WELCOME TO
Ricordo 2020
Ricordo is a very special time in annual calendar.
A time of reflection, a time of remembrance, and a time of prayer.
Ricordo is also a time to honour those who suffered - those who suffered the horrors of the Foibe, as well as our families who face hardships in making their way in strange new lands around the world.
Each year our peoples come together to commemorate this most sacred of days. We also gather in thanks for the courage of our families in building our new generations....'Indeficienter'.
Here we share a few of the things that went on at our 2020 gathering.
The FOIBE
The Massacres of Foibe were the
mass killings that were carried out in the
North Eastern corridor of Italy, in which the
majority of victims were ethnic Italians.
This occurred back in the year 1943, after the capitulation of Italy. in World War II, dated on the 8th September 1943; until 1945, in a period where Yugoslav partisans, under the command of the Dictator Tito, occupied parts of Fiume, Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmaza. Historians and those affected by the horrific violence and the consequent Italian Fiumani-Istrian-Dalmatian exodus was simply a brutal, and planned ethnic cleansing.
National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe
is an Italian commmoration in memory of the victims.
Mass Killings and Exodus
The killings began after the capitulation of Italy in 1943, and the massacres of 1945 occurred partly under conditions of guerrilla fighting of Slovenian and Croatian partisans with the German and remaining Italian Fascist forces, and partially after the occupation of the territory by the army formations of Yugoslavia.Killings included war-crimes as well as civilian-crimes of private or political retaliation, as well as political-cleansing, and, planned ethnic-cleansing since 1947. Also Italian communists with Slav partisans, killed Italian people. In addition to the Foibe, several other terrible carnages committed by Italian communist partisans under the command of Palmiro Togliatti in the resistance movement have, for so many years, remained unacknowledged and officially undiscussed.
Victims were not all Italians because many killed citizen were anticommunist Croats and Slovens: many women were raped before killing. Historians like Raoul Pupo or Roberto Spazzali estimated the total number of victims at about 5,000;
Guido Rumici calculates from 11,000 upwards including all people who died in war camps.
Giampaolo Pansa calculates around 15,000 died. It was never possible to extract all the thousands of corpses from foibes because some of them are deeper than several hundreds meters. Until a few years ago they had been able to extract from the pits only a small number of bodies, less than six hundred., while other sources are attempting to compile lists of locations and possible victim numbers. A lot of bodies were accumulated in mass graves. Main concentration camps were in: Borovnica, Skofja Loka, Osijek, Stara Gradiska, Sisak, Zemun, Vrsac, Osseh, Aidussina, Maribor.
National Memorial Day
of the Exilesand Foibe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe, or Giorno del ricordo in Italian Language, is an Italian commemoration for the memory of the victims of the Foibe and Istrian-Dalmatian Exodus.
With Italian Law 92 of 30 March 2004 has been instituted this Day of Remembrance in day 10 February, to keep memory of victims of Foibe and of the exodus to which almost the whole population of Italian origins living in the areas of Fiume, Dalmatia and the Julian March was heavily 'constricted' by the former Yugoslavian regime. The same law has instituted a specific medal to be conferred to relatives of victims.
Law's motivation
This National Memorial Day is held annually on 10th of February every year; and is observed by all Italian political parties, (including the President and all commune mayors). The remembrance is in memory of the killing and enforced exile of Italians and democrat or anticommunist Slavs that was ordered by the ruling communist dictator Josip Broz Tito - 1943–60.The incident is known as the foibe massacres and sometimes also as the Istrian exodus.
According to recent studies, and an estimation of historians like Guido Rumici the total number of Italian victims (including people murdered during their imprisonment or deportation) as ranging from 6,000 to 11,000 (many quote perhaps more than 15,000 killed) and up to 400,000 expelled or emigrated from Fiume, Dalmatia, Istria, Gorizia and the surrounding areas bordering Slovenia.
