Messina: “Know so as not to Forget” exhibition on display at Palazzo Zanca until Sunday 25 February.

Until Sunday 25 February in the atrium of Palazzo Zanca it is possible to visit the exhibition “Know so as not to forget”, presented during a ceremony last February 9th organized by the Prefecture, in agreement with the municipal administration, on the occasion of the commemoration of Remembrance Day, in the presence of the prefect of Messina Cosima Di Stani, the mayor Federico Basile and the councilor for cultural policies Enzo Caruso. The exhibition itinerary of the exhibition, curated by Maria Cacciola Briguglio, president of the National Association of the Relatives of the Italian Ex-Yugoslavian Dfeportati (ANCDJ) - Messina Provincial Committee, was distributed in different thematic areas.

“The objective of the exhibition – explained mayor Basile and councilor Caruso – is to make the new generations aware of and always keep alive the memory of the facts that shocked, with pain and death, the populations of Venezia Giulia and at the same time to oppose the violence of oblivion and silence. The theme of violence, unfortunately, is always recurring, more than ever in recent historical periods, and must lead us to careful reflection."

The first thematic area of ​​the exhibition is dedicated to the historical-geographical knowledge of the Julian-Dalmatian lands, partly lost after the Paris Peace Treaty of 10 February 1947. The following panels highlight, through photos and documents, the massacres and massacres carried out by Slavic partisans against the Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian populations starting from September 1943, immediately after the armistice, until 1945 and beyond with the Vergarolla massacre (August 1946).

Photos and testimonies of those who lived those tragic experiences complete the various panels that document the exhumation of the bodies from the explored sinkholes (carried out in 1943 by the Pula firefighters). These are followed by the documentation of the discovery of other bodies buried in mass graves and the bloody eliminations of soldiers and civilians perpetrated by Tito's troops against the Italians of Venezia Giulia, with the aim of creating a climate of terror among the population and inducing them to exodus.

Also included in the exhibition are photos of the various refugee camps and the dilapidated places that welcomed the exiles forced to abandon their lands, which have been Italic for centuries (first Latin and then Venetian), which highlight the multiple and notable difficulties in which they encountered upon their arrival in their homeland. Here, in fact, the exiles were not welcomed with the tolerance and hospitality due to their fellow countrymen: Italians twice, by birth and by choice. In one panel the small stories of the protagonists are intertwined with the big story, forming a puzzle that helps to understand how the tragedy that struck the population of the eastern border also affected our island: many Sicilians who fought to defend the 'Italianity of those lands and suffered death in a violent and cruel way.

Furthermore, in the exhibition there is no shortage of connections to the territory shown in some panels which host photos of Messina victims of Tito's barbarism and the documentation of various initiatives carried out in Messina and in the province to honor the martyrs of the Foibe and the exodus.

The historical-educational journey ends with a panel dedicated to the historical events that followed from the Treaty of London (1915) to the Treaty of Osimo (1975) and the chronicle of events on the subject, from the first post-war period to today, up to the institution, in 2004, of “Remembrance Day” which started an institutional process of recovering collective memory.