of the Giulianian population. He had opened his moving, at times apologetic, speech by saying that the exhibit brought an Italian sentiment that was more deeply felt because it was mired in suffering. Throughout, speakers from the Association reminded the audience, a gathering of Italians and Italian-Giulianians, that they had endeavored to never lose their Italian identity, and listening to them, one had the impression that their purpose was not just to reclaim a place in history but to assert their very Italianness.

The screening of “Triestine Girls” mitigated some of the sense of desperate migration. The documentary traces the fate of Triestine women who left Italy for love, marrying American soldiers stationed in their city during WW II and then moving to the U.S. to build entirely different lives. As Chiara Barbo pointed out, the women protagonists, now well into old age, recall their experience of cultural transition with humor and what she called, “a typically Triestian irony”. One sprightly woman spoke of wonderment at skyscrapers, and another of the difficulty of buying a pack of cigarettes when a store clerk couldn’t understand her thick accent—a patchwork of anecdotes that contributed to the work’s buoyant feeling.

I-Italy had the chance to speak about Barbo’s documentary, and more, with Lidia Bastianich. Bastianich has had a successful cooking show on PBS, “Lidia’s Italy”, for many years and owns a number of restaurants in the U.S. in partnership with her son, Joseph. She contributed her talents to the exhibit with a feast of trypically Triestan specialties. Her family hails from Pola, Istria, and moved to New York in 1958, when Bastianich was 11 years old.

What did you think of the documentary?

It really captured the soul of these women—their nostalgia, but also the happiness for what they have achieved.

What is some of your personal history of emigration?

My mother was pregnant with me when we wanted to flee [Istria had become part of Communist Yugoslavia]. My father sent us to Italy years later, but for some time he got caught behind the iron curtain.

What do you feel about this “lost page in history”, about what this exhibit will achieve?

History needs to be taught correctly. Who’s right, who was wrong, that’s way behind us now. The anguish needs to be recognized and the submissive tendency to keep this all secret has to end. The outspokenness we’re seeing now is long overdue.

Do you pass this story on to your children?

I take them to Italy as often as possible. It is important they become better human beings when they know where they came from.

Dario Locchi would echo this same sentiment when he said “There can be no future without memory of the past”. This “proud people, who paid the price of a lost war” can take solace in their Association’s efforts. Because there can truly be no future if grief isn’t taken out of the shadows and brought into the light.

Heroes of the Redeemed Lands

(Taken from the journal “Italy Today: A Fortnightly Bulletin”, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1918)

Cesare Battisti

Cesare Battisti was born in Trentino in 1875, where his education began. Like all Italians of Trentino, Istria, Dalmatia, who wanted a superior education, he finished his studies in Italy at the University of Turin and Parma. He returned to unredeemed Trentino a broad-minded Socialist, and when he entered the political field was elected member of the Diet at Innsbruck. His ideas on Socialism did not interfere at all with the idea of nationalism, which means that his Socialistic ideas did not have the seal of the German internationalists.

When war broke out he fled to Italy and was a warm propagandist of war against Austria among those Italian Socialistic elements which were following German Socialistic leaders and thought. Cesare Battisti was instrumental in opening the eyes of many Italians to the subtle work of moral disruption that had been very successfully undertaken by the Germans, Socialists or otherwise.

When the Italian Army was launched against the Austrians intrenched on the peaks of the Alpine barrier, he was with it as Lieutenant in the Alpine Corps and fought valiantly. Unhappily, in one of the individual fights so common in mountain warfare, he was lost sight of and, having been wounded, was found later on by hostile patrols. Someone recognized him; he had been a conspicuous figure in local and State politics before his flight to Italy. No sooner did the military authorities know that Cesare Battisti was a prisoner and powerless in their hands, than Austrian brutality asserted itself. He was sent immediately to Trento, although badly wounded, and after a mockery of martial trial was sentenced to death and hanged. He was denied the honor even of a bullet—as a soldier's due. Austria always knew how to be mean: but Austria is dead forever.

Cesare Battisti, instead, will be a living spirit forever, dear to the memory of Italy as a national hero, revered as a martyr to the cause of liberty by all nations.

