It’s already April 25th in Italy, Liberation Day, when the fall of the Nazis and Fascists is celebrated.

In 1952, convicted war criminal Albert Kesselring, responsible for the Ardeatine Caves massacre in Rome among many other crimes, was released from prison on the grounds of ill-health. He arrogantly claimed that rather than imprison him, the ungrateful Italians should have built him a monument.

There is a monument. It’s in Cuneo, and it has this poem on engraved on it. I am posting my translation for Liberation Day. Ora e sempre.

Memorial Plaque for Disgrace

by Piero Calamandrei

You’ll get it,

Generalfeldmarschall Kesselring,

the monument you claim from us Italians

but what stone it’s built from—

that’s for us to choose now.

Not from the scorched stones

of the defenseless hamlets you mutilated, eradicated,

not from the earth of the graveyards

where our comrades, so very young,

rest serenely

not from the inviolate snow of the mountains

which for two winters defied you

not from the springtime of these valleys

which saw you turn and run away.

But only from the silence of the tortured

tougher than any boulder

only from the hard rock of this pact

sworn among free men

assembling as volunteers

for dignity not hate

fixed on redeeming

the shame, the terror of the world.

Should you ever feel like walking these streets

again you’ll find us at our posts

the dead and the living determined alike

the people closing ranks around a monument

which is called

now and forever

RESISTANCE