La Spezia, revelation of Pietro stumbling block

La Spezia, revelation of Pietro stumbling block

The 29am unveiling ceremony will take place on Monday 10 January at 9am “Stumbling Stones” placed in the city in memory of the victims deported to the extermination camps.

In July 2023, with an act sanctioned by a council resolution, the Peracchini Administration joined the "Stumbling Stones" project, proposed by the ANED association of La Spezia which consists of incorporating stone blocks covered with a brass plate placed on the upper face with essential information on the victim in question into the road pavement, in front of the last homes of deportation victims or in another significant place. The Stumbling Stones are therefore intended for all victims of National Socialism, anyone who was persecuted or murdered by the Nazis between 1933-1945.

The Municipality of La Spezia has therefore joined, by making adequate technical and logistical support available, the proposal put forward by the National Association of Former Deportees in the Nazi Camps of La Spezia - ANED - to create and spread the Stumbling Stones in the La Spezia area, building a memory municipality of Nazi persecution, through the direct request of the family members of the deported person to whom the Stones would be dedicated.

The start of the ceremony is scheduled for 10 am in Piazza Garibaldi, 2 and will then continue in via Roma, 106, via De Nobili, 79, via del Mille at the corner of Corso Cavour. We will then move to the Migliarina district at 11,30 in Corso Nazionale on the corner of Via Parma, again in Corso Nazionale, 348 and finally in Via Buonviaggio on the corner of Via Sarzana near Largo Marcantone. The route follows the positioning of the stumbling blocks dedicated to the memory of:

FERNANDO BECONCINI, AGOSTINO VIRDIS, GIOTTO PESCHIERA, VITRUVIO RICCIARDI, ELVIRA FINZI, DARIO DERCHI, RIGHETTI UMBERTO ALFONSO, ALFREDO PAGANINI and AMELIA GIARDINI PAGANINI.

The La Spezia Police Headquarters also joined the project by placing 4 Stumbling Blocks in front of the entrance to the building in via XX Settembre n. 6, former police headquarters, in memory of the policemen deported to the Nazi extermination camps. The stones will be named in memory of LUDOVICO VIGILANTE, NICOLA AMODIO, ANNIBALE TONELLI, DOMENICO TOSETTI

The stumbling blocks were born from an initiative by the German artist Gunter Demnig to deposit in the urban fabric of European cities the widespread memory of the citizens deported to the Nazi extermination camps. They are small square blocks of stone covered with brass measuring 10*10*9 cm, to which a brass plaque is applied on the upper side on which the name, year of birth, date and place of deportation and date of death of the deportee to whom the stone is dedicated are engraved

Stumbling blocks are gods small monuments that want to restore dignity of being human to those who were killed, to make them reflect on the horror of what happened and to ensure that what happened is never repeated again. To date, over 56.000 Stumbling Stones have been placed in numerous European countries, making it the largest monument widespread on European territory.