What is Freedom?
Winston Churchill to the Italian People (August 28, 1944)
In England, I discovered an original edition 7-volume compilation of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s most important speeches during WWII.* Most of the speeches were to Parliament, though certain other important speeches were included in these volumes. For me, this collection is a treasure trove, both as historical documentation, and as exemplary of determined democratic leadership by Churchill under grave wartime conditions.
Below I have captured a page from the 1945 volume I found in an old used bookstore. This particular speech was given in Rome to the Italians not long after Rome was liberated by the Allies.
In this extract, we find Churchill in Rome urging the Italians to choose their own government, for sure — but after twenty years of fascism under Mussolini, after a disastrous, shameful alliance with Nazism, he urges them to choose democracy, choose freedom!
Look at how Churchill describes what he hopes Italians will use as the measuring rod for a new government. Dare I suggest that the eight tests he offers — eighty-two years later, on Memorial Day weekend — encounters an America whose government threatens most of them? Think of the price so many paid for freedom in those years! What price are we willing to pay?
*Churchill’s wartime speeches were originally published in seven individual volumes between 1941 and 1946 by Cassell & Co. (London). The editor was Charles Eade.
The original seven chronological volumes published during and immediately after the war are:
Into Battle (1941) - Speeches spanning May 1938 to November 1940.
The Unrelenting Struggle (1942) - Speeches from November 1940 through 1941.
The End of the Beginning (1943) - Speeches spanning the year 1942.
Onwards to Victory (1944) - Speeches from 1943.
The Dawn of Liberation (1945) - Speeches from the year 1944.
Victory (1946) - Speeches and broadcasts from 1945 to V-J Day.
Secret Session Speeches (1946) - Addresses previously delivered in closed parliamentary sessions