Introduction of the Law
Exiles requested recognition of the Foibe many years ago but diplomatic reasons delayed any progress but after the fall of all the communist dictatorships in Europe and the subsequent dissolution of the Italian Communisy Party in January 1991, finally a Bill was introduced into parliament. Italian deputies and senators almost unanimously voted in favour and the law was passed as number 92 on March 30, 2004.
Law's effect
The National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe is a civilian memorial day. The law grants an award, for all the relatives of assassinated victims, upon request. Those who died in any war camps are also considered victims.
The award consists of a certificate and a metal insignia with "The Italian Republic remembers." The law also instituted two museums;
- The Museum of Istrian-Dalmatian civilisation in Trieste and
- The Historical Archive Museum of Fiume
in Rome.
The Club Fiumano e Giuliano Inc The "FOIBE"
- VIDEOS -
Original Italian text: Prayer for the Victims of the Foibe Massacre
O Dio, Signore della vita e della morte, della luce e delle tenebre, dalle profondità di questa terra e di questo nostro dolore noi gridiamo a Te. Ascolta, o Signore, la nostra voce. De profundis clamo ad Te, Domine.
Domine, audi vocem meam.
Oggi tutti i Morti attendono una preghiera, un gesto di pietà, un ricordo di affetto. E anche noi siamo venuti qui per innalzare le nostre povere preghiere e deporre i nostri fiori, ma anche per apprendere l’insegnamento che sale dal sacrificio di questi Morti. E ci rivolgiamo a Te, perché tu hai raccolto l’ultimo loro grido, l’ultimo loro respiro.
Questo calvario, col vertice sprofondato nelle viscere della terra, costituisce una grande cattedra, che indica nella giustizia e nell’amore le vie della pace. In trent’anni due guerre, come due bufere di fuoco, sono passate attraverso queste colline carsiche; hanno seminato la morte tra queste rocce e questi cespugli; hanno riempito cimiteri e ospedali; hanno anche scatenato qualche volta l’incontrollata violenza, seminatrice di delitti e di odio.
Ebbene, Signore, Principe della Pace, concedi a noi la Tua Pace, una pace che sia riposo tranquillo per i Morti e sia serenità di lavoro e di fede per i vivi. Fa che gli uomini, spaventati dalle conseguenze terribili del loro odio e attratti dalla soavità del Tuo Vangelo, ritornino, come il figlio prodigo, nella Tua casa per sentirsi e amarsi tutti come figli dello stesso Padre. Padre nostro, che sei nei cieli, sia santificato il Tuo Nome, venga il Tuo regno, sia fatta la Tua volontà. Dona conforto alle spose, alle madri, alle sorelle, ai figli di coloro che si trovano in tutte le foibe di questa nostra triste terra, e a tutti noi che siamo vivi e sentiamo pesare ogni giorno sul cuore la pena per questi nostri Morti, profonda come le voragini che li accolgono. Tu sei il Vivente, o Signore, e in Te essi vivono.
Che se ancora la loro purificazione non è perfetta, noi Ti offriamo, o Dio Santo e Giusto, la nostra preghiera, la nostra angoscia, i nostri sacrifici, perché giungano presto a gioire dello splendore dei Tuo Volto. E a noi dona rassegnazione e fortezza, saggezza e bontà. Tu ci hai detto: Beati i misericordiosi perché otterranno misericordia, beati i pacificatori perché saranno chiamati figli di Dio, beati coloro che piangono perché saranno consolati, ma anche beati quelli che hanno fame e sete di giustizia perché saranno saziati in Te, o Signore, perché è sempre apparente e transeunte il trionfo dell’iniquità.
O Signore, a questi nostri Morti senza nome ma da Te conosciuti e amati, dona la Tua pace. Risplenda a loro la Luce perpetua e brilli la Tua Luce anche sulla nostra terra e nei nostri cuori. E per il loro sacrificio fa che le speranze dei buoni fioriscano. Domine, coram te est omne desiderium meum et gemitus meus te non latet. Così sia.
— Mons. Antonio Santin, vescovo di Trieste e Capodistria, 1959
