00:01:00.769 --> 00:01:07.734
Affile is a small mountain town located
about 50 kilometers east of Rome.

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Here the fascist Graziani lived out
the last years of his life.

00:01:13.323 --> 00:01:22.040
That’s why fascist supporters have built him
this monument at the edge of the town.

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I think about our people, those who were killed
by fascists with mustard gas.

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Fascists shed the blood of women,
children and elders.

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They should be condemned,
not honored with monuments.

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Dear listeners, we hope you had a great weekend.

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This is Ethiopian Radio Service
in collaboration with Onda Rossa

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every Sunday at 8pm on 87.9 FM.

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I was born in Addis Ababa.
I grew up there. I went to school there.

00:02:31.985 --> 00:02:38.616
I left Ethiopia in 1990

00:02:38.616 --> 00:02:42.620
and in 1992 I arrived in Italy.

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When I first arrived,
I wasn’t expecting Italy to be like this.

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Food wasn’t a problem.
I could always eat at the church.

00:02:59.637 --> 00:03:05.810
I would go there for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

00:03:05.810 --> 00:03:08.646
But finding a place to sleep was very difficult.

00:03:08.646 --> 00:03:13.818
One day a friend told me:
“I’m going to occupy an abandoned building.”

00:03:13.818 --> 00:03:15.904
“Really? Let’s go.”

00:03:23.369 --> 00:03:31.002
I lived in three or four different occupied buildings,
and finally the one on P. Togliatti Street.

00:03:31.002 --> 00:03:34.964
There were nine families living there.

00:03:34.964 --> 00:03:40.428
But after 3 years the owner reclaimed it.

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So we went to City Hall to discuss the issue

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and they sent us to the trailer park.

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We’ve been living there for 2 years.

00:04:09.457 --> 00:04:17.215
I thought that in Europe
or in America I’d be happy.

00:04:17.215 --> 00:04:20.134
But not in Italy.
Italy is like Africa.

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This is depository of the
Central Archives of the State,

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which contains all the documents produced
by Italy’s central administration.

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Here you can find papers dating
from the unification to today.

00:05:48.765 --> 00:05:55.688
Much of it is from the years of
the Fascist regime and its wars,

00:05:55.688 --> 00:05:59.734
including the war in Ethiopia.

00:06:04.113 --> 00:06:13.081
The Italo-Ethiopian War is part of a period
that historians call ‘revisionism’,

00:06:13.081 --> 00:06:20.588
during which the regime wanted to dispute
the outcome of World War I.

00:06:23.633 --> 00:06:28.262
Mussolini held that the treaties
hadn’t been enforced properly.

00:06:28.262 --> 00:06:36.396
He was referring to the Treaty of London,
by which Italian colonies should have been expanded

00:06:36.396 --> 00:06:42.443
if and when French and English colonies expanded.

00:06:42.443 --> 00:06:50.910
So Mussolini demanded “a place in the sun”,
meaning an empire in Africa,

00:06:50.910 --> 00:07:00.128
and identified Ethiopia as the only territory
that could be assimilated by the Italian Empire.

00:07:04.340 --> 00:07:09.554
There is no doubt that the Fascist propaganda
machine was cranked up to full speed.

00:07:09.554 --> 00:07:21.190
Mussolini said that the occupation of Ethiopia
would solve the problem of excess population in Italy,

00:07:21.190 --> 00:07:24.944
which was causing widespread emigration.

00:07:26.779 --> 00:07:32.618
There was also the rather folkloristic
lure of the Ethiopian women,

00:07:32.618 --> 00:07:34.662
“black faced little Ethiopians”.

00:07:34.662 --> 00:07:38.166
The idea that it was some sort of paradise

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where there was a large number
of available women.

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Ethiopia was also a country
that practiced slavery,

00:07:45.756 --> 00:07:48.926
and Fascist propaganda used that fact.

00:07:48.926 --> 00:07:54.849
“We’re going to liberate a country
that still practices slavery.”

00:07:59.854 --> 00:08:03.191
Mussolini didn’t underestimate the war in Ethiopia.

00:08:03.191 --> 00:08:08.654
He said: “I must win without a shadow of a doubt.”

00:08:08.654 --> 00:08:13.117
In fact he sent an immense number of troops.

00:08:13.117 --> 00:08:16.245
They had 400 - 500 airplanes.

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Italian and Ethiopian armaments were unequal.

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There was little doubt it would end
with an Italian victory.

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The war was fatalistically destined to end that way.

00:10:12.778 --> 00:10:17.241
America didn’t exist in those days.
It was all about Africa.

00:10:17.241 --> 00:10:19.535
Our future was in Africa.

00:10:19.535 --> 00:10:25.499
In fact when my father went to Africa,
he opened a shopping center.

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But then the war came and he lost everything.

00:10:29.670 --> 00:10:33.466
He had to leave and now we are in America,
thank God.

