25 aprile – 74° della liberazione d'Italia
(April 25 – The 74th Anniversary of Italy's Liberation [from Fascism])
On April 25, 2019, Italians celebrated the seventy-fourth anniversary of Italy's liberation from the remnants of Benito Mussolini's Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Italian Social Republic; 1943-45) and Nazi Germany's occupying Wehrmacht forces during the final months of World War II. Marked by ceremonies and public marches across the Italian peninsula, these celebratory gatherings are intended to both acknowledge the key roles played by the Italian Partisan movement in bringing about a swift conclusion to the Duce's regime and, perhaps equally as important, to instill a sense of anti-fascist collective memory regarding the Partisan Resistance among contemporary Italy's younger demographics. Organized by the Roman division of the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (National Association of Italian Partisans, ANPI), along with municipal and regional authorities, this particular Liberation Day celebration included a public march which began at Largo Benedetto Bompiani, in the city's Garbatella neighborhood, and ended at Porta San Paolo, near the Parco della Resistenza dell'VIII Settembre (Fig. 1). In addition to the public march, the ANPI's activities included the singing of anti-fascist hymns, the distribution of Partisan-themed literature, the telling of various Resistance stories, and an "Omaggio ai martiri delle Fosse Ardeatine" (Homage to the martyrs of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre), when the occupying Nazi forces executed three hundred thirty-five civilians and political prisoners just outside of Rome in March 1944.
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