Nazario Sauro

Nazario Sauro, an Italian from Istria, therefore under the Austrian yoke, was another "irredento" who paid with his life for the ardent love of his mother country, Italy. He was a born sailor, familiar with all the nooks and corners of the eastern coast of the Adriatic. At the outset of the war between Italy and Austria he, too, fled to help his real country and put at its disposal his maritime knowledge. He made sixty-three raids on various Austrian naval bases and was absolutely fearless. A spy denounced him to the authorities. While in disguise he was strolling on the wharf of Grado. Arrested, he denied his identity stoutly. Lacking a substantial witness to identify him, the military judges dragged his old mother into court and submitted her to the third degree during a whole week, until the poor old woman, out of sheer exhaustion and prostration, gave way under the strain and identified in the prisoner her son. During the execution — ne was of course hanged — the poor mother was compelled to stay under the gallows, witnessing the hanging. The moral he left to his sons was "to keep sacred and warm in their hearts the love of the land to which he had fully dedicated himself." A great Italian poet, also an "unredeemed" from Dalmatia, had sung it to them long ago — "a egregie cose il forte animo accendono l'urne dei forti" — that is, "The grave of heroes fires the hearts of the brave."

Francesco Rismondo

The New York Herald not long ago, giving vent to indignation at Austrian brutalities, was wondering why some occult power could be so energetically, though occultly at work shielding that vile monarchy and by a crafty, insidious propaganda could spread the utterly false notion that Austria was waging a decent, honorable war. The dual monarchy founded on a treacherous, soulless bureaucracy is now dead. What it was capable of only the Serbians and Italians that were confronting that power of darkness could tell. Francesco Rismondo from Spalato, Dalmatia, could tell. The soul of this Italian hero was clamoring for vengeance from the great beyond. The armies of the allied democracies that swept the tyrants into nothingness have appeased him.

Spalato in Dalmatia saw him developing into a hardy youth. The first months of war between Italy and Austria saw him fighting like a lion in the Bersaglieri Corps on the bare craigs of the Dolomitic Alps. Badly wounded in a fierce encounter, he refused to give up, but physical weakness having got the better of his undaunted spirit, he was made a prisoner and burned alive in the main square of Gorizia by the Austrian soldiery on Oct. 26, 1915.

The Foibe are Still Open in Our Hearts

(Written by Dario Burresi, taken from the magazine “L'Alpino”, March 2012)

Sixty years ago, on February 10, 1947, a treaty was signed in Paris which took away from Italy and assigned to Yugoslavia the city of Fiume, the territory of Zara, the Lagosta and Pelagosa islands, most of Istria, the Gorizian and Triestine Carso and the Upper Isonzo Valley. Trieste, with its Julian and Istrian hinterland, became part of the newly formed Free Territory of Trieste, divided into Zone A, under Anglo-American administration and Zone B, under Yugoslav administration.

The work of denationalization began with the Foibe Massacres in September 1943 in Istria, and then with the repeated terroristic bombings of the Anglo-Americans (but instigated by Tito) which nearly completely destroyed Zara, an entirely Italian city. The exodus of Italians, which began in May 1945, became massive after February 10, 1947: the experience of September 1943 had clearly demonstrated what their lot would be with the arrival of Tito's partisans. There were more than 250,000 exiles during those tragic days; about 300,000 if you include the smaller previous and subsequent departures.

The numbers seem small, but they are huge if placed in relation to the population of those areas. From the city of Pola departed 98% of the population. A similar fate befell Fiume, Zara, Parenzo, Umago and Capodistria, which were emptied of their Italian inhabitants and replaced by Tito with Serbs, Bosnians and Montenegrins, and above all with Croats and Slovenes (this mixture later proved disasterous with the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991).

Italy began to provide some ships for the transport of the refugees, but it was the steamer Tuscany that was used the most, with 12 departures from Pola. The personal belongings which the refugees were able to take with them were very few. A person was able to embark on Tuscany with a chest, some pieces of furniture, portraits of extinct loved ones, but these had to be abandoned at the landing ports, prior to their diaspora in Italy and especially abroad and overseas.

As in February 1947, it was cold also on February 10, 2012 in the forecourt of the foiba of Basovizza (Trieste) where they commemorated the Day of Remembrance of the Exodus and the Foibe Massacres.

