The massacre at the Bologna station on 2 August 1980
Forty years ago the massacre at the Bologna station marked a country already torn and changed the lives of many people forever: 85 dead and more than 200 wounded, their families and all those who were there, the rescuers and the whole city which then poured into the squares spontaneously. And even those who had not witnessed that tragedy were deeply affected by the news and images that went around the way, so much so that they felt the need to write to Mayor Zangheri to give him the strength to face that painful moment. Telegrams arrived at the municipality from heads of state, associations, football teams, prisons, children, ordinary citizens, all expressed condolences and many offered help. Survivors and relatives of the victims will certainly never forget that Saturday 2 August at 10:25, there are those who have found the strength to speak immediately and those who still cannot, their stories reopen a wound every time, but these these are things that need to be said aloud to ensure that no one can ever forget the brutality of a fascist attack and the forty years of investigations, trials and misdirections that followed.
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Bologna - State Archive of Bologna - 396 folders concerning the processes of the massacre of August 2, 1980 at the Bologna station are kept in this place
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At the time of the attack, Roberta Garuti was 16, she was at the Bologna station to reach her parents already on vacation, it was her first trip alone. Remember to have bought Le Monde to pretend to be French, to have leaned on the railing of the underpass and then the bang. He manages to get out of the station on his legs between rubble and bodies. For years she has never told her story, today she is one of the survivors who helps keep memory alive
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The bag with which Roberta Garuti was traveling on 2 August 1980
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Giovanni and Yuri Zini - In 1980 Giovanni was 28 years old and was at the station with his 7 year old son Yuri. Giovanni says he arrived at the station and met an old friend at the entrance, a quick greeting, about 15 seconds, right time to avoid that they were right in front of the waiting room at the moment of the explosion. Giovanni remains on his feet, Yuri is thrown away, but the father manages to recover him and take him out to be treated without even understanding what happened. They will be among the first to leave the station
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Giovanni Zini shows us a copy of the newspaper "Il Resto del Carlino" published on August 3, 1980 entirely dedicated to the massacre
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Giovanni and Yuri Zini - In 1980 Giovanni was 28 years old and was at the station with his 7 year old son Yuri. Giovanni says he arrived at the station and met an old friend at the entrance, a quick greeting, about 15 seconds, right time to avoid that they were right in front of the waiting room at the moment of the explosion. Giovanni remains on his feet, Yuri is thrown away, but the father manages to recover him and take him out to be treated without even understanding what happened. They will be among the first to leave the station
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State Archives of Bologna - Massimo Giansante, archivist and deputy director of the State Archives of Bologna shows us where the 396 files concerning the trials on the massacre at the Bologna station of August 2, 1980 are kept
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Bus 37 now become one of the symbols of the massacre, was used first to transport wounded and then the corpses of the victims
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Bus 37 now become one of the symbols of the massacre, was used first to transport wounded and then the corpses of the victims
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Silvano Nerozzi in 1980 was 30 years old and sold tickets for the bus right in front of the station. At 10:25 that day, he was pointing out to two tourists, who had just made the ticket, the bus stop that was right in front of the waiting room. A second and then the explosion, a cloud enveloped everything, a strong smell of gunpowder, Silvano recalls that he was still holding the rest he was giving to tourists. When he got up he had not suffered serious injuries so, as soon as he recovered from the shock, he ran to provide first aid
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Paolo Bolognesi, president of the Association among the family members of the victims of the Bologna massacre of 2 August 1980. That day he and his wife were returning from a trip, Paolo's in-laws, mother and 6-year-old son were waiting for them at the station. In the explosion the mother-in-law will lose her life and Marco, the son, will be seriously injured.
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Bologna central station, the plaque and the gash inside the waiting room in memory of the massacre and the victims
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Bologna central station
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Marina Gamberini was twenty years old and was employed with six other colleagues in an office above the waiting room where the bomb went off. In the explosion she was the only one to survive and from that day she keeps on wondering why she and not Nilla or Rita or Mirella or Katia or Franca or Euridia
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In the photo, the six colleagues from Marina Gamberini who worked with her and who lost their lives that day in the office collapsed due to the explosion. The photo is part of the material concerning the massacre on the website of the Association of the Victims of the Massacres of the Bologna Station of 2 August 1980, source "2 August 1980"
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At the top, a photo taken on TV by Roberto Castaldo, the video, broadcast several times by the news in the days following the massacre, portrayed him intent on providing assistance immediately after the explosion. Under a Castaldo self-timer.
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Patrizia Poli in the 23 was 23 and was at the station with her husband, they had to leave for the holidays, finally she would go to Sardinia. At 10:25 am the outbreak, she was slightly injured. her husband in the head, but the worst wounds that Patrizia still carries inside are due to what she saw around her and that she never told anyone
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Historical archive of the Municipality of Bologna - Part of the numerous messages that arrived to the Mayor Zangheri in the days following the massacre
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Historical Archive of the Municipality of Bologna - Letter from a Partisan who in 1945 had participated in the liberation of Bologna
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Historical Archive of the Municipality of Bologna - Greeting letter from one of the survivors of Swiss origin named Hans Jurt who was on the train stopped at the first track with a large group of fellow citizens with whom he was returning from the holidays spent in Igea Marina
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Historical archive of the Municipality of Bologna - This sheet, attached to the message by Hans Jurt on the previous page, portrays a glove probably used by FS staff on the day of the massacre with a sentence written in Italian that would have allowed those who did not speak the language to reach Piazza Maggiore where an assistance zone had been set up for those who had been involved in the explosion but who did not need medical treatment
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Exterior of what was in 1980 the morgue in via Irnerio, not far from the station, where part of the bodies of the massacre were brought and where, almost immediately, a silent comings and goings began, which was broken only when they got up the excruciating cries of those who recognized a loved one
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One of the taxis crushed by the rubble and now kept in the Cotabo headquarters not to forget the 2 taxi drivers who died in the explosion and all the other victims
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Detail of the memorial stone for taxi drivers who died in the explosion located in the Cotabo site. The monumet is composed of a small plaque placed on a part of the rubble that crushed the taxis of which the bricks in the photos are part