“Episodes of anti-Italian persecutions in Istria, Dalmatia and Fiume must remain etched in all our memories”, so that “hostile feelings, or tendencies toward racial discrimination, toward peoples and nations who are our neighbours, such as those that led to the 1938 racial laws, will never be resussitated”. This was Minister for Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi’s declaration during the ceremony for the Day of Remembrance today at Rome’s Presidential Palace. “Today Italians are no longer divided from the peoples along their eastern borders. Suspicions have subsided,” he added, “and we are united in a Europe founded on respect for minority groups and diversity”.
The ceremony for the Day of Remembrance was held in the presence of President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano. Addresses by President of the National Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia Association Ludio Toth, Professor of Social and Political Sciences Paolo Segatti and Minister for Foregin Affairs Giulio Terzi, assisted by Minister for Education, Universities and Research Francesco Profumo, were followed by an award ceremony for the school that winner of the competition “Eastern Borders: Material culture and life between Eastern Adriatic lands sea: the trades and their imprint on figurative arts and literature”. The diploma for the first prize of the Italian Olympics, Italian high schools abroad section, was also awarded to a student of the school in Fiume, Ana Verko.
President Napolitano then delivered an address that was followed by a concert by the orchestra of the “Giuseppe Tartini” Conservatory of Trieste.
