We would like to remind our readers that, upon explicit request to the specific government office named below, forms are available for the recognition of family members of victims killed, whether in the foibe or in other ways, during the events on our eastern border, as specified in the institutional law of the Day of Remembrance.
Every year, on the 10th of February, this official recognition is extended in ceremonies, either at the Quirinale Presidential Palace or in local government offices.
For obvious reasons, the requests can be made by the victims’ descendents, up to the 6th degree of parentage.
Following is a synthesis of Italian Law 92/2004.
Article 3
1. To the surviving spouse, children, grandchildren and, in their absence, to relatives up to the sixth degree of parentage, of those who, from the 8th of September, 1943 to the 10th of February, 1947 in Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia or in the provinces of the current eastern border, were killed in the foibe, as well as those treated under Paragraph 2 of this Article, all shall be given, upon request and as an honor without monetary compensation, a special metal plaque and a commemorative certificate within the limits of expense authorized in Article 7, section 1.
2. With the foibe victims we associate, to all effects, those who disappeared and those who, in the same period and in the same geographical areas, were killed by drowning, gunshot, massacre, assassination, no matter how these were perpetrated. Recognition can also be given to relatives of Italian citizens who lost their lives after February 10th, 1947, and through 1950, if death occurred as a result of torture, deportation and imprisonment, with the exclusion of those who died in combat.
3. Excluded from this recognition shall be those who lost their lives in the conditions described in Paragraphs 1 and 2, if they were voluntarily involved in formations not in the service of Italy.
Article 4
1. The requests, in letter form, addressed to the President of the Council of Ministers, must be supplemented by a declaration which substitutes a notary’s act, and must declare a description of the fact, place and date in which the death or disappearance occurred, or is presumed to have occurred, attaching every possible document, any witnesses’ reports, and any or all references to studies, publications, and documented memories of the fact.
2. The requests must be presented within 10 years of the Law’s coming into effect. At the end of the commission’s work, as defined in Article 5, all the documentation collected will become part of the Central State Archives.
Article 6
1. The metal plaque and commemorative certificate signed by the President of the Italian Republic, are presented every year in a collective ceremony.
The request, with all necessary documentation attached, should be sent to the following address:
Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri
Commissione per la concessione di un riconoscimento
ai congiunti degli Infoibati – L. 92/2004
Piazza Colonna, 370
00186 Roma
Italy
For information, please refer to our website:
http://www.anvgd.it/documenti/leggegiornoricordo.pdf
