371. Liberation Day from 2009
I wrote this post for Liberation Day in 2009 but for some reason it has disappeared from Blogger in spite of being one of the most visited posts- so to make amends, I am re-posting it here today i.e. Liberation Day 2013.
Today is a national holiday here in Italy and it’s called Liberation Day. I had noticed, however, as the years went by, the enthusiasm to celebrate was dwindling a bit and basically I put the cause down to the fact that there seemed to be some confusion among the various sectors of Italian society as to what they were supposed to celebrate as there is no event that stands out in particular that occurred on April 25 1945, for it is in memory of that day that the national holiday was constituted.
It is the events that led up to that date and those immediately after that gives significance to the earmarking of this date. A few months earlier the Americans landed in Normandy and began to take areas previously occupied by Hitler. Meanwhile another army alongside that of the official Italian army was gathering force, that army was called the Resistance and was made up of partisans who spent most of their time hiding on hills and making surprise guerrilla attacks so much so that it vanquished the Nazi-fascist army and liberated Milan and Turin precisely on April 25 1945. Also on that day US forces met USSR troops on Fiume Elba, separating Germany in two.
The actual events that marked the final liberation of Italy from German Nazi-Fascism occupation were to follow 3 days later with the capture, shooting of Mussolini and the death of Hitler in his bunker on 30th April. But the event of all events that put an end once and for all to German aggression and Nazism came on 6th August of that year when the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.
However, it makes me smile how Liberation Day in Italy has been interpreted in various ways. Since the Italian Resistance consisted of Partisans who were of socialist and communist extraction and had a significant role in the overthrow of the Fascist occupation, parades and red left wing flags have always been an intrinsic part of the celebrations. Of course the fact that the US troops were the ones who made it possible for the Italians to be free of German Fascism occupation is swept a bit under the carpet since the red flag wavers consider that event as being the beginning of the American occupation- which is not totally wrong- America does indeed occupy Italian soil with its air force, naval and army bases- but that is also swept aside since it is far better to say the US troops have been “invited” to this country rather than having come after the war and have stayed ever since. But who’s complaining? Italy has never had it so good in spite of, rather, because of US “occupation” as some insist on calling it.
That is why in the past one did not see the now Premier Silvio Berlusconi at these celebrations and not many of the members of the right wing government either as they would be uncomfortable company and these red flag wavers would think nothing of booing them out in disgrace. But this year he was there! Silvio Berlusconi with all his “Fascist” government as some foreign newspapers love define it, were present alongside the President of Italy Napolitano, who has no problem to say he was of communist extraction, which only proves how remarkably malleable Italy can be.
Indeed it was the President of Italy who asked for unity, to claim once and for all that Liberation Day was a feast for all peoples of Italy not just one faction. And Berlusconi, the Premier, in spite of recently going round Italy wearing a black T-shirt, which I think is to provoke foreign newspapers, adhered and was present at the commemoration ceremony alongside the President.
Indeed it was the President of Italy who asked for unity, to claim once and for all that Liberation Day was a feast for all peoples of Italy not just one faction. And Berlusconi, the Premier, in spite of recently going round Italy wearing a black T-shirt, which I think is to provoke foreign newspapers, adhered and was present at the commemoration ceremony alongside the President.
However, an hour or two later Berlusconi was heading another commemoration ceremony, in L’Aquila among the people of the earthquake on the spot where 17 people in that road were shot dead on 11 June by German troops and which now the Germans are coming over to rebuild in reparation for their not too brilliant past.
It’s time to forget and to forgive-for all of us. But it’s also time to change the name of this national holiday from its inauspicious “Liberation Day” to “The Day of Freedom” of course Berlusconi suggested that – who else?
