Display on Slovenian anti-fascist resistance opens in Gorizia
Gorizia, 26 April - An exhibition on Slovenian anti-fascist efforts in Primorska and Istria, two regions that became part of Italy after the First World War, will open at the Slovenian minority's cultural centre in the Italian city of Gorizia on Friday after it was put on show at the European Parliament in Brussels in January.
"Slovenians amongst the First anti-Fascists in Europe, 1920-1941" is part of celebrations of Italy's 25 April Liberation Day and Slovenia's 27 April Day of Uprising Against the Occupation.
The display brings the story of TIGR and BORBA, two organisations that spearheaded the first organised anti-fascist movement in Europe to resist severe Italianisation.
It is a collaboration of the Gorizia Culture Centre, the association TIGR Primorska, the National and Study Library in Trieste, a Slovenian minority library, and its committee that is in charge of organising commemorations for the four victims of fascism executed in Basovizza in September 1930.
The memorial dedicated to the Basovizza Heroes, as they are known in Slovenian, was granted the status of cultural importance by Italian regional authorities in 2022.
The exhibition will be opened by TIGR Primorska head Gorazd Humar, historian Milan Pahor, journalist Andrea Bellavite, and Gorizia Culture Centre head Igor Komel.
"This is undoubtedly the Slovenian story of anti-fascism. But it is also the story of Italian anti-fascism and Croatian anti-fascism. We can say that the story of Slovenian anti-fascism in Primorska is also a European story, and this is the main focus of the exhibition," the Gorizia Culture Centre said in a press release.