Today April 25, people across Italy commemorated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Northern Italy from the Nazis during World War II in a different way. April 25 is a national holiday in Italy which marks the anniversary of the comprehensive victory of the Italian Resistance Movement over the Nazi puppet regime in the country.
April 25 was chosen as Liberation Day because, on that day in 1945, the National Liberation Committee officially proclaimed the insurgency against the German puppet state and the fascist collaborators in Northern Italy in a radio announcement. In that same announcement they proclaimed the death sentence for all fascist leaders including Benito Mussolini. On 28 April 1945, Benito Mussolini was executed by Italian partisans.
Communist parties, youth groups, anti-fascist groups, and social movements in the country organized various online initiatives on Saturday to observe Liberation Day as they were unable to organize the massive street mobilizations that usually characterize the day. People sang partisan songs of resistance from the balconies of their homes in various places.
On Saturday, on an online broadcast, Nicolo Monti, the National Secretary of the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI), said “On 25 April we don’t abandon, not even during a pandemic, because memory will allow us to make sure that everything doesn’t come back as before because normality was the problem. Let’s celebrate together the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Italy from Nazi-fascism, through the memory of partisan heroes and the challenges that we face in this world where capitalism is showing all its inhuman tendencies.”
Meanwhile, neo-Nazis vandalized monuments dedicated to the partisans by painting Nazi symbols over it. The Partito Communista (PC) has condemned this act of vandalism and stated that “No death symbol like Swastika can erase the history of our country. We condemn the scars that took place on this night of April 25 to monuments of the Resistance”.
