He was not a king nor a national hero: but all Italians remember him without divisions or partisanship

The Centenary of the Unknown Soldier reminds us of that man to whom, uninterruptedly, all Italians pay homage, without divisions or partisanship. He is not a national hero, not a great general, nor a King, not even a President of the Republic. Perhaps he was a humble peasant from the South, or a mountaineer from Piedmont, or a fisherman from the Adriatic Riviera... There is also a one in 200.000 chance - that is how many unidentified bodies there were at the end of the Great War - that it could be precisely that irredentist lieutenant, son of Maria Bergamas. We will never know.

Among the various publications released for the occasion, we have selected some particularly interesting and original ones.

Extraordinary photos and postcards are reproduced in “Milite Ignoto. Riti, istituzioni e scritture popolari”. Published by Gangemi, it represents the conclusion of a large project that has seen the interaction of different subjects and that has focused on the corpus of postcards sent to the Unknown Soldier and unpublished photographs (negatives on glass plates) preserved in the archive of the Institute for the History of the Risorgimento. The study, transcription and analysis, which were coordinated by the Bicocca University of Milan and the Institute for the History of the Risorgimento, involved not only students of the University, but also pupils of the high schools of Rome and some inmates of the prisons of Rebibbia, Avezzano and Paliano. An original and different way of illustrating the Unknown Soldier understood symbolically as a memory of Italy just emerging from the trauma of the First World War.

Worth noting is the re-edition of the book “Ignoto Militi”, written in 1922 (and republished in 1960) by Lieutenant Augusto Tognasso, a member of the Commission charged with recovering the 11 bodies of unnamed fallen soldiers along the Italian front from which the Unknown Soldier buried on the Altar of the Fatherland on 4 November 1921 was taken. Everyone talks about Maria Bergamas, but the publication also sheds light on the Commission and in particular on Tognasso. The chronicle of the events, of which he was a witness and protagonist, has been the reference for anyone who has dealt with the subject. Among other things, the night before the ceremony of 28 October 1921, in which Maria Bergamas chose the coffin of the Unknown Soldier in the Basilica of Aquileia, he had the arrangement of the coffins changed several times to prevent anyone from recognizing the area of ​​origin. He was the only one who knew that secret and did not reveal it even to the King, who had asked him in confidence. It is no coincidence that the lieutenant appears among the protagonists of the docu-film “La Scelta di Maria” which will be broadcast on RAI1 on November 4. The new edition of the book “Ignoto Militi”, enriched by an extensive biography of the author and numerous other contents, was edited by Roberto Roseano at the request of Tognasso's descendants.

“Commemorare” comes from “cum memorare”, remembering together. With the volume “Ignoto militi. Le donne raccontano il Figlio d'Italia”, (Idrovolante) edited by Cristina Di Giorgi and Bianca Penna, the Great War and the soldiers who fought it are narrated in several stories written by women only. Because if the Unknown Soldier is a son of Italy, women are his mothers. As was Maria Bergamas, who gave the life of her son Antonio to the Fatherland. Ignoto Militi collects fourteen writings: a tribute to life, to family, to the Fatherland.

Finally, there is the book by Pasquale Trabucco, the “marathon runner of November 4th”: to demonstrate how much he believes in it, he walked all of Italy from Predoi (the northernmost municipality) to Capo Passero (the southernmost), he descended into the depths of the sea on the wreck of the Lince ship, sunk by the English in '43, and he flew in the sky with the replica of Baracca's SVA biplane to carry the Tricolor everywhere. Hundreds of km, time, effort, sweat and risks for the love of Italy and for the memory of our Fallen.

A retired Army officer, he explained everything about the campaign he has been carrying out for two years to ask for the reinstatement of the November 4th holiday in his book “The Shadow of Victory. The Traitorous Infantryman” which he presented on Saturday, October 9th in Vittorio Veneto, in the setting of the Sacrario delle bandiere in Piazza Foro Boario.

Trabucco asks the Presidents of the Republic and of the Council, the Ministers of Defense, of the Interior and of the Economy to restore the celebration as it was from 1919 to 1976, passing unscathed even through the tragedies and lacerations of the Second World War.

No loss of working days, the GDP will not miss its tribute: it would simply be a matter of taking away a day from the normally scheduled holidays to make November 4th non-working. Will he be able to do it?

Andrea Cionci – 02/11/2021
Source: The print