(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 02 NOV - Slovenian and Croatian victims who died in the concentration camp built in 1941, just outside the town of Gonars (Udine) in Friuli, were commemorated on the Day of Remembrance of the Dead. Built for Russian war prisoners," reads a statement from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Council, "the camp has never been used for that purpose and in 1942 was designated for the internment of Slovenian and Croatian civilians. In the cemetery, in a shrine, the remains of 453 people are kept today.

"This shrine represents the place of remembrance of facts and people that must be brought to the attention of the public, thinking of those thanks to whom we live today in countries where democracy prevails," Regional Council President Piero Mauro Zanin underlined during the ceremony. Attending were, among others, the consul general of Slovenia in Trieste, Gregor Suc, representatives of law enforcement agencies, combatant associations, and partisans of Italy.

"The institutions," Zanin added, "have, first and foremost, a moral duty to remember. After a period when commemorations were losing color, history knocked again at our door with a war not far from our borders. The Europe of peace did not think it would live again events similar to those that happened 80 years ago: malnourished children, broken families, and raped civilians. We know of 59 wars worldwide, but we were never involved in the other 58 because they occurred far away. Today war affects Europe and, therefore, all of us, so those memories are rekindled. And then," he said, "the only way to avoid those circumstances is peace." (ANSA).