Jewish communities versus partisans: Incredible fight on Memorial Day
Fabrizio Gatti
Editor-in-chief for Insights
27 January 2025 06:59
Jewish communities in some cities in Italy have decided to abandon official celebrations for Remembrance Day. Milan began arguing with Anpi because Italy’s National League of Partisans has repeatedly described Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the massacre of more than 45,000 Palestinians as genocide in response to the cold-blooded executions of nearly 1,200 people by Hamas terrorists. Israel on October 7, 2023.
Students invited to the meeting hosted by the City of Milan will miss the essential voice of the descendants of many of the families who lived and suffered the Holocaust, the genocide intended by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy. Milan was followed by other important Italian communities.
Because the Jewish communities were wrong
But this is a dramatic mistake because it denies the task that so many witnesses, from extermination camp survivors Primo Levi to Liliana Segre to Edith Bruck, have given to each of us, Jewish or not. Duty to witness. But there is also dialogue, which is an indispensable condition of memory in order to escape from the banality of memory.
We are in an age where the genocides against Jews, disabled people, and Roma people are trivialized and denied (children freed at Dachau in photo above, photo by US Holocaust Memorial Museum). But without the testimonies, the situation would have been even worse. This is exactly why back steps like those taken by Jewish communities are dangerous. Especially if they turn their backs on young people who are at the mercy of history being rewritten. Between outstretched arms and nostalgia, fueled by the algorithms that drive new social media arenas. From TikTok to Elon Musk
Witnesses’ courage against trivialization
It is necessary to remind those who decided to draw attention to themselves with this sad decision that not all partisans of Italy recognize themselves in today’s Anpi. The brave witness to this is former Milan president Roberto Cenati, who resigned in 2024 after the word genocide was used by national leaders. Just as not all Jews recognize themselves in the bloody thirst for revenge shown by the Israeli government of Bibi Netanyahu, supported by the extreme religious right.
But in a democracy like ours, the right to disagree should not be denied. Even if the criticism concerns Israel or Hamas. And if mixing yesterday’s blood with today’s events is dangerous, because it breeds hatred and prejudice, this must be revealed, told, witnessed and shown to children and everyone who did not experience the Shoah. Once again. Without desertion. Without boycott.
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Source: Today IT

Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.