The Mayor of Trieste Roberto Cosolini was present with other military and civil authorities, Bishop Msgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, an armed guard, the banners of the comunes of Trieste and Muggia, a large crowd, the associations of the exiles and the families of victims of the Foibe Massacres, and the Military Associations with their banners. But, most noticeable for its consistency, was our Association, with over 300 Alpini, the Labaro escorted by the national president Corrado Perona and some national directors, with twenty banners and fifty pennants. The cold and strong northern wind made it difficult to stand and the standard bearers struggled to keep the banners in place.

The organizers decided to reduce the duration of the ceremony: there was the deployment, the entrance of President Perona and the Labaro of the Alpini saluted by the military picket and all the bystanders, the entry of the municipal banners, the flag-raising, laying wreaths, and a few short speeches. It was not possible to celebrate Mass because of the inclement weather.

We had to wait for the President of the Senate, Renato Schifani, who arrived a bit late and laid a wreath at the foot of the monument that covers the foiba of Basovizza. By now many exiles who lived this nightmare are gone, many of whom died with sadness in their heart for a Fatherland that, as long as they were alive, did not understand their desire to feel Italian.

We Italians of the Julian Alps have always been in the forefront to remember these tragic events and to honor the victims. To see the participation of many people in this ceremony, we feel a strange emotion, which is bitterness and joy at the same time, for the sacrifice which was at first denied and after so many years finally recognized.

The Priests Murdered in the Foibe Massacres

(Written by Marco Vigna, taken from the journal “Comune di Pignataro”, February 9, 2016)

Don Francesco Bonifacio
Istrian Italian priest killed by the Yugoslavs

Among the many thousands killed in the Foibe Massacres, there were at least 50 priests. Ranieri Ponis has devoted a monograph to each one, entitled “Storie di preti dell’Istria uccisi per cancellare la loro fede” (“Stories of Istrian priests killed for their faith”), published by Zenit.

Indeed, the Slav invaders sought first and foremost to eliminate people who were in any way part of the Italian ruling class or at least associated with them, such as intellectuals, politicians, entrepreneurs, teachers and clergymen. The hatred of priests stemmed also from the ideological convictions of the Yugoslav partisans, Tito at the time being a close ally of Stalin.

After the complete eradication of the entire Italian civil and military body in Julian Venetia and Dalmatia, the bishops and priests were the only remaining representatives of the Italian population, which typically was very religious. Undoubtedly, one of the causes that led to the Exodus of Italians from Julian Venetia was religious persecution, which was carried out with the specific intention of intimidating Italians into leaving. The idea of attacking the religious faith of a population in order to facilitate an ethnic cleansing had already been formulated in the so-called “Manual of Cubrilovic”, originally intended by the author to drive away Albanian Muslims from Kosovo. It ended up being used by Tito against the Italians. Hindering or preventing the practice of religion, together with marginalizing, expelling or murdering Italian clergy, was therefore a means to further terrorize the Italians in Julian Venetia, who are rooted in Christian convictions. And after the invaders eliminated the Italian “intelligentsia”, the only remaining representatives of Italians were the clergy. In fact, the “Manual of Cubrilovic” specifically recommends targeting the most representative and authoritative members of the enemy's population.

The massacre of Italian priests began as early as September 1943, when bands of Slavs took temporary control of Istria. During that month a group of Slav partisans seized the parish priest of Villa di Rovigno, Don Angelo Tarticchio, imprisoning him in Castle Montecuccoli in Pisino, which was converted into a prison. Don Tarticchio ended up being killed in a mass shooting after a few days in jail. The bodies of those shot were thrown into a bauxite quarry. The bodies were bound together with barbed wire and the priest also had a crown of barbed wire on his head.

Among the other priests killed by the invaders back in 1943 was Don Placido Sancin, parish priest of San Dorligo della Valle, who was kidnapped by the Slav partisans in October 1943 and vanished into thin air. He may have been thrown into the foiba in San Servolo, located near San Dorligo, since ecclesiastical garments were discovered there in a pit.

A similar fate befell Don Giuseppe Gabbana, chaplain of the Guardia di Finanza, who was killed by a band of Slavs on March 2, 1944 at his home in Trieste. After trustfully opening the door, never suspecting he would be confronted by a hit squad who came to assassinate him, he was massacred with machine guns and a rifle butt. Among the other victims of the partisans were Don Nicola Fantela, drowned in Ragusa with a stone tied around his neck on October 25, 1944, Don Giovanni Dorbolò, thrown into a foiba on May 1, 1945, etc. etc.

