The importance of remembering and telling. This meeting allowed me to understand how important it is to listen to the stories of relatives and acquaintances because, although they may seem distant at the moment, they could be part of a big puzzle in the future to reconstruct some historical events. I realized that it is important to tell what we are told, but also what happens so that it is not forgotten. Who knows if in the future our stories will allow us to reconstruct the details about the pandemic or the current war in Ukraine, pages from today's history. Understanding: history made us understand through the wise narratives of these old people how many emotions accompany the past; if I had been young during the war I would have felt sad, without feelings. Testimony and courage. It is interesting to hear the stories of people who lived through them, whereas by us they were only read about in books, and it is courageous to share very personal and sensitive moments of one's youth with young people. Collaboration. I chose this word because in all the stories I noticed a sense of common collaboration in fact, thanks to the collaboration between people, millions of lives were saved and it is thanks to it that today the war is over. The fact that struck me is that when Mussolini sent the letter to the prisoners of war inviting them to enlist with him, the majority of them refused the invitation, showing a sense of belonging, love of freedom and the ability to cooperate. Courage. I chose the word courage because it takes so much courage to speak out and remember such important moments that happened so many years ago and that affected you your family history. Life. The stories of the lives of loved ones, the suffering, the hardship faced in order to stay alive, because these witnesses dedicated theirs to informing themselves and passing on these stories to so many people. Telling: history is a set of actual events that must be told in order to be understood. Raising awareness and understanding the meaning of what happened. |
Awareness. Every day I pass through Marzabotto by train and I go back, aware of what happened there; now after the meeting I look at the window and think about what happened and what I knew through the stories of the living books. Courage. I found this word in all the stories I had the chance to listen to: the courage of all the people, mainly the partisans, but not only, not to submit to the impositions that came from above, to fight for their ideas and for freedom even at the cost of dying. This made me think a lot because thanks to people in the past who did not submit, I can now freely express my opinions and vote for those who best represent me. Courage and strength of freedom. These words evoked for me the courage to stand up for oneself and fight for life, but more importantly one's own story and to make sure that certain events are not repeated the strength to put aside feelings and emotions to fight to resist. Suffering for love. The stories we heard are dramatic stories from the war period faced with courage trying to survive in the name of love for one's family, homeland and freedom. Listening. It is important to listen because from the stories of those who have lived through certain events we can learn many things, especially if they are told live; it is enough just to look into the eyes of the person telling to understand how much suffering there is behind simple words. Lesson. I think the meeting was an important life lesson that made me realize how irrelevant the small annoyances that accompany me every day are compared to the suffering experienced by the witnesses; therefore, it taught me to be grateful even for the small joys because they should not be taken for granted. Testimony. Hearing the testimonies of those who knew people who experienced the horrors of war and fascism on their own skin was interesting and very emotional to judge today's history with other parameters. It is no longer history read in books, but alive. |