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Who are the Righteous

by Antonio Ferrari

By Antonio Ferrari, editorialist of Corriere della Sera


A memorial was erected on 27 January this year at platform 21 of Milan’s central station, the platform where trains left for Auschwitz-Birkenau. The ash-coloured wall at the entrance bears just one word engraved in capital letters − INDIFFERENCE. It is indifference, in the sense of turning away, shrugging your shoulders and burying your head in the sand of your own selfish interests, that is fanning the sinister flames of the various kinds of racism that taint Europe today. Racism, indifference towards racism and racism’s notorious consequences are phenomena that we continue to underestimate. Hungarian Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel gave back his country’s highest award for a very good, and very well-known, reason. In Greece, attempts by the radical right and the politically apathetic to play down the rise of the extremist Golden Dawn party with its Nazi-inspired symbols smack of cynical calculation and perhaps even premeditation. In France and Italy, but also in Germany and other Northern European countries, intolerance and anti-Semitism continue to attract consensus, fuelled on occasion by the impact of the economic crisis but always exploited by politicians vociferously appealing to people’s baser instincts. It is time to look up, to be vigilant, to intervene, to speak out and say enough is enough. Before it really is too late. Let us never forget how Fascism and Nazism came to power.

The Righteous, those whom the European Parliament starting from this year has chosen to commemorate on 6 March, are individuals who set out on a virtuous, doubly courageous path. A journey of unfearing audacity. Men and women who fought against indifference and against that other deadly evil, hostility. Indifference is not listening, or listening with ill-concealed irritation. Hostility, often the result of envy, is a frequently successful attempt to diminish or deride the actions of those who out of respect for human rights buck the opinions of the masses, prepared, if necessary, to pay the ultimate price. That is why the Righteous oppose expedience and often convention. Neda, who took to the streets in Tehran to demonstrate against the powers that wanted to destroy her dreams, her youth and her freedom, and was willing to lay down her life for her convictions, is a shining example of a Righteous young woman. Equally Righteous was the Italian consul Guelfo Zamboni, a Fascist like all Italy’s representatives at that time, who in 1943 managed to rescue from deportation the Italian Jews in Thessaloniki and many Greek Jews, by forging papers and inventing family connections with Italy. Far from being greeted in Italy with the honour he was due, Zamboni returned to face resentment. After the war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs even tried to force him into early retirement. For me, another Righteous woman is Ludmila Zhivkova. The daughter of the communist leader and president of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, Ludmila was a courageous woman with a rebellious spirit who protected Bulgarian intellectuals throughout the communist period. The Russians considered her an enemy, even though she was a member of the Bulgarian politburo. She died in mysterious circumstances in her own bathroom at the age of 39. Also Righteous was Samir Kassir, the Lebanese journalist and writer who struggled to free his country from Syrian dominance and defended the rights of the Palestinians. He paid for it with his life, killed by a bomb in Beirut. Another Righteous man was the Christian Pole Jan Karski, who infiltrated and then exfiltrated himself from the Warsaw ghetto so he could tell the world about Nazi atrocities. He was even received by the then president of the United States but many of the powerful either failed to listen or perhaps listened without the immediate will or ability to halt the Holocaust.

One of the very few approvable thoughts of Chairman Mao was that a revolution is not a dinner party. Taking our cue from Mao, we could say that being Righteous is not easy. However, we do know that being Righteous is the natural, extraordinarily generous instinct of every human being worthy of the name. The Righteous will challenge convention, give up careers and live under a cloud of suspicion while being spied on, accused and condemned. Listening to, and answering, the call of your own conscience or refusing to obey unspeakable orders never brings honour. Often, it brings grief. I cannot think of one Righteous person who was honoured and respected in life. The Russian Vassili Grossman, the Swede Raoul Wallenberg, the Bulgarian Dimitar Peshev and the Tunisian Khaled Abdel Wahab are just a few who embody what Grossman ironically called “the senselessness of good”. They are the direct opposite of what Hanna Arendt so memorably described during the Eichmann trial in Israel as “the banality of evil”. This is why preventing racism, identifying it in the dark corners of our democracies and dragging it out from behind the screen of our personal interests is more than just a duty. It is fundamental to the solidity of our beloved Europe, and to making Europe an example of mature, civilised coexistence.

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