The Church has officially recognized as a martyr one of the 50 priests killed by Slav Communists, part of the 129 Italian priests murdered soon after the end of World War II. The then Pope Benedict XVI had in fact approved the decree of beatification, saying that the murder happened “in odium fidei,” or “in hatred of the faith.” His name is Don Francesco Bonifacio. Born in Pirano, Istria on September 7, 1912, he was nicknamed “el santin” (“the saint”) in seminary and was ordained a priest in Triest on December 27, 1936. He was kidnapped by a group of “people's guards” and Slav soldiers on September 11, 1946. The Titoists beat him, stripped him, stoned him, and finally stabbed him to death with knives. The body was possibly burned, or perhaps thrown into the foiba called Martines. It is uncertain, because his body was never found. His brother tried looking for him when he heard that he had been imprisoned.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decreed on July 3, 2008 that his death was a martyrdom and the rite of beatification of Don Francesco Bonifacio was held in the Cathedral of San Giusto in Trieste on October 4, 2008.

The Bishop of Trieste, Monsignor Antonio Santin, ended up nearly lynched in 1947 in Capodistria. A mob broke into the seminary, smashing down the door and attacking the prelate, snatching away his pastoral cross. Then they began a beating which lasted for two hours. The police, i.e. the Slav Communist “People's Guard”, was alerted, but did not respond. In truth, most of its members were among the attackers of the bishop, wearing civilian clothes. The “People's Guard”, present at the scene, intervened only when it became clear that the bishop was about to be killed, which would have damaged the image of Tito's dictatorship in the eyes of the international community. Monsignor Santin, after he was wounded in the head and nearly killed, was expelled from Capodistria, making it impossible to hold religious celebrations, which was the reason he visited the Istrian town. The attack on the prelate was due to the fact that he was a beloved figurehead for the Italians in the Diocese of Trieste, who opposed the Slav invasion and Tito's ambitions of annexation.

The killings and attacks against Italian clergymen were accompanied by other acts of violence. There were limitations or prohibitions against religious activity (teaching, catechesis, celebration of Masses, etc., which were subject to severe limitations and restrictions, and at times hindered). Many sacred buildings were also destroyed, including a good number of Byzantine, Romanesque and Venetian churches of great artistic value. The destruction of Roman and Venetian churches was done by the Titoists in order to erase all visible traces of the Italian past of the region, vandalistically annihilating works of art, as had already happened in Dalmatia, while at the same depriving the entire native Italian population of places of worship.

See also:
The Rape and Murder of Iolanda Dobrilla
The Rape and Murder of Norma Cossetto
The Disappearance and Death of Don Francesco Bonifacio
Titoist Crimes: 50 Priests Murdered in the Foibe Massacres

Foibe Monument in Marghera Vandalized by Communists

Monument to the Martyrs of the Foibe in Marghera, Venice
Vandalized by left-wing hooligans

VENICE — On January 25, 2016 a monument to the martyrs of the Foibe Massacres in Marghera, a suburb of Venice, was vandalized. The perpetrators desecrated the monument with Communist symbols, painting a hammer and sickle and red stars over the plaque and stone. This happened just two weeks before the National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe (Giorno del ricordo) – instituted to preserve the memory of the victims of the Foibe and the Exodus of the Istrians, Fiumans and Dalmatians after World War II – a national holiday that takes place every February 10.

Unfortunately this is not the first occurrence. Not only has this same monument been vandalized several other times in the past, but so have many other monuments and memorial plaques in other Italian cities. These cowardly and shameful acts of vandalism occur several times a year, committed by Communists, anarchists, Titoists, Slavs, Yugoslav sympathizers and left-wing groups.

The victims have already been persecuted once and had their lives taken away, now they wish to persecute them again by dishonoring their memory and painting symbols of suffering and death. They intentionally disrespect the victims of the Foibe genocide and try to deny their rightful place in our memory. The tragedy of the Foibe and the Exodus from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia – for too long culpably forgotten and ignored – is now recognized as a historical truth. No amount of vandalism will ever be able to erase that memory again.