Memory and remembrance have different meanings, not least because synonyms do not exist: there would be no need to invent two terms to say the same thing. However, the words memory and remembrance have both been used to commemorate massacres: the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis (27 January, the day Auschwitz was liberated in 1945) and the foibe massacres (10 February, the date on which the Paris Treaties assigning Istria, Kvarner and the city of Zadar to Yugoslavia were signed in 1947).

In the first case the event is remembered as a World Day called by the UN, and in the second case, the massacres are commemorated with an Italian public holiday. Needless to say, the scale of these massacres was very different: on the one hand, a planned genocide that led to the death of 6 million people, on the other, the slaughter of Italian soldiers and civilians by Yugoslav partisans that caused between 3,000 and 5,000 deaths. They are different things, they should not be confused, but they cannot be forgotten, all the victims have the same dignity, regardless of numbers. The Bell tolls for everyone.