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“Norma Cossetto, a shining example of courage and patriotism”
Citizens and officials were deeply moved and participated in the commemoration ceremony at the monument dedicated to the young woman murdered by partisans in Istria, organized by FederEsuli, ANVGD, Lega Nazionale, Associazione delle Comunitæ Istriane, and the Municipality of Trieste. Renzo Codarin spoke, and the Mayor of Due Carrare testified. We asked Renzo Codarin, President of FederEsuli, what significance Norma Cossetto has in a social landscape where fundamental values seem to be losing importance. "In our lands, values are still very much alive, and this is also thanks to those like us who continue to work tirelessly for...
“I Met Norma” by Alberto Bolzoni
Norma Cossetto, a life shattered at age 23 by the barbarity of Yugoslavian communist partisans. "I Met Norma: My Journey to Norma Cossetto" by Alberto Bolzoni, a history enthusiast, retraces the final years of the Istrian student's life, offering a deeper understanding of her to discover and describe the beautiful person she was. Her will to live and her healthy ambitions were definitively shattered on the night between October 4th and 5th, 1943, when, after days of repeated violence and torture, she was thrown alive into an Istrian sinkhole by Tito's partisans. Her memory, 78 years after her death and after years of silence,...
Trieste commemorates the 82nd anniversary of Norma Cossetto's martyrdom.
Trieste was the first city to dedicate a street and a monument to her, which have become the traditional place to commemorate her tragic passing. It is located in the Chiarbola district, which developed around a cluster of public housing assigned to some of the thousands of Istrian, Fiume, and Dalmatian exiles who arrived in the Julian capital after World War II. The toponymy recalls the abandoned cities and the compatriots who brought prestige to the native Italian community of the eastern Adriatic over the centuries. Among them stands out the name of Norma Cossetto, awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Merit in her memory motu proprio by the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio...
Stamp issued commemorating Norma Cossetto
Italy remembers Norma Cossetto with a stamp issued by Poste Italiane. The cartoon depicts a portrait of the student from Santa Domenica di Visinada, tortured, raped and thrown into a sinkhole by communist partisans on the night between 4 and 5 October 1943 in Villa Surani. The sketch is by Emanuela L'Abate. Printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, it belongs to the thematic series “Il senso civico” dedicated to living memory, in this case to Norma Cossetto on the 80th anniversary of her martyrdom. The ordinary stamp is completed by the legends “Norma Cossetto”, “Victim of the foibe” and “1920 1943”, the wording “Italia” and the indication...
In memory of Norma Cossetto raped by communist partisans
It was the summer of 1943 and she was collecting material for her thesis, entitled Red Istria, which she would discuss shortly thereafter at the University of Padua: she was Norma Cossetto, a precarious teacher and student, born May 17, 1920 in Santa Domenica di Visinada in Istria. But that academic work never saw the light: on September 26 of that year a group of Tito's communist partisans kidnapped her and took her to the former Carabinieri barracks in Visignano with the obligation to join the Movimento Popolare di Liberazione. She refused and that refusal began the hell that led to her atrocious death: the next day they took her again and took her...
A novel about the young Istrian woman who symbolized the tragedy of the foibe
“What is most unacceptable, because, in a certain sense, even more serious than denialism, and the result of the lack of culture and the barbarization of our society itself, is to hear the tragic story of Norma Cossetto commented on with expressions like “Well, but after all she was asking for it…” (frequently used when certain people comment on today’s feminicides). At the headquarters of the Casa del Ricordo, in Via San Teodoro, near the Circo Massimo, where the Società di Studi Fiumani-Archivio-Museo storico di Fiume and the Associazione Nazionale Venezia Giulia e Dalmazia keep alive the memory of the Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian Exodus (1945-1956) and the tragedy of the Foibe, it is...
Norma Cossetto, Porzûs, Vergarolla. Faces and stories of forgotten massacres
Raimo and Montanari permitting, let's return to the denied tragedy of the Italians of Istria, Dalmatia and Venezia Giulia. Which only an imbecile can claim has anything to do with the Shoah, except that it was an immense tragedy. Of which the foibe are the apex. Continue on http://www.ilfoglio.it/uffa/2022/02/22/news/norma-cossetto-porzu-s-vergarolla-volti-e-storie-di-stragi-dimenticate-3715630/ Giampiero Mughini Source: Il Foglio - 22/02/2022 A nice article by Giampiero Mughini on Il Foglio. Mughini, remembering the Dalmatian Enzo Bettiza and his book 'Esilio', defends the Day of Remembrance from Montanari, Raimo, Barbero and others and with it the immense tragedy of the people...
In 170 cities a rose blooms for Norma
For the third consecutive year, the Comitato 10 Febbraio is organizing the national event “Una Rosa per Norma Cossetto” to commemorate the Istrian heroine. The Comitato 10 Febbraio remembers the sacrifice of Norma Cossetto, the young Istrian woman kidnapped, tortured, raped and thrown into a sinkhole by Slavic communist partisans and who became a symbol of the tragedy of the sinkholes thanks to the Gold Medal for Civil Merit, awarded to her in 2005 by the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Tomorrow, Saturday 2 October 2021, the ceremonies of the national event “Una Rosa per Norma Cossetto” will begin, now in its third edition and which will continue until Sunday 10...
May 17, 1920, birth of Norma Cossetto
In memory of Norma Cossetto on the day of her birth, on Monday 17 May at 18:00 a live video conference will be held on FaceBook on the ANVGD Venezia page (https://www.facebook.com/ANVGD-Venezia-101632054936530/). The initiative is organized by the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia VENETO and among others the President of the ANVGD Renzo Codarin and the President of the 10th February Committee Emanuele Merlino will speak. The ANVGD today remembered the Gold Medal of Civil Merit in memory and the 10th February Committee dedicated a poster to her. The two associations, in fact, fight together on the national territory for the dissemination of the...
A white rose for Norma Cossetto in Monfalcone
The exiles belonging to the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, the most representative of the Associations of exiles from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia, which gathers thousands of members, including exiles and their descendants, declare themselves surprised and saddened by the controversy that arose following the proposal to dedicate a rose to Norma Cossetto on the steps of the “Nazario Sauro” marina. Surprised because, after so many decades, some people seem to be anchored to prejudices that seem to perpetuate the communist propaganda of the last century when – as the historian Raul Pupo also recalls – left-wing historiography slavishly and uncritically proposed the interpretation...
