The commemorative ceremony was held yesterday, Monday 16 September, in Eboli to remember the sacrifice of Marshal Major Vincenzo Giudice, Gold Medal for Military Valour, organized by the Guardia di Finanza of Salerno and the local Municipality. The non-commissioned officer, of Ebolitanian origins, veteran of the First World War, was serving in Tuscany as Commander of the Coastal Brigade of Carrara (MS), when he brutally lost his life at the hands of the Nazis: on 16 September 1944, in the nearby hamlet of Bergiola Foscalina, following the killing of a German soldier, retaliation was triggered by the German special militias (S.S.), under the command of Major Walter Reder, and by the fascists of the “Never Dead” Black Brigade who, in the local primary school, they gathered together, with the intent to kill them, elderly people, women and children, including the Marshal’s wife and two young children. Informed of what was happening, the soldier presented himself to the Commander of the German formation, offering his life without hesitation in exchange for the civilian hostages, but the Nazi officer refused the proposal, claiming that the laws of war prohibited soldiers from carrying out similar gestures: the non-commissioned officer then, after taking off his uniform and declaring himself a civilian, asked in vain, once again, to spare those innocent people.
He was immediately shot, thus losing his life together with 72 other victims, including his wife and children, who also suffered the vilification of the corpse. For that act of extreme courage, Marshal Major Vincenzo Giudice was awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor, the highest honor of the Republic.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the carnage, which this year coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Foundation of the Corps, the mayor of the Municipality of Eboli, Avv. Mario Conte, in the presence of the Prefect of Salerno, H.E. Francesco Esposito and the Interregional Commander of Southern Italy of the Guardia di Finanza, General of the Army Corps Vito Augelli, accompanied by Mrs Fernanda Giudice, nephew of the soldier as well as by the Regional Commander Campania, Gen. D. Alessandro Barbera and by the Provincial Commander of Salerno, Gen. B. Luigi Carbone, laid a laurel wreath in front of the monument erected in his memory in Piazza della Repubblica.
This was followed by a conference on the heroic figure of Marshal Giudice and the events that led to his tragic end and the award ceremony for the winning students of the “Vincenzo Giudice: hero of my city” competition, an initiative aimed at to pupils in the 4th and 5th classes of primary school and 1st of lower secondary school in the Eboli area schools.
Among the most significant interventions, that of Vito Pompeo Pindozzi, creator and realizator of the Monument to the Ebolitan Hero inaugurated on 20 April 1980.
