On April 25, “a memory to keep alive”: the memory of the Sardinian partisan Nino Garau

The relationship between Cagliari and Spilamberto, in the Modena area, is increasingly close, in the wake of the values of 25 April. The two municipalities signed a twinning pact in memory of the partisan Nino Garau, who died on 12 July two years ago. The mayor of Spilamberto Umberto Costantini , and the president of the municipal council of Cagliari, Edoardo Tocco ,   they signed the document that preserves the memory of the role played by the anti-fascist fighter Garau, commander of the “Aldo Casalgrandi” brigade, in the liberation of the Modena plain in April 1945. The Sala del Torrione, the historic seat of the Spilamberto town hall, was named after Cagliari. Also present were the municipal councilors of Cagliari, Antonello Angioni and Andrea Dettori , the president of the city Anpi, Gianfranco Meleddu, and the president of the Sardinian Institute for the history of anti-fascism, Walter Falgio , who presented the book The resistance of Geppe (Soter 2021).

“My city will always be grateful to Nino Garau - commented Mayor Costantini - he has given us so much, he has given us freedom. He courageously led the partisans who liberated our country on April 22, 1945. I called him every year, precisely on April 22, to thank him, we talked about many things, he was an incredible person and of great depth. The Commander 'Geppe' was the commander of the partisans and he was responsible for organizing the Resistance on our territory. His memory will always remain with us as an example of the fight against Fascism and testimony of the constitutional values on which our Republic is based ”. And Nino Garau was also remembered in the meeting that took place in Cagliari, on the initiative of the Sardinian Institute for Anti-Fascism (Issasco) and the “Antonio Gramsci” association. The historian Santo Peli intervened and dedicated his intense study and research activity to the partisan struggle.

How to express the sense of Resistance to a young person today?

“As far as I'm concerned, I think of the Resistance as a fundamental break in national history, determined by an unprecedented mass disobedience. For a generation forged in the cult of obedience and the right of the strongest, disobeying and rebelling meant rejecting warlike rhetoric, to reaffirm the ancient principle that power must not have won over virtue , to recall Claudio Pavone. How, with what results and limits this revolt took place, a young man of today, like those of yesterday and tomorrow, will have to find out by undertaking a rigorous study in person, which cannot be replaced by rhetorical and ritual declamations and speeches ".

Was it a civil war?

"Yup. Not only that, of course. But that in 1943-1945 a mortal clash between fascism and anti-fascism is rekindled again seems indubitable to me ”.

The Resistance is a moment in history that still divides Italy. Because?

"The recurring invocation of a shared memory could be successful only at the cost of removing those elements of civil war that we have just mentioned, and of putting in brackets twenty years of the fascist regime, its misdeeds and the consensus of which fascism enjoyed ".

The significance of April 25?

“Given the current circumstances, the feast of April 25 could be an occasion to remember, alongside the collective joy that greeted the end of the German occupation and the Italian Social Republic, one of the major legacies of the guerrilla war, condensed in art. 11 of the Constitution: Italy repudiates war as an instrument of offense to the freedom of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes ... ".

In the essays contained in your latest volume "Necessity, Chance, Utopia" you try to avoid "the risk of an idealistic approach" and the danger of framing the Resistance as a "time without history". How to correctly read and interpret what happened?

“To avoid the risk of an idealistic approach, it is essential to keep in mind the context in which it becomes possible to“ choose ”, disobey, rebel. The disastrous outcome of the twenty-year dictatorship and the decision to force the Italian youth, on pain of death, to fight alongside Hitler, do not explain the partisan war, but delimit the historical context in which it has its roots ”.

It appears urgent to identify new forms of communication to transmit the public memory of the Resistance and anti-fascism. Is there a danger that that heritage of values over the years may be forgotten?

“I believe that each generation produces its own values (and negative values). The 'values', rather than being remembered or forgotten, can be lived and implemented, or ignored and replaced by other values, nor do I believe that historians, even those of the Resistance, have a decisive role in this field. They have to do their job honestly, which is not up to them to be read or ignored. When I think of “new forms of communication” I actually think that it would be nice to find among the books at the top of the sales charts the works of Luigi Meneghello, Beppe Fenoglio, Italo Calvino, Rigoni Stern. But I think it's a pipe dream ".