00:11:11.212 --> 00:11:22.723
During the war in Africa,
the town crier would play his drum and yell:

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We’ve taken Addis Ababa! We’ve taken Adwa!

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As a child nobody gave me nice trousers or a shirt.

00:11:42.410 --> 00:11:46.038
Mussolini gave me one,
though it was used.

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I wore it proudly.
I was happy to be a Balilla.

00:11:48.833 --> 00:11:56.173
Mussolini raised us as Sons of the She-Wolf, Balilla,
Vanguardists, Young Fascists.

00:11:56.173 --> 00:11:58.718
And then we had to go fight.

00:12:53.814 --> 00:12:58.903
Affile is a town of 1600 residents with a long history
dating back to the Aequi.

00:12:58.903 --> 00:13:04.658
Recently Affile has been in the news for a monument
to Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani,

00:13:04.658 --> 00:13:08.913
inaugurated last August and submerged in national
and international controversy.

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Graziani is remembered for his campaign in Libya,

00:13:11.874 --> 00:13:15.461
for the conquest of Ethiopia using
illegal mustard gas bombs,

00:13:15.461 --> 00:13:18.964
for his role in World War II
and the Social Republic.

00:13:18.964 --> 00:13:22.635
Per Ethiopian request he was added
to the UN list of war criminals,

00:13:22.635 --> 00:13:24.553
but he never went to trial.

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In Affile we thought it was going to be a playground,

00:13:31.435 --> 00:13:35.105
and up until July nobody had heard
about a monument to Graziani.

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His name was never mentioned in
the financing documents.

00:13:39.693 --> 00:13:47.201
150 thousand euro spent there
outside of the town,

00:13:47.201 --> 00:13:50.287
it seems like a waste of money.

00:13:52.957 --> 00:13:57.503
The monument has a wonderful inscription:
“Honor and Homeland”,

00:13:57.503 --> 00:14:01.757
on a cube there in the middle of nothing.

00:14:01.757 --> 00:14:07.596
There are two canons, that are British
and were used to shoot at Italians.

00:14:07.596 --> 00:14:11.392
Where’s the playground?

00:14:31.579 --> 00:14:32.913
What can I get you?

00:14:32.913 --> 00:14:34.039
A popsicle for me.

00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:35.749
Do you want that hot?

00:14:36.375 --> 00:14:37.418
How much?

00:14:37.418 --> 00:14:39.086
Today it’s 1.40.

00:14:40.838 --> 00:14:42.548
It’s always 1.40!

00:14:42.548 --> 00:14:45.926
Really? I forgot.

00:14:49.513 --> 00:14:53.809
Ok, here’s what we’ll do:
I’ll give you a discount.

00:14:56.896 --> 00:14:57.813
Thanks.

00:14:58.731 --> 00:15:07.364
The monument was built to give
due recognition to a local historical figure.

00:15:07.364 --> 00:15:13.954
He taught classes in Affile, he lived here,

00:15:14.705 --> 00:15:18.208
and he left his possessions to the people here.

00:15:18.208 --> 00:15:23.547
That’s why he’s still in our hearts.

00:15:26.383 --> 00:15:30.346
This bar is full of busts and dedications to Mussolini.

00:15:30.346 --> 00:15:40.397
Not to diminish Graziani,
but Mussolini was a great man,

00:15:40.397 --> 00:15:47.279
and sixty years after the war
we still are benefitting from his policies.

00:15:48.030 --> 00:15:52.034
[if you don’t know how to make war,
you don’t know how to make peace]

00:16:21.814 --> 00:16:26.902
My name is Giuseppe De Bac. I studied
tropical agriculture at Florence University.

00:16:26.902 --> 00:16:31.031
I started working with the
Food and Agriculture Organization in 1989.

00:16:31.031 --> 00:16:34.868
For 20 years I worked all over the world.

00:16:34.868 --> 00:16:38.288
In 2007 I was sent from Rome to Ethiopia.

00:16:38.288 --> 00:16:45.462
We promote tropical and temperate fruit cultivation
in the northern region of Tigray,

00:16:45.462 --> 00:16:49.133
where famines are somewhat frequent.

00:17:10.779 --> 00:17:18.829
As an FAO agronomist working in the field,

00:17:18.829 --> 00:17:24.334
I have to guarantee the sustainability
of our aid projects.

00:17:24.334 --> 00:17:32.009
This project promotes fruit cultivation
and I’m lucky to have Berhe as my assistant.

00:17:32.009 --> 00:17:38.974
He’s a model farmer and he passes on
our advice to the local farmers.

00:17:38.974 --> 00:17:42.603
So when I leave they won’t be on their own.

00:17:56.825 --> 00:18:01.789
I’ve always had a passion for history,
especially war history.

00:18:01.789 --> 00:18:08.837
I remember reading “The Russian Retreat”
and “The Sergeant in the Snow.”

