In Italy April 25th is the day which marks its Second World War liberation by Allied troops. It’s a national day of remembrance for those who fell in the just cause and especially for those fallen who served as partisans in the Italian resistance movement.
And on this day, although Trieste was actually liberated on May 1st, a large number of the community hold a rite of remembrance at “Risiera di San Sabba”.
“Risiera di San Sabba” is a one time rice-husking factory which was taken over on September 8, 1943, by the Nazi occupation forces and used as a prison and extermination camp. And although it’s primary role was a ‘transit camp’ between 3000-5000 died within its crematory plant.
This year the morning gathering was a wet one, shorten a little by the tears flowing from the heavens, but personally I found it all the more powerful.
