This is the grateful tribute, on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy Battle of Seleny Yarthat Anna Cavasinni and Fabrizio Franceschelli they offer to the numerous alpine troops of the L’Aquila Battalion which from Russia have never returned and to those who have returned but have been forced to have their lower limbs amputated by freezing.
Among them the dearest is the friend Valentino DiFranco, which went on a few months ago, to which the two directors always come to mind whenever we talk about alpine troops. Valentino was with the Juliain the btg. The Eagleand in Seleny Yar he was alone, on the front line, right in the Christmas week of 1942.
He heard the cries of his fellow soldiers of the Btg Vicenza who were being exterminated under the Russian tanks, in the “Valley of Death”. And among those frozen snows, at 40 degrees below zero, he lost the use of his legs. He was only twenty.
For the December 29th pv the initiative comes from the local Alpine Group ANA of Pescocostanzowith the collaboration of Municipality of Pescocostanzo. The screening, lasting approximately 75 minutes, will be preceded by some institutional interventions and a brief introduction by the authors.
There have been so many Alpini who in the last twenty years have agreed to leave their testimony to Anna and Fabrizio, trusting in their professionalism and their intellectual honesty.
These are unrepeatable interviews, sometimes moving, which form part of an extraordinary personal archive of the two authors on the memory of the Second World War, a heritage which make available to young people because the feeling of identity grows in them and the knowledge of the history and of the territory in which they live and grow, together with a motivated rejection of wars that are not of defense.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the tragic battle on the Don River, the two directors from Abruzzo they are therefore distributing this gift among the population of Abruzzo in memory of those young Alpine troops who died in combat or in prison camps, or who were declared missing among the Russian steppes, or who returned to their homeland but throughout their lives suffered the consequences of an absurd war and even more absurd orders.
The Christmas battle of 1942 was in fact the most terrible for the Italian Army in Russia and in particular for our Alpini. To contribute to the dissemination of a page of history unknown to many and which risks falling into oblivion, these days in collaboration with the Abruzzi section of the ANA and with some Alpine groups from Abruzzo, the initiative was born to present two documentary films “The Heroes of the Gran Sasso” and “1942: Christmas in Russia” in schools and towns that wish to do so.
At the end of each meeting viewers will be able to receive copies of the DVDs and books as a precious Christmas present attached to the documentary films which will be delivered free of charge while supplies last.
Anna Cavasinni and Fabrizio Franceschelli are directors and anthropologists, authors of a series of docufilms in 10 episodes, entitled THE WAR AT THE HOME, on the Second World War in Abruzzo. They both work for the RAIand Fabrizio Franceschelli has been sent to the program for about thirty years Who has seen?
The first seven episodes of Guerra in casa were broadcast with numerous reruns by RAI Storia between 2012 and 2018. And these days, again for the same series, the two directors are completing the double DVD on La Vittoria di Monte Marrone, made in co-production with the Abruzzi Section of the ANA National Alpine Association, with the cultural association Territori Link and with the participation of numerous ANA Groups from Abruzzo and Molise.
Organized by the ANA Alpini Group and the Municipality of Pescocostanzo, the first appointment of this journey down memory lane, an intense and participatory commemorative journey that will last until Christmas 2023, has been set for the evening of Thursday 29 December next in the San Nicola hall/auditoriumin Piazza Municipio a Pescocostanzo (AQ) at 18.00.
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