00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:12.508
I was 14 or 15.

00:18:12.508 --> 00:18:16.595
Later, when I was in the army,
my father gave me the book

00:18:16.595 --> 00:18:23.936
“Graziani: the Marshal of the Regime,”
a biography by Alessandro Cova.

00:18:23.936 --> 00:18:25.270
I liked it a lot.

00:18:25.270 --> 00:18:32.528
Traveling to the places where the Italo-Ethiopian War
was fought, my passion has grown.

00:18:32.528 --> 00:18:36.281
It really fascinates me,
and it has become a real hobby.

00:18:36.281 --> 00:18:41.328
I read a lot of literature of the period,

00:18:41.328 --> 00:18:47.835
but I also visit places like this
to look for remnants of the war.

00:18:55.634 --> 00:18:57.845
This is the Uarieu Pass cemetery.

00:18:57.845 --> 00:19:01.431
It’s one of the emblematic places
of the Italo-Ethiopian War.

00:19:01.431 --> 00:19:04.268
It’s the only cemetery that is still intact.

00:19:04.268 --> 00:19:08.605
It’s a fascinating historical site.

00:19:08.605 --> 00:19:14.153
It was the scene of two important battles
in January and February of ‘36.

00:19:49.021 --> 00:19:55.986
Being sent to Ethiopia and to Tigray,
which was a theatre of the Italo-Ethiopian War,

00:19:55.986 --> 00:19:59.406
gave me a unique sense of excitement.

00:19:59.406 --> 00:20:03.493
Driving on roads and bridges
built by the army engineer corps

00:20:03.493 --> 00:20:05.537
still gives me the shivers.

00:20:05.537 --> 00:20:10.250
I feel the presence of the Italians
and I never feel alone.

00:20:37.653 --> 00:20:41.198
This is Meskel Square, in the center of Addis Ababa.

00:20:44.076 --> 00:20:53.835
The best architects in Italy were sent to Eritrea
and Ethiopia to construct buildings and roads.

00:20:58.173 --> 00:21:04.137
Now we are in Piazza,
the famous Italian neighborhood.

00:21:07.849 --> 00:21:15.357
I pursue my hobby in Addis Ababa as well.
I collect the annals of Italian Africa,

00:21:15.357 --> 00:21:20.487
as well as other books and magazines
that I buy from various vendors.

00:21:20.487 --> 00:21:28.203
Now I’m looking for the book
“I Served the Homeland” by Rodolfo Graziani.

00:21:28.203 --> 00:21:30.956
I saw it at this shop,
but the price is very high.

00:21:31.873 --> 00:21:34.334
What do you have about Rodolfo Graziani?

00:21:34.334 --> 00:21:37.337
You said you had something good.

00:21:39.423 --> 00:21:44.511
“The Italo-Ethiopian War: the Southern Front”

00:21:44.511 --> 00:21:45.762
Written by him?

00:21:45.762 --> 00:21:46.847
Yes, yes.

00:21:46.847 --> 00:21:51.018
“Command of the Somali Armed Forces...”

00:21:51.935 --> 00:21:54.271
“The Italo-Ethiopian War… The Southern Front…”

00:21:54.730 --> 00:21:56.273
How much for this one?

00:21:56.273 --> 00:21:58.942
This one is only 100 euro.

00:21:58.942 --> 00:22:02.654
Jeez! I thought it would be 100 birr.

00:22:03.989 --> 00:22:06.491
This is a truly unique collection though.

00:22:06.491 --> 00:22:09.828
This is the “Guide to Italian East Africa.”

00:22:09.828 --> 00:22:13.623
Ok, here’s a test for you.

00:22:13.623 --> 00:22:15.959
How much for this one?
Because I know its market price.

00:22:15.959 --> 00:22:20.255
Last year it was cheap,
but now it’s expensive.

00:22:21.048 --> 00:22:22.382
150 euro.

00:22:22.382 --> 00:22:24.384
You sly fox!

00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:54.873
The Graziani Archive,
stored here at the Central Archives,

00:22:54.873 --> 00:22:59.169
traces Graziani’s entire career.

00:22:59.169 --> 00:23:05.550
Graziani devoted himself to military life early on.

00:23:06.968 --> 00:23:11.390
He fought in World War I as an officer.

00:23:11.390 --> 00:23:16.770
He served bravely and received some medals.

00:23:17.354 --> 00:23:22.651
After the war he was assigned
the task of reconquering Libya.

00:23:23.819 --> 00:23:29.741
There he started showing a lack of scruples
while executing orders.

00:23:29.741 --> 00:23:37.207
To cut off civilian support to the guerilla fighters

00:23:37.207 --> 00:23:43.588
he deported entire villages to concentration camps.

00:23:46.007 --> 00:23:52.222
Nonetheless, he left Libya in ‘31 with
the Fascist regime’s commendations.

