Liberation Day · 6:40pm Apr 25th, 2018
I doubt that ti will say much to many of you, but today is a pretty important anniversary.
On the 25th of April 1945, with the allies pressing on the southern border of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (the Salò Republic), from a recently liberated Milan, the National Liberation Committee called for the general insurrection of the partisan forces in all of northern Italy. On the 1st May, six days later, all of Italy had been freed after two decades of fascist dictatorship.
It was the end of a civil war, the end of Nazi occupation, the triumph of many, different political ideologies united against a violent, coward regime. There had been blood, there would still be. Things that happened couldn't be forgotten from one day to the next, and there was, among the need for justice, also a thirst for revenge.
And yet, despite the complicated history that would follow, despite the acts, sometimes horrible, committed later to get revenge for other, horrendous acts committed by the one time oppressors, this day was, is still important. Despite the fury and the anger, the proclamation was "Surrender or Die". In the end, a choice was granted.
I simply can't imagine living in those times, and yet so many still live in them today. (Often courtesy of the United States)
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The good news is that, globally, we are improving.
The bad news is we are not doing it fast enough.
The bravery of the partisans during WWII cannot be overstated. The vast majority of them were captured and killed, and the others knew that was what eventually awaited them. And yet, in the face of such deadly evil, they persisted.
I did not know of Liberation Day until now, but I won't forget it.
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The Path to the Nest of Spiders is relevant, as is Calvino's experience as a partisan.
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Wow! This sounds exactly like the kind of story I love, thank you! Just ordered it through Amazon!
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Glad to be useful
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And.... I just realized that he's the guy who wrote If on a winter's night a traveller, which was one of my favorite books in college! I still use it as a weapon against anyone who wants to write in the second person, saying, "If you can't do it at least as well as this... just don't!"
Funny how the world ties together, sometimes.
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And Invisible Cities, which is also kind of important. But yes, sometimes the world is pretty small