Right. Twelve new members in the virtual Garden of Monte Stella
Bertolé: "Figures who not only did good but became examples of rectitude, courage and humanity"
Milan, October 7 2020 – Twelve new members in the “Giusti del Monte Stella” virtual garden, the space created in 2017 on the Gariwo website to welcome citizens' reports and testimonies on forgotten or unknown figures worthy of being remembered.
The ceremony for the delivery of the parchments to the family members, originally scheduled for March 6, was held this morning in the presence of the president of the municipal council Lamberto Bertolé, the president of Gariwo Gabriele Nissim and the vice-president of the UCEI Giorgio Mortara, who remembered the reasons for the awards given.
The choice of the Association for the Garden of the Righteous of Milan, composed of the Municipality of Milan, Gariwo and UCEI, for the 2020 virtual Garden, ratified by the Committee of Guarantors, was directed towards exemplary figures who stood out for having reacted to oppression and injustices in defense of other people and human dignity. They are: Francesco Quaianni, Emily Bayer, Father Italo Laracca, Carlo Bianchi, Father Andrey Sheptytskyy, Family De Regibus, Leonilde Simonazzi, Reinhold Chrystman, Carlo Tagliabue, Nella Molinari and Luigi Cortile, citizens who, during the Second World War, saved the Jews risking their lives.
In addition to them, Franco Basaglia was also chosen, the psychiatrist who introduced a new therapy for mental disorders in Italy, based on respect for patients, and laid the foundations of Law 180, later called "Basaglia Law", for healthcare reform psychiatric with the closure of mental hospitals.
“Figures who not only did good, saving lives and putting themselves at risk, but became examples of rectitude, courage and humanity for all of us – said the president of the City Council Lamberto Bertolé -. Remembering them and keeping their memory alive is a duty."
“We take advantage of these great examples of civil courage - declared the president of Gariwo Gabriele Nissim - to remember two great international emergencies towards which we launch an alarm aimed at the institutions and civil society: the war in Nagorno Karabakh, which sees the population of Armenian origin, and the repression in Belarus, where hundreds of peaceful demonstrators were arrested for protesting against the regime".
“There are the Righteous – concluded Giorgio Mortara, vice-president of the UCEI – who have saved human lives during the great tragedies of humanity such as the Shoah and others whose deeds contribute to preventing evil”.
The ceremony took place in the “Ulianova Radice” Amphitheater, which in the afternoon from 18 pm hosts the concert of the Lazzaroni Duo, made up of the pianist and harpsichordist Angela Lazzaroni and the violinist Carlo Lazzaroni. The program includes works by Mozart (Sonata in G Major KV 293), Dvorak (Sonatina op.100), Williams (Schindler's List) and Piovani (Life is Beautiful). The concert will be introduced by readings by the actor Massimiliano Speziani.
For organizational reasons and to limit the number of participants for the purposes of preventing contagion, the concert is by invitation. The concert and readings will be broadcast live on Gariwo Facebook page.
The biographies of the new Righteous of the virtual Garden, available in full on the Gariwo website
- Francesco Quaianni, after 8 September 43, thanks to his employment, worked in favor of the anti-fascists and partisans, first as a simple official and then as part of the secret organization SIN;
- Emily Bayer, a German citizen recruited to work at the German command in Milan, offered Mrs Clara Schwarz, her mother and sisters - of Jewish origin - free hospitality in one of her apartments, where the family lived until the end of the war;
- Father Italo Laracca worked for the good of the population of Velletri, hit hard by the war advance on the Lazio front during the Second World War but also subsequently, creating an orphanage and becoming a point of reference for all those in need;
- Carlo Bianchi, founder in December 1943 of the "Card. Schuster Legal and Medical Assistance Centre", formerly "Archbishop's Charity", still operating and the first among the medical assistance centers for the poor in Milan. Active with Msgr. Andrea Ghetti in the OSCAR, animator of the clandestine newspaper "the rebel" with Msgr. Giovanni Barbareschi, until he was arrested for denunciation on 27 April and savior of the Jewish family Sonnino Shapira;
- Father Andrey Sheptytskyy, a great opponent of the communist and Nazi ideologies who in a pastoral letter from 1942 asked his faithful to help the Jewish population and not collaborate with the occupiers in carrying out their genocidal plan. Twice he sent a protest against the extermination of the Jews to Himmler. He saved more than one hundred Jews from death;
- De Regibus family (Antonio and Margherita, with their daughter Fiorentina). They hid and saved the Jewish family of Riccardo Ancona and Ester Foa, with their daughter Valeria, who waited in their home for the moment to escape to Switzerland;
- Leonilde Simonazzi, with courage and disinterest, gave aid to Jews - acquaintances or strangers - helping them to expatriate to Switzerland and helping them in other ways. With her mother Luigia she also supported the Milanese Resistance. She received the recognition of Righteous Among the Nations from Yad Vashem;
- Reinhold Chrystman, saved nearly 700 Jews - including Klinger's aunt and cousins -, many of whom were children, in a glass factory in Piotrków Trybunalski (near Lodz, Poland). He gave them work permits and created a shelter for children;
- Carlo Tagliabue, Director of the Pia Casa Incurabili, despite his initial support for fascism, defied the police at great personal risk by hiding around thirty Jewish women in the women's ward of the facility. He gave them the uniform of the guests of the Pia Casa and looked after them, fed them, carefully watching over their safety;
- Nella Molinari and Luigi Cortile saved several Jewish families, allowing them passage to Switzerland. The Marshal was unfortunately discovered and arrested. He died in Mauthausen, paying with his life for his generous humanity;
- Franco Basaglia, the main driver of the concrete change in psychiatry: thanks to his theories and the experience put into practice in the mental hospitals of Gorizia and Trieste, he has restored rights and dignity to thousands of people.
On Gariwo's proposal, in 2012, the European Parliament proclaimed March 6 as the "European Day of the Righteous" to commemorate those who opposed crimes against humanity and totalitarianism with individual responsibility.
Since 2018, the Day of the Righteous of Humanity has become a civil solemnity in Italy and is celebrated with dozens of initiatives in schools and in the Gardens of the Righteous that have sprung up throughout the country.
Updated: 07/10/2020