00:23:52.222 --> 00:23:55.809
So when the Italo-Ethiopian War broke out

00:23:55.809 --> 00:24:01.022
it was no surprise he was sent
to lead the Southern front.

00:24:03.024 --> 00:24:10.782
He received specific orders to engage
in limited military actions

00:24:10.782 --> 00:24:15.245
but he didn’t want to play a secondary role,

00:24:15.245 --> 00:24:17.914
so he began advancing quickly.

00:24:20.208 --> 00:24:26.590
He fought on the front lines. He wasn’t the kind
of general who commanded from the rear.

00:24:26.590 --> 00:24:31.636
But with this resoluteness came
the use of chemical weapons.

00:24:34.222 --> 00:24:40.562
They were used first on the Southern front,
and later in all theatres.

00:24:46.610 --> 00:24:50.238
The use of mustard gas has always been disputed.

00:24:50.238 --> 00:24:53.867
But the telegrams have been found.

00:24:53.867 --> 00:25:00.165
Mussolini encouraged Graziani to use
“all means necessary”

00:25:00.165 --> 00:25:03.919
with an obvious reference to mustard gas.

00:25:07.255 --> 00:25:11.051
At the end of the invasion
Graziani’s popularity was at its height

00:25:11.051 --> 00:25:15.680
and Mussolini appointed him
Viceroy of Ethiopia.

00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:20.727
He was faced with the difficult task
of pacifying the colony.

00:25:21.436 --> 00:25:27.317
The surrender of the central authority
wasn’t observed by tribal leaders.

00:25:27.317 --> 00:25:31.655
They mobilized their forces across the country

00:25:31.655 --> 00:25:35.325
forcing Graziani into a widespread guerrilla war.

00:25:35.325 --> 00:25:44.459
Graziani ordered reprisals against the population,
generating both fear and hatred.

00:25:59.808 --> 00:26:07.482
It all started in 1957, when a group
of Affile citizens approved a plan

00:26:07.482 --> 00:26:12.946
to construct a monument to
our compatriot Rodolfo Graziani.

00:26:12.946 --> 00:26:17.325
For various reasons the plan never took off

00:26:17.325 --> 00:26:23.790
and they only did some preliminary
levelling of the terrain.

00:26:23.790 --> 00:26:30.880
In 2008, a few months after I was elected,
we decided to dust off that old proposal

00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:36.386
which involved the construction of
a monument to the Soldier with capital “S”.

00:26:36.386 --> 00:26:38.722
For us in Affile that meant Rodolfo Graziani.

00:26:38.722 --> 00:26:42.309
He is our most distinguished soldier.

00:26:42.309 --> 00:26:48.857
We want to honor him as
the much-decorated General he was.

00:26:49.941 --> 00:26:56.239
Some people say he used mustard gas,
but there are testimonies against it.

00:26:56.239 --> 00:27:01.745
The most authoritative is Montanelli’s,
a journalist who fought in the Italo-Ethiopian war:

00:27:01.745 --> 00:27:06.249
“What gas?
Was I blind, deaf, an imbecile?

00:27:06.249 --> 00:27:08.835
There was no trace of that stuff.

00:27:08.835 --> 00:27:14.549
Documents can be falsified for the circumstances

00:27:14.549 --> 00:27:17.218
but my personal testimony cannot.”

00:27:17.218 --> 00:27:22.265
I’m not saying that Graziani was
a light-handed soldier.

00:27:22.390 --> 00:27:24.726
In war you have to kill the enemy.

00:27:24.726 --> 00:27:30.815
But saying that Graziani was “the butcher”
and an incompetent officer

00:27:30.815 --> 00:27:32.108
is just false.

00:27:32.108 --> 00:27:38.782
In his colonial career and at home,
Graziani is a proven hero.

00:27:56.966 --> 00:28:02.347
As you know, here in Affile
a monument to Rodolfo Graziani

00:28:02.347 --> 00:28:06.810
was inaugurated by the mayor
on August 12, 2012.

00:28:06.810 --> 00:28:11.481
It was built with 130,000 euro of public funding.

00:28:11.481 --> 00:28:15.819
which had been allocated for
the construction of a park.

00:28:27.580 --> 00:28:30.709
You’re late, we’ve been waiting for 10 minutes.

00:28:30.959 --> 00:28:32.460
As usual.

00:28:32.877 --> 00:28:36.131
This town is lazy. It’s really lazy.

00:28:36.131 --> 00:28:39.342
It doesn’t move, it doesn’t take a stance.

00:28:39.342 --> 00:28:41.636
This is the town’s big problem.

00:28:41.636 --> 00:28:44.389
Yes, the atmosphere here is heavy.

00:28:44.389 --> 00:28:51.563
But in a town that has had
a Fascist mentality for 69 years

00:28:51.563 --> 00:28:55.275
you can’t expect anything else.

