Lucia Apicella
Lucia Apicella (born November 18, 1887 in Cava de 'Tirreni , Campania , Italy ; † July 23, 1982 ibid) was an Italian philanthropist who was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1951 in recognition of her concern for fallen German soldiers .
Born and raised in Sant'Arcangelo di Cava de 'Tirreni, she dedicated herself to the burial of German soldiers who had died in her home region during the Second World War . Lucia Apicella was a mother and a simple and pious woman who remained illiterate all her life and worked as a fruit seller.
In search of the fallen
In September 1943, the Allied British and American troops landed at Salerno ( Operation Avalanche ). One of the strategically important roads for the Allied columns, who had the goal of quickly occupying Naples , was today's SS 18, which leads directly through the Cava Valley. Hundreds of fallen German soldiers were left unburied on the battlefields around Cava de 'Tirreni because of the relatively fast advance of the Allies on Naples.
Lucia Apicella, who was a deeply religious woman, felt a Christian duty to bury the remains of the German soldiers. She witnessed some children trampling on the skull of a soldier and had a dream in which eight German soldiers implored her to hand over their bodies to their mothers. Thereupon Mamma Lucia , as she was later called, took care of finding the bodies of the fallen soldiers and placing them in makeshift containers. At first she encountered resistance from her village neighbors, and later her helpers joined in, who among other things provided zinc coffins. It was their goal to return the dead to their mothers, or at least to enable them to find the bodies of their sons.
"Song 'tutt' figl 'e mamma" (They are all a mother's children) was her succinct answer when someone asked her to save time and money and, above all, to stop taking the risk of setting off mines and duds. The zinc coffins with the corpses of the soldiers were initially kept in Lucia Apicella's house, later, after long resistance from the church, in the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pietà. Lucia Apicella prayed there every morning until an earthquake in 1980 destroyed the church for the time being.
Despite the danger that the work brought with it, by the end of 1944 it was able to collect more than 700 corpses with various documents and other features that enabled identification.
The appreciation in Germany
For her work, she was invited to Germany in mid-September 1951, exactly eight years after the fighting around Cava de 'Tirreni, in order to receive the Federal Cross of Merit from Federal President Theodor Heuss . She received a very warm welcome and was called Mama Luzia or Mother of the Dead . She did not accept an old-age pension from the Federal Republic of Germany.
The appreciation in Italy
Mamma Lucia was invited to a private audience by Pope Pius XII on July 20, 1951 . received, who approved her work at the request of the Bishop of Cava and called it "Christian and charitable".
In 1952 the writer Giuseppe Marotta edited her story in the book Le Madri (The Mothers).
On 2 June 1959 it has been given to the Italian President Giovanni Gronchi the Order of Merit Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana . The city of Salerno made her an honorary citizen .
Death and Posthumous Appreciations
When Lucia Apicella died in 1982, the Italian President Sandro Pertini wrote to the mayor of Cava de 'Tirreni: "The passing of Mamma Lucia hurts all those who recognize in charity and solidarity fundamental values for the education of man." The funeral was made public and solemn by a unanimous decision of the city council. Lucia Apicella was kept under glass for two days.
The municipality of Cava de 'Tirreni named a square after her and launched the Premio Mamma Lucia alle donne coraggio (Mamma Lucia Prize for courageous women) in 2007 , which is awarded every year.
In 2013 the Rotary Club of Cava de 'Tirreni attached a plaque next to the cave in which Mamma Lucia discovered the first mortal remains of German soldiers with the words: In memoria di "MAMMA LUCIA", FARO, ROLE, LUCE, LIGHT , SPERANZA, HOPE with the participation of some members of the RC Schwerte / Ruhr, his Excellency the Bishop of Cava and Amalfi, the Mayor of Cava, Signor Marco Galdi, the German consul from Naples, Mr. Christian Much, the Rotarian Governor in District 2100 and of course of many citizens of Cavas including their descendants. In addition, on another visit in 2015, the members of the two Rotary clubs Cava de 'Tirreni and Schwerte / Ruhr unveiled another plaque on which visitors to this memorial are informed in both languages about the work and importance of Mamma Lucia.
literature
- AA. VV. Mamma Lucia ovvero il poema della pietà . Cava 1970.
- Pastore F .. mother of the dead . Editore Palladio. Salerno 1980.
- Apicella D. Mamma Lucia . Editore Il Castello, Cava de 'Tirreni, 1983.
- Pastore F .. Mamma Lucia ed altre novelle . Edizioni Verso il 2000. Salerno.
- Pastore F .. Ciomma . Edizioni ANTITESI. Roma 2008.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Raffaele Senatore: Mamma Lucia. L'epopea di una madre. Mother of the Fallen. La Faiole, 2004. (No longer available online.) Freundeskreis-Stadtbuecherei-swords, archived from the original on February 21, 2014 ; Retrieved February 8, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Premio Mamma Lucia, nel sito del Comune di Cava de 'Tirreni. cittadicava.it, accessed February 8, 2014 .
- ↑ https://www.zerottonove.it/29308/ accessed on November 4, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Apicella, Lucia |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian philanthropist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 18, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cava de 'Tirreni , Italy |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 23, 1982 |
| Place of death | Cava de 'Tirreni , Italy |