The Meaning of Remembrance
These events left
their mark on the history not just of the small community of Servigliano, but
also of the many villages that overlook the Tenna Valley. Recovering the memory
of all these events involving the Prison Camp is a duty we have to the people
who lived through those difficult times, but also to the new generations. The
events can be divided into three moments, in relation to the three great dramas
of the 20th century:
Each of these moments
can be seen as a 'crisis of values' in our society, the enslavement of human
intelligence and of resources to ideologies that claimed to be absolute, leading
to an apocalyptic climax of destruction and death:
Among the various
Prison Camps scattered around Italy, the one in Servigliano permits a possibly
unique reconstruction of twentieth-century history and its twisted ideologies.
The perimeter wall of the prison camp in Servigliano
Today not much is left of the structures of the Camp: in the 'Seventies the abandoned huts, by then in a precarious condition, were demolished, and the Local Council created a sports centre inside the perimeter walls. Outside the Camp there are still a few huts which have been inhabited by local people for many years, and on the west side there is a ruin with the roof fallen in. The perimeter walls of the Camp are still imposing and sinister; on the top you can still see the shards of glass that were meant to discourage any ideas of escape and all contact with the outside world.
The society has changed, wealth is evident everywhere, people's needs are different, but it would not be right to forget a place which symbolizes the great follies of the 20th century, and that still offers itself as an open book to show to future generations.
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