[Salon] Commemorating A U.S. Victory In Italy, As Parts Of Europe Are Again In Flames

COMMEMORATING A U.S. VICTORY IN ITALY, AS PARTS OF EUROPE ARE AGAIN IN FLAMES
                                                      BY
                                        ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
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Vicenza, Italy
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Seventy seven years ago, U.S. tankers and infantry soldiers helped liberate the northern Italian city of Vicenza, braving German sniper fire on the city’s Corso San Felipe Fortunato, or street of lucky fortune. Then, they liberated the birthday cake of a 13-year-old Italian girl.

These events were commemorated on April 28. My son Peter, a diplomatic representative of our country, attended the ceremony. At this time, the formerly 13-year-old owner of the purloined cake, had her cake replaced during the ceremony. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” in Italian and English. The cake was presented to Meri Mion, now 90, by Col. Matthew Gomlak, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Italy.

Stars and Stripes reported that, “Meri Mion had spent the night hiding with her mother in the attic as retreating German troops fired nearby. The next morning she saw American troops camped near the house. It was her birthday and her mother baked a cake, then set it to cool on the windowsill. Next thing she knew, it was gone. Did she cry at the loss of her cake? ‘No, she was very conscious of other people being hungry,’ her daughter Roberta Gaetano, said. ‘She felt like it was a gift to people in need.’”

The liberation of Italy in World War 11 consisted of Allied and Axis operations in and around Italy from 1943 to 1945, beginning with the invasion of Sicily in July, 1943. This was followed in September by the invasion of the Italian mainland and the campaign in Italy until the surrender of the German armed forces in May 1945.

The campaign was a brutal one. More than 300,000 Allied forces and more than 350,000 German soldiers lost their lives in Italy. Over 150,000 Italian civilians died as did more than 25,000 anti-Fascist Italian partisans. On the Western Front of World War 11, Italy was the most costly campaign in terms of casualties suffered by the infantry forces on on both sides.

The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 led to the collapse of the Italian Fascist regime and the fall of Mussolini who was deposed and arrested by the order of King Victor Emmanuel lll on July 25. The new government signed an armistice with the allies on Sept. 8, 1943. However, German forces soon took control of northern and central Italy. Mussolini, who was rescued by German paratroopers, established a collaborationist puppet state, the Italian Social Republic (RSI) to administer the German occupied territory. In April, 1945, Mussolini was captured by the Italian Resistance and summarily executed by firing squad.

Italy and much of Europe is filled with American military military cemeteries. I remember visiting the cemetery at Nettuno, between Rome and Naples, several years ago with my son and grandson. It is sad to see parts of Europe once again engulfed in flames, as Russia brutally attacks hospitals, train stations and residential neighborhoods in Ukraine. And right here in Vicenza, Italy and its surrounding area, Ukrainian refugees are being welcomed by the local community.

Ukraine’s prosecutor recently accused 10 Russian soldiers, including a general, of being”involved in the torture of peaceful people” in Bucha. Hundreds were found dead. Prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova has appealed to the public to help assemble evidence. She said that, “During the occupation of Bucha they took unarmed civilians hostage, killed them with hunger and thirst, kept them on their knees with hands tied and eyes taped, mocked and beat them.”

Many observers expect Vladimir Putin to claim a big victory in the East by May 8, Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany. Putin, like many of his predecessors, often uses patriotic Russian holidays and anniversaries to make major announcements. In March, he appeared at a Moscow stadium at a rally marking the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula , and used the event to build support for the current war.

The discovery of the mass killings around Kyiv helped to galvanize support for Ukraine in the West. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov vowed his country would join others in providing military assistance as he toured another scene of atrocities outside Kyiv, in Borodyanka.

“We cannot be indifferent. We cannot say that this is a Ukrainian problem. We cannot say some people are dying but we are not interested in that. This is not just the battle for Ukraine, but it is a matter for civilization to decide which side to take.”

In early May, columns of smoke could be seen rising at different points across the Donetsk region of the Donbas and artillery and sirens were heard. A video posted online by Ukraine’s Azov Regiment inside the steel plant showed people combing through the rubble to remove the dead and help the wounded. The regiment said the Russians hit an improvised underground hospital and surgery room killing an unspecified number of people. In Mariupol, hundreds of thousands of residents have fled. Authorities said the estimated 100,000 who remain run the risk of diseases like cholera and dysentery.

Ironically, early in May, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hit out at Ukraine’s president during an interview with Italian television. He said that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish ancestry “doesn’t mean anything” while trying to justify Vladimir Putin’s call to “denazify” the nation. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Putin described it as a “special military operation” to remove leaders he claimed were “neo-Nazis.”

Lavrov said, “So what if Zelensky is Jewish? The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean anything. Some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews.” The basis for Lavrov’s claim with regard to Hitler are unproven claims that Hitler’s unidentified paternal grandfather was Jewish. This was fueled by an assertion by Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank. In his memoir published in 1953, Frank said he had been instructed by Hitler to investigate rumors that he had Jewish ancestry. Frank said he uncovered evidence that Hitler’s grandfather was indeed Jewish, though the claim has been treated with skepticism by historians.

State Department spokesman Ned Price called Lavrov’s statement “the lowest form of racism” and “insidious lies.” To justify the invasion of Ukraine and months of war crimes against its civilian population because a group of “Nazis” must be defeated——in a country with a democratically elected Jewish president who lost members of his family in the Holocaust——-is a fanciful claim to which only Putin friends and allies would give any credence. Now, 77 years after the end of World War 11, parts of Europe are once again in flames.
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