by EH
A recent act of vandalism at the Basovizza Foiba Memorial has reignited tensions over Italy’s painful wartime past, drawing strong condemnation from regional officials and historians. The site, which commemorates victims of the foibe massacres—mass killings that took place in northeastern Italy and parts of former Yugoslavia during and after World War II—was defaced in what officials are calling an attack on historical memory.
Alessia Rosolen, the regional councilor for education in Friuli Venezia Giulia, decried the vandalism as an attempt to deny history. “Despite the passage of eighty years and extensive historical research, there are still those who refuse to acknowledge this massacre as a tragic chapter of national and human history,” Rosolen said in a statement.
The foibe remain a deeply divisive topic in Italy. During and after the war, thousands of Italians—primarily those in the Istrian, Dalmatian, and Julian regions—were killed or forcibly disappeared in mass graves by Yugoslav partisans. For decades, the subject was largely omitted from public discourse. In recent years, Italy has made efforts to preserve the memory of these events, designating February 10 as the National Memorial Day of the Foibe and the Istrian-Dalmatian Exodus.
Rosolen emphasized the importance of education in combating historical revisionism, highlighting the regional government’s ongoing support for school programs dedicated to historical memory. The administration has allocated €200,000 for initiatives in the 2024–2025 academic year, funding school visits to historical sites and educational programs on 20th-century atrocities, including the Holocaust and the foibe massacres.
“The defacement of the Basovizza memorial is a painful reminder that some still seek to distort history,” Rosolen said. “But Italy remembers and commemorates, no matter the attempts to delegitimize this shared memory.”
Authorities are investigating the incident, and local officials have vowed to restore the site. Meanwhile, institutions and historical associations continue their work in schools across the region, ensuring that younger generations learn about this dark chapter in Italian history.
