Ambrogino d'oro denied to Piero Tarticchio, an Istrian exile who suffered the tragedy of the foibe and spent his life making known this unhealed wound in Italian history. Grandson of Don Angelo, massacred by partisans. "Bitter", "disappointed", "angry". The Istrian exiles have good reason to be so for the lack of recognition. There is no place in Milan among those awarded the Ambrogino for a witness to the horror perpetrated by Tito's communist partisans against Italians. A missed opportunity for the mayor Giuseppe Sala: "The civic merit to the grandson of Don Angelo, murdered and thrown into the foibe, would have been a great gesture, political and moral, on the part of the municipal administration of Milan. On the tragedy of the foibe, Sala did not have the courage.

Foibe, there is no place for Piero Tarticchio among the winners of the Ambrogino d'oro

The Commission that indicates the 40 names that will be awarded civic recognitions on December 7, Sant' Ambrogio, left out Piero Tarticchio. His name in the list of award recipients had been put forward by the center-right. Romano Cramer, general secretary of the Istria Fiume Dalmazia National Movement, is dismayed: he recalls the story of the plaque "in memory of Don Tarticchio, thrown into a sinkhole with 43 parishioners, placed in Municipio 2". "We are still waiting for the final authorization from Palazzo Marino, so we were expecting a strong signal for everyone. And the Ambrogino would have been it". Instead, no signal.

Ambrogino d'oro denied. The exiles: lack of sensitivity

Cramer complains about “lack of sensitivity towards an entire community”. He is also president of the Committee for the monument for Don Tarticchio which was built in Municipio 2, between Piazzale Istria, Largo Martiri delle Foibe, Viale Zara and Via Pola. An open letter was sent to the mayor, Beppe Sala, to raise the issue, to request definitive authorization, “asking for his intervention”, Cramer underlines. We recall that Sala, “before the inauguration of the great Monument to the Foibe in Piazza della Repubblica in 2020, had sent a letter to the Committee for the monument”: “among the forces that support my administration there is no room whatsoever for the deniers of the Foibe”, he had written, leaving us with great hope.

Foibe: who is Piero Tarticchio

Instead, the weight of partisan memory still influences the choices that matter. "The committee for civic merits, that space has been left open. The drama of a people, the tragedy of the foibe victims deserve the utmost respect, regardless of ideas and ideologies”. The centre-right in the city council made its voice heard. «The exclusion infuriates us all». We owe a lot to Tarticchio for his work of spreading the news of the martyrs of the foibe and of the Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian exiles to the new generations. His was a life of pain: «Piero, after seeing 7 relatives thrown into the foibe, suffered a further torture»: not seeing the honour assigned to his uncle Don Angelo. Missed opportunityBut in Sala's Milan we are not surprised.

Alberto Consoli
Source: Secolo d'Italia – 18/11/2021

February 10th Committee: The Ambrogino d'Oro not awarded to Tarticchio is a missed opportunity