(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 10 - "The Day of Remembrance urges the Republic to the recollection and the solidarity with the relatives and the descendants of those who were killed with cruelty and thrown in the foibe, and of the Italians taken from their houses and forced to the exodus, of all those that along the country's eastern border had to pay the highest human costs to the horrors of the Second World War and its prolongation in persecution, violent nationalism, and oppressive totalitarianism." Italy's President Sergio Mattarella said on the Day of Remembrance.

"It is a commitment of civilization to preserve and renew the memory of the tragedy of the Istrians, Fiumans, Dalmatians, and other Italians who had roots in those lands, so rich in culture and history and so stained with innocent blood. But unfortunately, survivors and exiles, together with their families, have delayed seeing the truth of their suffering recognized. A wound added to the others", pointed out the Head of State.

"The terrible war wanted by fascism and the Nazi occupation was followed, for these Italians, by hostility, repression, terror, summary executions aggravating the horrible succession of crimes against humanity of which witnessed the twentieth century. Crimes that the people and the lands of the eastern border have lived with dramatic intensity, generating trails of resentment and incomprehension that for a long time have marked the relations between neighboring peoples," added Mattarella. (ANSA).