Mattia Carta holds the gray box wrapped in the tricolor in his hands. Above is the tag with a name: Francesco Demuru, 21 years old. «It was my grandfather’s will to bring him home. Now he will return to Sardinia, to Posada, to the town where he was born.” Next to Mattia’s mother and niece of the fallen man, Maria Antonietta Demuru, can barely hold back her tears: “The emotion is too strong.” Six of them arrived from Sardinia at the shrine of the overseas fallen in Bari for the delivery of the earthly remains of Uncle Francesco, one of the young marines murdered in Ossero, today in Croatia, by Tito’s partisans on the night between 21 and 22 April 1945. After almost 80 years those bones, which had been cataloged as “unknown fallen” have a name and a surname, thanks to the DNA identification made possible by Panorama. Demuru is one of the 11 recognized Ossero fallen soldiers, out of the 21 marines of the X Mas and 6 local soldiers of the Tramontana battalion, exhumed in 2019 from two mass graves behind the wall of the Ossero church.
«Emilio Biffi, Ettore Brogi, Gino Civolani. Ermanno Coppi, Francesco De Muro, Dino Fantechi, Mangolini Giuseppe Enea Gesualdo, Luciano Medri, Aleandro Petrucci, Iginio Sersanti, Fabio Venturi». The names of all those killed at the end of the war are chanted at the monumental shrine in Bari, which houses the remains of 75 thousand Italian soldiers who fell in the Second World War.
The ceremony on December 13th is dedicated to the delivery of four urns with the identified remains to the family members. The other seven will remain at the shrine, but in the “known fallen” section. The roll of drums accompanies the 27 soldiers who carry all the urns of the Ossero soldiers, in front of a guard of honour, family members and the authorities. When the “silence” is sounded the atmosphere is moving. On 21 April 1945 the marines surrendered on the island of Cherso, the last strip of Italy. The Slavic partisans subjected them to a death march, harassing them in every way, and then stripped them naked and killed them without trial on the edge of the mass grave that was supposed to hide the bodies and make them forgotten forever. The first to reveal the hidden story of the marines murdered in Ossero was Captain Federico Scopinich. Licia Giadrossi, president of the exiles of the Community of Lussinpiccolo, present at the ceremony, contacted Panorama in 2019: «We wanted to give the remains a name and surname. Thanks to your newspaper, a fundraiser was organized for the company” which also involved the newspaper the Truth. With over 300 donations, for a total of 26,293 euros, the project began which involved the Defense and the universities of Bari and Trieste. Riccardo Maculan, former carabiniere, with meticulous research, tracked down the relatives of the marines for DNA testing. The first step was “to analyze the remains, recomposing them, to establish the causes of death” explains Francesco Introna, professor of Forensic Medicine in Bari. “We found bullet holes in the back of the head and also from blows from a club.” Then a selection of the bones was taken over by Paolo Fattorini of the University of Trieste: «To carry out the genetic comparison of the remains with the DNA of the samples provided to us by 14 families». The success is unexpected: 11 remains are identified. It’s not about rewriting history or rehabilitating X Mas. General Andrea Rispoli, who leads the «Office for the protection of culture and memory of the Defense» states at the ceremony that «guaranteeing a dignified burial for all those killed in conflicts is a moral and civil duty of the State, regardless of the historical context or by political or ideological distinctions.”
The military chaplain blesses the 27 boxes wrapped in the tricolor, lined up between two rows of young soldiers of all arms. Then the Carabinieri general delivers the four urns that the family members want to bring home permanently. «This is my uncle. We are taking him to the family tomb in Gabicce Mare” explains a very emotional Orlando Sersanti, who provided the DNA for the identification of Iginio’s remains. Tarcisio Arca is the nephew of Fabio Venturi, who in 1945 was only 21 years old. «He will return to Terni, as my mother wishes while she is still alive» he says. «And we will ask for the infoibati medal awarded to the victims of Tito’s partisans». Ermanno Baldasarri brings back to Tuscany the remains of his uncle, Ermanno Coppi, murdered at the age of 19. «We will bury him next to his parents, who have waited a lifetime for their son. The warning of this day is to recognize the bestiality of war, which tears humanity apart.” n
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