The Day of Remembrance was an opportunity to also remember this great intellectual from Zadar, a Dalmatian patriot and a pillar of the exiles' associations. 

by Fulvio Salimbeni – 24/02/2021

Source: The Voice of the People

Giuseppe de Vergottini, speaking in the culture pages of the Trieste “Piccolo” on 7 February about the celebration of the Day of Remembrance, referred to the work of the joint Italian-Slovenian historical-cultural commission, established by the governments of Rome and Ljubljana in 1993 to develop a shared reconstruction of the relations between Italians and Slovenians in the Julian area between 1880 and 1956 (which we have already spoken about here), which, after seven years of hard work, was drawn up, signed by all fourteen of its members – seven from each side – and delivered to the respective Foreign Ministries in the summer of 2000, preparing the ground for better relations between the two states, culminating in the concert of the three presidents (including the Croatian one) in Trieste in 2010 and in the joint visit of the Italian and Slovenian ones to the Basovizza foiba on 13 July.
Lucio Toth, originally from Zara, where he was born in 2017 and which he had to abandon with his family after the war, was also a member of that commission, as de Vergottini recalled in the obituary published in “Coordinamento Adriatico” (1936). He made a valuable contribution, always showing notable qualities of balance and impartiality, which were explicitly recognized in the final session by Milica Kacin-Wohinz, president of the Slovenian counterpart. A professional magistrate, elected to the Senate for the DC in 1987, from 1992 to 2012 he was president of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia (ANVGD), which under his leadership became one of the largest and most representative institutions in the world of the diaspora, initiating dialogue with those "left behind" in Tito's Yugoslavia, long considered by the exiles to be traitors to the national cause and renegades, as explicitly admitted by Renzo Codarin, current president of the ANVGD, in the interview given to him by PL Sabatti in the "Piccolo" of 8 February. Furthermore, as a convinced Europeanist as he was, in his political and cultural work he always placed and interpreted the Dalmatian and Adriatic events in the Central European and, more generally, European context, avoiding any kind of provincial reading of the history that interested him.

Despite his busy schedule, the intellectual from Zadar has always found time to devote himself to cultural activities, not only holding numerous conferences and book presentations in some way connected to the Adriatic events of the twentieth century, but also publishing his own works on them, ranging from literature to historical research.

Between novels, research, commitment

In fact, he wrote three historical novels, La casa di calle San Zorzi (Sovera, 2008), on the Dalmatian events of the 2011th century, Spiridione Lascarich, Alfiere della Serenissima (La Musa Talia, 600), a narration of the wars fought in the 2018th century by the Dalmatians and Venice against the Ottoman Empire advancing in the Balkans, and, posthumously, Il disertore dalmata (La Musa Talia, XNUMX), on the theme of the Risorgimento, as it narrates the events of a citizen of Zara born an Austrian subject, who, after having fought in Solferino in the Habsburg army, deserts and passes to the Savoy kingdom, which he will serve first in arms and then as a politician and diplomat, supporting the first irredentist associations.
On the historical side, there are numerous contributions, attesting to the breadth and variety of his interests; if already in 1970 he had dedicated an essay to The territorial ordinances and the peripheral organization of the Papal State, which appeared in Writings on the administration of the Roman territory before the Unification (Giuffré), in 1985, at the height of his militant commitment in the Catholic world, he had published the pamphlet Church and Catholic movement in contemporary Italy (Piemme), while at the beginning of the new century he published in “Clio”, the prestigious historical magazine then directed by Carlo Ghisalberti, always sensitive to what concerned the history of the eastern border, For a history of Dalmatia between the Middle Ages and the contemporary age (2002), Niccolò Tommaseo: a European of the border in the season of national independence (2003) – conceived on the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of the intellectual from Sebenico (1802), to whom the Udine committee of the ANVGD, chaired by the late Silvio Cattalini, dedicated the conference Niccolò Tommaseo 200 years after his birth, in 2003 publishing the proceedings –, and Sulle foibe in Venezia Giulia and in Dalmatia (2006). As further proof of the breadth of his interests, it should be remembered that in 2005 he wrote the afterword to the English translation of Giuseppe Maria Pilo's study The fruitful impact. The Venetian heritage in the art of Dalmatia: “for three hundred and seventy-seven years” (Edizioni della Laguna), which, albeit from an artistic perspective, discussed the theme dear to him of the Venetian influence on his native region. In 2016, instead, almost as a sort of spiritual testament, he published in the qualified series “Storia delle città” of the Pordenone Biblioteca dell'Immagine Storia di Zara. From the origins to the present day, conducted with great balance and wealth of data, while in 2003, a convinced supporter of the need to make young people aware of the history and dramatic contemporary events of the Eastern Adriatic, he had written the introduction to the volume by Anna Maria Fiorentin Terra addio. L'esodo dalla Venezia Giulia, Fiume e Dalmazia raccontata ai giovani (ETS), in 2005 introducing the Perugia conference on the Holocaust and foibe, dedicated to the genocides and exoduses of the 900th century, the proceedings of which, with his presentation, were published in 2007.

