THE AUSTRIAN BLACK CROSS JOINS THE PROJECT OF THE CONSORTIUM BIM

The Austrian Black Cross adheres to the ptoject of Consorzio BIM called “Do not forget …. The Great War in the Valnerina and the Spoleto “. The president Peter Risier and the general secretary Alexander Barthou of the Austrian Black Cross, the organization that commemorates the fallen soldiers of the imperial army and promoting annual events aimed at promoting peace and solidarity between peoples, have joined the initiatives that the BIM consortium is implementing to mark the centenary of the First world War to remember not only the soldiers who fought in different fronts and in different parties but also civilians from the conflict had dire consequences (deaths, refugees, occupation, disease, hunger … ).

In this context the Austrian Black Cross is very active so much so that every year promotes at international level the “Dating Italian-Austrian of peace”, which this year came to the XXIV edition and took place in Genoa, where in the cemetery of Staglieno, there is an ossuary with 1,128 fallen Austro-Hungarians. Consorzio BIM, through President Egildo Spada, had required the cooperation of the Black Cross as both the Valnerina and Spoleto, in the years of World War, made use of the work of Austro-Hungarian’s prisoners. Through the collaboration of volunteers and researchers of BIM and the Black Cross will aim to deepen and spread the historical memory and knowledge regarding the events that took place in the early twentieth century. Not surprisingly, the essential condition of the project’s BIM Consortium, is the work of research and documentation in the institutions that preserve documentary evidence and iconography of the period related to the 1914-1918 conflict.

The focus of research in place not only the census and the recovery of tombstones, monuments, parks and avenues of remembrance reminiscent of fallen soldiers in the fronts but also the territory, the people, the simple stories, and those of the individual military civilians, the Austro-Hungarian prisoners, the refugees and local communities. In the multi-year project of BIM are involved scholars and researchers working in the local historical archives and in the archives of the Commissariat Onorcaduti, Historical Office of the Army and the Central State in Rome. At the same time, they are making efforts to engage students, families and cultural associations of the territory. To this end have been and will be organized cultural initiatives such as the publication of books, lectures in schools, documentary exhibitions, concerts, theater, creation of a website to promote the historical memory but also to bring new light on the need for coexistence between the peoples of Europe Renewed.

Traduzione a cura di Andrea Ansuini