00:28:55.275 --> 00:28:58.903
We have to work with kids and
teach them that history.

00:28:58.903 --> 00:29:01.781
At school they don’t talk about it.

00:29:02.157 --> 00:29:06.119
Sitting in that small office

00:29:06.119 --> 00:29:09.414
listening to the brave Italians
who condemn Fascism,

00:29:09.414 --> 00:29:13.460
I couldn’t help thinking about the life
of young Ethiopians in Italy.

00:29:21.843 --> 00:29:25.305
The desperation that I have seen
in our youth in Italy

00:29:25.305 --> 00:29:26.639
I’ve never seen it anywhere else.

00:29:27.098 --> 00:29:31.811
After surviving the Sahara and the sea,
they arrived with pride.

00:29:31.811 --> 00:29:36.483
But when they couldn’t find the
“European dream” they had imagined,

00:29:36.483 --> 00:29:40.445
they stopped caring about their own lives,
and about their country as well.

00:30:13.269 --> 00:30:17.857
Why is today’s youth not aware of our history?

00:30:17.857 --> 00:30:19.150
What’s lacking?

00:30:19.150 --> 00:30:21.110
What’s the problem?
Whose fault is this?

00:30:21.361 --> 00:30:26.866
Maybe it’s because they don’t have
enough books

00:30:26.866 --> 00:30:30.912
and they aren’t getting as good
an education as we did.

00:30:31.538 --> 00:30:36.251
The erection of the Graziani monument
is a great shame for us.

00:30:36.251 --> 00:30:37.418
A great shame.

00:30:38.044 --> 00:30:44.259
They killed our elders. They destroyed
our property and our churches.

00:30:45.009 --> 00:30:50.765
It’s our responsibility to motivate the youth.

00:30:50.765 --> 00:30:56.396
We have to call attention to these important
facts and teach them.

00:30:56.396 --> 00:31:01.943
Just because we live and work in Italy

00:31:01.943 --> 00:31:08.241
we can’t be afraid that our protests
against the government

00:31:08.241 --> 00:31:12.078
could lead us to losing our jobs.

00:31:12.078 --> 00:31:16.207
In fact we should be educating our employers, too.

00:36:11.211 --> 00:36:16.632
On the second day, the Italians took
everyone out of the church

00:36:16.632 --> 00:36:20.636
and inspected their hands one by one.

00:36:20.636 --> 00:36:26.225
Those with rough hands were asked:
“What are you? Are you a farmer?”

00:36:26.225 --> 00:36:29.812
If they said “yes”
they were allowed to leave.

00:36:31.898 --> 00:36:41.407
Those with soft hands were put on trucks.
There were no buses in those days.

00:36:41.407 --> 00:36:46.204
We children were watching from higher ground.

00:36:46.204 --> 00:36:56.172
We saw that the people were being handcuffed
and loaded onto empty trucks.

00:36:56.172 --> 00:37:01.093
Then they were taken to a ravine
known as “Fitche Shinkurt Mikael”

00:37:01.093 --> 00:37:07.225
and murdered with machine guns.

00:37:12.355 --> 00:37:16.317
But who cares about those monks,
except for God?

00:37:16.317 --> 00:37:18.569
They were all innocent in Debre Libanos.

00:37:18.736 --> 00:37:24.784
I pray for them, I ask God
to let them inherit Paradise.

00:37:24.784 --> 00:37:28.746
I pray for those monks because
they suffered on Earth

00:37:28.746 --> 00:37:32.041
and they shouldn’t endure
any tribulations in Heaven.

00:37:32.041 --> 00:37:37.755
I will pray and cry for Debre Libanos
for as long as I live.

00:37:37.755 --> 00:37:39.799
This place is holy.

00:37:39.799 --> 00:37:43.094
It was established by God’s covenant,
not by man’s.

00:37:43.094 --> 00:37:45.096
It would have vanished forever otherwise.

00:38:49.410 --> 00:38:53.331
We are climbing the Amba Alagi,
along the crags the Italians defended

00:38:53.331 --> 00:38:57.376
under the command
of Amedeo d’Aosta in ‘41.

00:38:58.044 --> 00:39:03.132
At the top we’ll find some fortifications
and we’ll see the ridge

00:39:03.132 --> 00:39:07.970
they defended against the English
and Ethiopian troops.

00:39:34.538 --> 00:39:38.501
The Amba Alagi, 11 thousand feet high,

00:39:38.501 --> 00:39:42.630
dominates the Alagi pass.

00:39:42.630 --> 00:39:48.010
Amedeo d’Aosta, the Viceroy of Ethiopia
who succeeded to Graziani,

00:39:48.010 --> 00:39:54.183
defended the Italian honor
with 7000 infantrymen.

00:39:54.183 --> 00:40:03.484
This 1941 battle was emblematic because
it marked the end of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia.