Two works summarizing twenty years of studies

Convinced of the need to make the history of the region known to a wider audience, and in particular to young people, who knew little or nothing about it and to whom school history programs up until the institution of the Day of Remembrance, of which Toth was one of the main promoters, provided very little knowledge, he published two informative pamphlets for the ANVGD, attached to “Difesa Adriatica”, the monthly periodical of the ANVGD, a summary and balance of twenty years of studies and passionate readings and of the works, previously mentioned, that had derived from them: Why the foibe: the massacres in Venezia Giulia and in Dalmatia (1943-1950) of 2006, and Ninety years after the completion of the unification of Italy, the participation of Istrians, Fiume and Dalmatians in the Risorgimento process (2008), where it is significant that the completion of national unity is considered to be 1918, the end of the First World War, which led to the to the annexation of the "irredente" provinces to the Kingdom of Italy, and not, as per historiographical tradition, 1870, the year of the breach of Porta Pia and the annexation of Rome with the consequent transfer of the capital there, from Florence in 1864.
Analysing them in chronological order, the first is A novent'anni dall'accomplishmento dell'unità d'Italia, which, accompanied by an indicative bibliography arranged in chronological order – which, starting from the volume by A. Tamaro La condizione degli italiani soggetti all'Austria nella Venezia Giulia e in Dalmazia, of 1915, without neglecting any of the most important texts on the subject, concludes with that by Marina Cattaruzza, L'Italia e il confine orientale, of 2007 –, after an introductory note, in which there is an explicit reference to the institution of the Day of Remembrance, is structured in three chapters, the first of which, “Historical events (1815-1918)”, after a preface on “The genesis of the idea of ​​the Nation-State. The Eastern Adriatic in the Napoleonic Age”, examines “Secret societies at the time of the Restoration”, “The Revolution of 1848-1849 and its repercussions in the Eastern Adriatic”, “Towards the unification of Italy (1859-1861)”, “After the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861) and the Third War of Independence (1866)”, “The defense of Italian identity at the time of the Triple Alliance (1882-1915)”, “The First World War (1915-1918) and the Treaties of Rapallo (1920) and Rome (1924)”. The second, then, “The protagonists. “Personalities of culture and politics”, offers biographical profiles of Pier Alessandro Paravia (1797-1857), Niccolò Tommaseo (1802-1874), Carlo De Franceschi (1809-1893), Carlo Combi (1827-1884), Antonio Baiamonti (1822-1891), Michele Maylander (1863-1911), Vittorio Zupelli (1859-1945), Roberto Ghiglianovich (1863-1930), Antonio Grossich (1849-1926), Francesco Salata (1876-1944), Giani Stuparich (1891-1961), Giuseppe Pagano Pogatschnig (1896-1945). Finally, in the third, “The Italian press in relation to Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia from the Risorgimento to 1918”, the main periodicals and newspapers that animated the political debate are reviewed (19 in all, from the “Archeografo Triestino” to “Il Dalmata”).

In Why the Foibe, also accompanied by an extensive bibliography, here arranged in alphabetical order by author, the “Preface” is followed by “The geographical area concerned”, “The extension of the term 'foibe'”, “Why no legal proceedings were brought”, “The three phases of the massacres”, “Interpretations of the phenomenon”, “The reasons for the silence”, “Conclusion”.
A simple reading of the indexes of these two pamphlets reveals their undoubted usefulness from the point of view of popularization and information, but also the seriousness and rigor of the approach, of wide scope, the result of a passionate dedication to the cause to which Lucio Toth dedicated himself in his industrious existence and of the full mastery of the vast historiographical literature on the subject, which is fully integrated with what was his personal experience.