Seventeen civilians killed, over fifty injured. It is the balance of the massacre made by the Nazis in retreat on September 6, 1943, the only massacre of civilians in Calabria during the Second World War. Eighty -one years later, the community of Rizziconi found himself in front of the stele of Piazza Caduti to honor those victims.
The ceremony, promoted by the ANPI Provincial Committee of Reggio Calabria, saw the participation of the mayor, of citizens and associations. Elisabetta Tripodi, president of the Anpi Provincial Committee, recalled “the urgency of keeping memory in this historical moment, because democracy is never definitively acquired”.
During the initiative, the Anpi laid a free flower pillow in the victims. But the most touching gesture was that of Mr. Gino Ferri, an elderly citizen who for years, in silence, returns to the place of the massacre: yesterday he also brought a bouquet of field flowers in the colors of the tricolor, transforming nature into a flag laid in front of the stele.
The commemoration reiterated the duty of the memory and the contribution of the southerners to the Resistance. Rizziconi’s massacre remains a wound, but also a warning: North and South, united against Nazi-Fascism, they were able to regain freedom and dignity for Italy.