00:40:10.950 --> 00:40:15.955
When I heard about that monument in Affile

00:40:15.955 --> 00:40:18.707
I didn’t see much wrong with it.

00:40:18.707 --> 00:40:23.212
There’s no doubt that the massacres
in Addis Ababa and in Debre Libanos

00:40:23.212 --> 00:40:27.508
were poorly timed.

00:40:27.508 --> 00:40:31.804
But you have to consider that
he had suffered an attack.

00:40:31.804 --> 00:40:36.892
He thought he might lose his leg
and even his life.

00:40:36.892 --> 00:40:39.687
So he reacted violently.

00:40:51.532 --> 00:40:53.826
I believe that war is war.

00:40:53.826 --> 00:40:57.830
In war these massacres can happen.
Unfortunately it’s part of history.

00:40:57.830 --> 00:41:03.627
Look at what the English, the Americans
and the Germans did.

00:41:09.300 --> 00:41:13.012
The Ethiopians don’t hold a grudge
against the Italians.

00:41:13.012 --> 00:41:15.556
They have mostly positive memories.

00:41:15.556 --> 00:41:20.686
The Italians integrated with the locals so well

00:41:20.686 --> 00:41:25.900
that the Ethiopians adopted
Italian customs that are still alive today.

00:41:25.900 --> 00:41:30.529
Their love for food and coffee,
the social bustle in the evening…

00:41:30.529 --> 00:41:34.408
It makes me feel at home somehow.

00:42:44.520 --> 00:42:49.900
I don’t like Addis Ababa.
The city is tentacular and super polluted.

00:42:49.900 --> 00:42:56.740
It’s growing relentlessly
to the detriment of our old Italian houses.

00:42:56.740 --> 00:43:02.621
I’m forced to come here for work
but I also get to see my friend Sara,

00:43:02.621 --> 00:43:05.416
an intelligent and modern woman.

00:43:05.416 --> 00:43:08.627
We really get along.

00:43:10.588 --> 00:43:13.299
On some things.

00:43:14.633 --> 00:43:18.053
For example, she really loves pasta.

00:44:19.031 --> 00:44:20.074
It’s good, right?

00:44:35.089 --> 00:44:42.096
I’m going to visit my friend Carlo Iori,
an Addis Ababa old-timer.

00:44:42.096 --> 00:44:46.183
He’s a living encyclopedia,
he knows everything.

00:44:46.183 --> 00:44:51.146
I like to meet with him and talk about
the Italian occupation,

00:44:51.146 --> 00:44:56.318
about what it was like back then.

00:45:08.288 --> 00:45:13.877
The Italians who came to Ethiopia really thought
they were bringing civilization.

00:45:13.877 --> 00:45:18.966
Many stayed and worked here,
and never had trouble with the local population.

00:45:18.966 --> 00:45:27.057
They say: “We fought, but we feel closer to you
than any other Europeans.”

00:45:27.057 --> 00:45:31.979
And if they know a few words of Italian,
they want to talk to you.

00:45:31.979 --> 00:45:35.482
They are proud if their father speaks Italian.

00:45:35.482 --> 00:45:42.489
We were not the best of colonizers,
but we were not the worst either.

00:45:42.489 --> 00:45:45.117
Speaking of the worst,

00:45:45.117 --> 00:45:53.667
in America and in Italy there were
demonstrations about that monument in Affile.

00:45:53.667 --> 00:46:02.134
Yes, I think a small mistake was made
in dedicating it to Graziani.

00:46:02.134 --> 00:46:04.928
But there was no fuss here in Ethiopia?

00:46:04.928 --> 00:46:06.472
Nobody heard about it.

00:46:06.472 --> 00:46:13.479
We only started having troubles when
the Ethiopians in America started protesting.

00:46:13.479 --> 00:46:16.857
but here they don’t care.
If you ask about Graziani they say:

00:46:16.857 --> 00:46:20.068
“It’s been 70 years, it’s over”.

00:48:23.233 --> 00:48:30.198
As you know, one million people were butchered
by mustard gas, hangings, bombs and bullets.

00:48:30.198 --> 00:48:36.496
2000 churches and 525,000 houses were destroyed.

00:48:36.496 --> 00:48:45.589
As if that wasn’t enough, they recently
built a monument to the butcher Graziani

00:48:45.589 --> 00:48:50.344
in a town near Rome called Affile.

00:48:50.928 --> 00:48:53.472
As if he were a hero.

00:48:54.014 --> 00:48:59.519
This clearly shows how little they think of us.

00:49:25.879 --> 00:49:29.591
I would like to thank Mr. Kidane.

00:49:30.842 --> 00:49:34.137
This is an issue that we can’t ignore.

00:49:34.137 --> 00:49:39.768
We have scholars, international lawyers,
people who work at the UN

00:49:40.227 --> 00:49:43.188
But we have neglected this issue.

