Wednesday, 11 February (5.30 p.m., Red Room, Town Hall) lecture by Eric Gobetti, who will speak on Thursday morning (12 February) in the auditorium of the “F. Enriques” Institute.
The complex story of the eastern border and its epilogue, which culminated in the tragedy of the Foibe: this is the topic that Eric Gobetti will address during a conference scheduled to take place in the Sala Rossa of the Town Hall on Wednesday 11 February at 5.30 p.m. (free admission), as part of an initiative promoted for “Remembrance Day” by the Municipality of Castelfiorentino and the ANPI, in collaboration with the “Tavolo memoria”.
A commemoration, that of the “Remembrance Day” (10 February) was established in 2004 to commemorate not only the scale, contours and contrasts of that tragedy, but also to highlight the exodus that thousands of Istrians, Fiumani and Dalmatians were forced to undergo at the end of the war, at the conclusion of a long history of conflict and coexistence, of affirmation and oppression, which must be correctly framed in terms of its origins and its evolution over time.
Eric Gobetti, a scholar of fascism, World War II and Yugoslavia in the 20th century, an expert in historical dissemination and memory policies, has published, among others, the book “Alleati del nemico. L’occupazione italiana in Jugoslavia” (Laterza, 2013) and, more recently, “E allora le Foibe?” (Laterza, 2021) in which, far from denying or downplaying this tragedy, he sets out to bring the “historical event back to its reality”, retracing the dynamics of events and their consequences. An invitation to “examine the sources, in the hope that this will help us understand what happened in those terrible years”.
Following Wednesday afternoon’s lecture, Eric Gobetti will repeat his lesson in the auditorium of the F. Enriques Institute on Thursday morning (10:20 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) in front of the Institute’s fifth-year classes. At the end of the lecture, the hospitality students will offer the scholar a light lunch.
“It is an honour for us, – observes Marta Longaresi, Councillor for Remembrance, Marta Longaresi, – to host for two days a researcher of such calibre as Eric Gobetti, who has studied in depth the whole affair of the eastern border, which culminated in one of the most tragic episodes of the Second World War, long forgotten and only in recent years subjected to in-depth analysis, which also takes into account the historical context in which certain events unfolded. My thanks therefore go to Eric, who also gladly accepted the proposal to repeat his lecture in front of students, to the ANPI in the person of its President, Marco Cappellini, who actively collaborated in organising this initiative, and to all the members of the “Tavolo Memoria”, established last year, with whom we have shared all the initiatives that will accompany us throughout 2026 “
