Mattarella: 'In Sant'Anna di Stazzema the roots of the Republic'

Sant'Anna di Stazzema is 'a European shrine of pain, and a symbol of redemption of that human and civil rebirth that has been able to oppose barbarity, generating democracy, freedom, peace, where all hope was to be cancelled. To the descendants and the people of Stazzema, who today renew their community's grief for the extermination of their loved ones, goes the moved sentiment of the entire nation. A great moral legacy has been left by the survivors. The Republic can recognise its roots here'. This was said by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella 80 years after the Nazi-Fascist massacre at Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

At Sant'Anna di Stazzema 'the Republic can here recognise its roots. Those that, even today, urge us to reject the reasons for war as an instrument of dispute resolution. The baton of memory and commitment will continue, as at Sant'Anna di Stazzema, to pass from hand to hand, to remind us that these are inescapable crimes, to accompany us on the road to civilisation and peace, defeating those who breed hatred,' the President of the Republic continued.