00:49:43.188 --> 00:49:47.567
Let’s record the voices of our elders
and save our history.

00:49:48.402 --> 00:49:53.615
Growing up, this story ate me up inside.

00:49:53.615 --> 00:49:56.994
I hope that speaking about it will release me.

00:49:57.661 --> 00:50:00.622
In one morning my five brothers and sisters

00:50:01.665 --> 00:50:05.585
were burned alive by the Italians.

00:50:06.294 --> 00:50:10.257
Charred parts of their heads and legs

00:50:11.216 --> 00:50:15.762
were all that was left to bury.

00:50:16.388 --> 00:50:20.475
I’m standing in front of you today telling you this.

00:50:20.976 --> 00:50:22.352
because it shook me.

00:50:23.020 --> 00:50:24.938
I couldn’t hide it anymore.

00:54:35.814 --> 00:54:41.111
Welcome everybody.
We are here to honor Martyrs’ Day.

00:54:41.111 --> 00:54:47.450
This year the 19th of February
is being celebrated around the world

00:54:48.410 --> 00:54:52.831
in fifty major cities.

00:57:47.046 --> 00:57:51.593
The Italian Republic that rose
from the ruin of the war

00:57:51.593 --> 00:57:55.597
wanted to start its new life

00:57:55.597 --> 00:58:03.980
with a general amnesty for the crimes
committed during the Fascist period.

00:58:03.980 --> 00:58:07.358
So the prisons were emptied.

00:58:11.779 --> 00:58:20.872
The Catholic, Communist and Socialist parties,
which were the most popular parties

00:58:20.872 --> 00:58:30.423
knew that 90% of Italians had adhered
to the Fascist Party, with zeal or with resignation.

00:58:30.423 --> 00:58:36.888
Prosecuting them meant putting
the entire nation on trial.

00:58:37.847 --> 00:58:45.271
Putting on trial the citizens they wanted
to attract into their ranks.

00:58:46.105 --> 00:58:49.150
There were some remarkable cases in the amnesty.

00:58:49.150 --> 00:58:58.576
All charges against Graziani for his actions
during the Fascist period were dropped.

00:58:58.576 --> 00:59:01.955
He only spent a few months in prison.

00:59:03.164 --> 00:59:11.589
It was an embarrassment that the parties
set free individuals of his status.

00:59:11.589 --> 00:59:13.675
But that is what happened.

00:59:16.177 --> 00:59:22.892
This is the ambiguity of the Italian Republic’s origins.

00:59:29.524 --> 00:59:35.572
It’s an ambiguity that continued
long after it was constituted in ‘46.

00:59:40.743 --> 00:59:46.374
Even though the Republic was founded
on a constitution that declared Fascism illegal,

00:59:46.374 --> 00:59:53.172
by the end of the 1940s
a neo-fascist party was created.

00:59:53.172 --> 00:59:58.678
This party, the Italian Social Movement (MSI),

00:59:58.678 --> 01:00:05.602
was led by the notorious fascist Giorgio Almirante
and by Graziani himself.

01:00:12.483 --> 01:00:16.738
It’s obvious that there are still
right-wing movements

01:00:16.738 --> 01:00:21.367
inspired by the principles of the Fascist regime.

01:00:25.371 --> 01:00:28.333
That’s the anomaly of Italian politics.

01:00:28.333 --> 01:00:33.504
Still today we are forced to constantly reaffirm

01:00:33.504 --> 01:00:38.384
that the Italian Republic was born from the Resistance
and from anti-fascist values.

01:01:08.164 --> 01:01:12.377
Good morning, and welcome to the demonstration.

01:01:12.794 --> 01:01:18.549
Today we celebrate the victory
of a democratic Italy against Nazi-Fascism.

01:01:20.426 --> 01:01:26.641
For too long in this country
we have witnessed nostalgic displays

01:01:26.641 --> 01:01:34.899
by those who think the Italy of 1922-1943 still exists.

01:01:34.899 --> 01:01:38.403
That Italy is gone.
They have to accept it.

01:01:38.403 --> 01:01:44.033
We closed the book on Fascism on April 25, 1945.

01:01:44.033 --> 01:01:46.452
And they should remember that.

01:01:50.581 --> 01:01:54.627
Under the center-right administrations of the ‘90s

01:01:54.627 --> 01:01:59.966
the issue of history textbooks was raised.

01:01:59.966 --> 01:02:06.973
They said they were inaccurate, written in
an anti-fascist vein, and had to be revised.

01:02:08.057 --> 01:02:11.894
It was an attempt to reevaluate Fascism itself.

01:02:11.894 --> 01:02:16.315
The war in Ethiopia was also legitimized,

01:02:16.315 --> 01:02:22.530
as were the English and French colonial wars.

