Brizio del Gran Sasso Ferrata has changed its name. it was time!

Human justice is slow, but sometimes it does its job. Seventy-five years after the events, the President of the Rome Section of the CAI, Guido Briziowhich signed the purge of Jewish members (“non-Aryans”, in the ghastly language of the time) between 1938 and 1939, no longer celebrated on the Gran Sasso as Via Ferrata.

This decision was made a few days ago Teramo Section of CAIOwner for almost twenty years of the Via Ferrata, which connects the Cella del Brecciao, and therefore the hotel in Campo Imperatore, with the Cella dei due Corni and the walls of the Corno Piccolo.

,It was a unanimous decision, we are proud of it. Now we need some time to make a comparison with other sections, with the regional CAI, with the municipality of Pietracamella and with the Gran Sasso and the Monti della Laga National Park.“, telling Luigi Pomponi, president of the Teramo section,

Brizio’s new name via ferrata

The new name of the Brizio via ferrata will almost certainly be Ferrata dei Gineperi, after the wooded valley over which the assisted itinerary overlooks. Other proposals seem to have been scrapped: the Ferrata Azzo-Geneta (the nickname of the “Pure” member and her husband, a famous climber), the Ferrata della Memoria and the Ferrata dei due Corni.

The decision was up in the air for a year and a half, since friend and colleague lorenzo grassi issued an influential report on the measures the then Urbe section of the Italian Alpine Center had taken to comply with fascist racial laws.

Articles followed in the press and on the web (many signed by me, and anyone who reads these lines probably knows it), the work of the national CAI working group, which made up Milena Manji, fabrizio russo, angelo soraviaand as precious as the companion livia steve in Rome, and the historian Stephen Morosini In the CAI Central Collection in Milan.

The most exciting moment was the meeting of the National CAI and the Rome Section, last January 25 jewish community, CAI’s General President, belatedly, after an apology Antonio Montani Delivered 30″memory card”For the descendants of the ousted partners. ,I am an architect, for me Bruno Zevi is a master, I never thought I would have to apologize to his familycommented.

that day noemi di segniThe President of the Federation of Italian Jewish Communities asked the Italian Alpine Club to rename the structures entitled “For those who have followed the orders of the government and have not been able to say no”, And so also to the Gran Sasso Ferrata.

importance of doing historical justice

But is there any point in returning to such an issue after seventy-five years? The answer is yes, because “return” is not a correct verb. Of course, in those years the CAI, like dozens of other organizations with the word “centre” instead of the English word “club”, was an organ of the fascist regime. However, even today, the enthusiasm with which its managers set out to work is still impressive.

On December 5, 1938, the Central Office sent a “highly confidential circular” to those sections, which prescribed the “purification of members of the non-Aryan race”. Soon after the famous climbers were driven As Ugo Ottolenghi of Vallepiana, Alpine officer in the Great War. Sanctuaries dedicated to “non-Aryans” such as Levi, Sonino and Luzzati were quickly renamed.

In Rome, along with dozens of other members, he was “purged”. agnostic ajoWife of passionate skier and climber Enrico Genetta, and sectional president Guido Brizio signed the rectification. In 1945, when Italy became democratic again, the new management of the CAI did not think to reinstate the Jewish members with an apology. Many of them, meanwhile, had become victims of Nazi persecution.

The Gran Sasso via Ferrata before World War II by Rome and CAI’s L’Aquila sections, was built after the war, when Guido Brizio was no longer departmental president, but was still dedicated to him. Between 2016 and 2017, after years of neglect due to poor condition of ropes and ladders, The bridge has been restored by the park.And has become a classic itinerary.

A year and a half ago, in conclusion of the report Purging of Jewish members from the Urbe section of the Italian Alpine Center, Lorenzo Grassi proposed the name Ferrata Agnes Azzo-Enrico Zanetta. ,should avoid coincidence of names”, responded President Di Segni, effectively putting that hypothesis on the backburner.

After his speech, at the Roman meeting of 25 January, I took the stage to propose the Farrata della Memoriae. A few days ago a proposal was rejected by the CAI section of L’Aquila, stating that an itinerary with that name already existed in the Dolomites near the Vajonte Dam. in the next weeksAfter the required discussion by President Pomponi, name change Brizio Ferrata’s will be finaland will be celebrated by an event in Gran Sasso.

In anticipation of these developments, two things are noteworthy. The first is the attitude of the 2000m club, which has a good following among visitors to the Apennines. A year and a half ago, after the publication of my article and Grassi’s report, the coordinator published an article on the very popular Facebook page of Club 2000m in defense of Guido Brizio, defined as “an Ajax between darts” . Then, when the idea of ​​a name change was accepted by everyone, the article mysteriously disappeared, without a single line of explanation. A childish attitude that does no credit to the “2000 collectors” and their club.

Even more surprising was the announcement, which came before a gathering of CAI delegates gathered in Biela on Sunday 21 May, that Benito Mussolini was still included in the list of honorary members.Who received this title in 1926. The Duce of Fascist Italy was promptly expelled.

,It’s an act of continuity, I don’t know why that name was still there in 2023. The founding principles of the Italian Alpine Club are incompatible with any form of totalitarian rule.”, commented President Montani. Moral? Searching the archives is boring, and you risk getting your clothes dusty. But it must be done, because it allows to judge and can give surprises.