“Liliana Segre, my mother, a symbol trampled on hatred: she taught me dignity and respect for others”

As part of her institutional role as life senator Liliana segrelike many other politicians, attended the ceremonies for the April 25. Choosing a city very dear to her and of which she is an honorary town: Pesaro, where during a living room at the sea (the maternal grandparents were Marches) in 1948 met her future husband. A day of festival, however, from An avalanche of insults who have unleashed on social media, where the senator was accused even of being a Nazi. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated phenomenon, but a wave of hatred that has chosen Liliana Segre as a target for the most disparate reasons: accused by no vax for having undergone first to the vaccine when fragile subject and for supporting the Green pass provision; hated for the privileges that Senator’s condition guarantees them; hated by animal rights activists because years ago she wore a fur; target of rejection of anti -Semitism; Accused of surviving Auschwitz because the collaborator of the Nazis. And above all, they send to those who consider it in fact complicit in the systematic massacre of the Palestinians in the Gaza strip as he expressed distinctions on the definition of genocide and did not forcefully condemn the Netanyahu government. A social drift, of course, but also the symptom of how easy it is to manipulate the facts, the words, the same story to make a target of hatred with a very similar method to the Nazi one.

To feel pain and bewilderment for what is happening are First of all The children of the Senator, who in recent years have also been alongside her in the institutional field, sharing the principles and values ​​that her role and figure entail. Alberto Belli Paci, iThe firstborn, who bears the name of Lilliana Segre’s father, who died of cheering a few months after his arrival in Auschwitz, He has been engaged for years on the theme of reconciliation within the Catholic Work -inspiration association – Cittadella della Pace, and on that of memory in the stir -stirring committee of Milanhe sent us his written testimony with the vibrant tones of a child, but also lucid and stops of those who believe in justice, dialogue and historical truth.

The words of the son

«I grew up in a family that taught me to defend the weak against bullies and arrogant, respect for the homeland and the flag, not to submit and not to accept the injustices especially if against helpless people, be charitable with those who need, do not waste food, be available and open to others, have a single word.
My father, Alfredo Bello Paci, a severe man, all of one piece, had preferred to make 7 camps of penalty imprisonment in Germany, rather than joining the Republic of Salò where Italians and Germans fought for the third Reich. He chose to suffer hunger and deprivations, but did not submit. This was his teaching, which has always accompanied me in the course of my life. In this I believe, this I taught to my son. Like him I am Catholic, and not only for being baptized, but because I recognize myself in the message of the Gospel
I would never have thought of getting to my seventy years and having to assist in the opposite exact of what I was taught: that is to see An old lady, my mother, surviving a child in Auschwitz with the number 75190 tattooed on the arm, a person who has always preached peace and repudiates hatred in all his form, be vilified and threatened with death by a pack of haters who do not have the courage to present themselves in the open with name and surname, but act in the shade against a person of 95 years old, appointed life senator for life in 2019 by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
Often I wonder who are the haters who persecute her, what they do in life, what age, what a profession that culture have behind them to have the time and the desire to concentrate as a vultures about a 95 -year -old woman. The answers are many, and all chilling, because the picture that derives from it a common profile of nihilism and envy, There are no foundations for hatred, no objective claims behind the most atrocious, but ignorance, do not appear, but ignorance, but ignorance deep historical ignorance, lack of humanity, Passion for those who shoot it bigger with the aim of entertaining the wolves in a caged barely thirsty of blood to which they belong. The courageous haters then when they are identified and forced to respond, appear lost, minimize, appear as kids in a horrendous video game. A bit like Hitler’s willing collaborators, like Eichmann who protested because he had diligently obeyed orders.
I learned from my mother dignity, the sense of duty, respect for others, However, without ever bowing your head in front of the abuses. She woman of peace who repudiates hatred and violence, she who strongly wanted a commission that fights the speeches of instigation to hatred, whatever it is, who has always declared she is contrary to the war, who has repeatedly manifested her proximity to the populations victims of war actions, of any origin and of any flag, supportive with all the children of the world without distinction because the childhood is sacred, she is attacked and offended her. Continuously from those who have nothing better to do in life if not to give an old lady as a symbol, as a defender of the Memori, as a bearer towards the younger generations of a narration of peace, non -violent, where dialogue always has the better of weapons, where people communicate with other people. who are not the enemy a priori but individuals to deal with.
This is the unequivocal message of Liliana Segre, against hatred, love wins, no woman or child is born guilty a priori if you search in every way dialogue between peoples. There is no wrong or reason only on the one hand, but each one is responsible for their actions.
It is in this perspective that Judicial criminal actions have been taken towards those who threaten and insult it, There are at present about 100 complaints now examined by the judiciary and by the police, and others will follow. We owe it to our mother not only as children, but as citizens of a state that must stem every drift that violates the dignity of the person, so that the debate, the comparison, even the most bitter, can take place in the context of mutual respect, education and ethics “.