01:02:28.953 --> 01:02:35.126
Another way we absolve the Ethiopian venture

01:02:35.126 --> 01:02:41.841
is by resorting to the old saying that
“Italians are good people”,

01:02:41.841 --> 01:02:44.719
that we are fundamentally good-natured.

01:02:44.719 --> 01:02:48.514
But we forget the repressions and the killings,

01:02:48.514 --> 01:02:52.268
all the cruelest episodes of our colonialism.

01:03:09.076 --> 01:03:14.332
As the controversy unraveled, the story
of the monument in Affile has become clear.

01:03:14.332 --> 01:03:21.631
The town requested funding for a park
dedicated to the unknown soldier.

01:03:21.631 --> 01:03:25.968
That’s why the initial funding was approved.

01:03:25.968 --> 01:03:33.142
But with a shameful trick, the monument
was dedicated not to the unknown soldier,

01:03:33.142 --> 01:03:35.520
but to the fascist Graziani.

01:03:35.520 --> 01:03:39.649
The first thing we did was to revoke the funding.

01:03:39.649 --> 01:03:46.948
We wanted to make an institutional statement
and a political denunciation.

01:03:46.948 --> 01:03:51.369
It’s indecent to think that a body
of the Italian State

01:03:51.369 --> 01:03:55.748
can build a monument to remember
someone like Graziani,

01:03:55.748 --> 01:03:58.793
who has been found guilty by history.

01:04:10.054 --> 01:04:17.228
Yesterday they celebrated
a day of remembrance in Affile.

01:04:21.440 --> 01:04:25.486
This morning is the last stage of a long program.

01:04:25.486 --> 01:04:34.579
We stopped in all the towns of the Aniene Valley
that suffered massacres, raids

01:04:34.579 --> 01:04:39.417
and abuses at the hands of Nazi-Fascist troops.

01:04:39.417 --> 01:04:46.132
It’s significant that this process of remembrance
is ending here in Affile,

01:04:46.132 --> 01:04:52.430
where a controversial monument
was recently built to honor Rodolfo Graziani.

01:04:55.182 --> 01:04:59.395
The mayor of Affile was invited to speak.

01:04:59.770 --> 01:05:04.108
He doesn’t have any regrets
about the monument to Graziani.

01:05:04.984 --> 01:05:12.074
I had a feeling this event would go off-topic
and confuse the issue

01:05:12.074 --> 01:05:16.203
by dragging Graziani into the mix.

01:05:16.203 --> 01:05:25.588
This has nothing to do with
the victims of Fascism and Nazism.

01:05:25.588 --> 01:05:32.637
The monument to Rodolfo Graziani elevates
the memory and the honor of the people of Affile.

01:05:37.433 --> 01:05:43.981
Mayor Viri outdid himself today,
showing the true nature of his politics.

01:05:43.981 --> 01:05:50.071
But he forgot that he’s wearing the tricolor flag,
which represents the Italian Republic,

01:05:50.071 --> 01:05:55.117
born from the Partisan movement
and from resistance to Nazi-Fascism.

01:05:55.117 --> 01:06:05.169
In this town there is a monument to someone
they call “a soldier”.

01:06:06.045 --> 01:06:13.177
Well, I remember that soldier for
the massacres of Debre Libanos and Addis Ababa.

01:06:13.177 --> 01:06:19.266
I remember him for many other vile acts.

01:06:19.266 --> 01:06:25.231
We demand that this monument
be replaced by a new one.

01:06:25.231 --> 01:06:28.150
Demolish it and build a new one.

01:06:28.150 --> 01:06:35.074
A new monument dedicated to the victims
of Nazi-Fascism and of Italian colonialism.

01:06:35.074 --> 01:06:39.620
That would be justice.
That would be democracy.

01:06:50.673 --> 01:06:56.095
Dear listeners, we attended the memorial
event in Affile yesterday

01:06:56.095 --> 01:07:03.811
and we have reported the overall
atmosphere of the program.

01:07:03.811 --> 01:07:08.274
We will keep you up to date on our struggle.

01:07:08.274 --> 01:07:15.698
We wish you a peaceful and healthy week.

01:07:17.241 --> 01:07:22.747
[the truth is, I never had anything
more beautiful than you]

01:08:21.013 --> 01:08:29.146
Today, May 9th, the fate of Ethiopia is sealed.

01:08:30.856 --> 01:08:35.486
Italy finally has its empire!

01:09:35.838 --> 01:09:42.261
President Zingaretti’s decision to freeze
the monument’s funding gives us all hope.

01:09:42.261 --> 01:09:44.972
But what’s next?

01:09:47.141 --> 01:09:52.563
We protested all around the world.
We even had demonstrations in Affile.

01:09:52.563 --> 01:09:57.067
But the monument is still here. It exists.

01:10:01.989 --> 01:10:07.203
I will be back to fight
until that monument is demolished.