In the various wars scattered throughout the earth, humanity is stained with atrocious crimes against its fellow human beings: men, women, children, young people, the unborn. The earth is also suffering, it is unable to produce basic necessities, the waters are polluted, the air infected. It's all crying.
Even today we find ourselves reflecting, remembering how much man, blinded by anger and hatred, can degenerate and become unrecognizable. On January 1, 2005, the United Nations General Assembly dedicated January 27 to commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.
On January 27, 1945, 79 years ago, Red Army troops broke down the gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
The "final solution" was shown for all to see. No one could say anymore: "I didn't know". The whole world knew the atrocities and horror of the Shoah. About 6 million people: Jews, Gypsies, the disabled, political prisoners, were deported, tortured, killed. The world was able to see with its own eyes not only the victims of Nazi ferocity but also the instruments of torture.
Italy was also involved in this painful moment in world history. Don Zeno and the Opera Piccoli Apostoli (this was the name of the reality that would later become, in 1948, Nomadelfia), lived intensely the opposition to the first fascist and then Nazi regime. Immediately after the armistice of September 8, 1943, Fr. Ennio Tardini, Fr. Arrigo Beccari (Little Apostle priests), with Mons. Pelati, Dr. Monreali and others, participated in the rescue of the Jewish children who had been welcomed at Villa Emma in Nonantola. The seminary of Nonantola became a center of the Modena resistance, a point of reference for clandestine activities.
False documents were provided to Jews and persecuted politicians, housed and then helped to flee to Switzerland or Rome. Hundreds of people were saved. Don Zeno and the Opera Piccoli Apostoli were harshly persecuted.
A P.A. priest, Don Elio Monari, was captured and, after being tortured, was killed on July 16. A few months later other P.A. priests, Fr. Arrigo Beccari, Fr. Ennio Tardini, were imprisoned, they found themselves with another P.A. priest, Fr. Ivo Silingardi, Danilo Orlandi P.A. and 6 young people, who, on September 30, were taken to San Giacomo Roncole and then hanged right in front of the house of the Opera Piccoli Apostoli.
Today we want to remember all the victims of those painful years, a memory that becomes a life commitment so that situations of such deep pain will never be repeated. That every human being is respected regardless of ideologies, parties, races, religions, physical and intellectual abilities. May every man express himself and live the freedom built in mutual respect.
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