Paolo’s house, all of Borsellino’s humanity

Paolo Borsellino teaches that even the most difficult enemy can be defeated. He did it as a magistrate, he still does it thirty years after his death in the massacre of via D’Amelio, on 19 July 1992, thanks to the memory of his work and his commitment carried out by many. How Borsellino saved my life is the subtitle of the book Paolo’s house. Sara Loffredi is the author together with Marco Lillo with illustrations by Giovanni Scarduelli. On the Saturday preceding the anniversary of Paolo Borsellino’s death, a group of young people will hear the story at the headquarters of the association, which Salvatore, Borsellino’s brother wanted in Palermo, Paolo’s house.

This is a children’s book, it is the story of those who, faced with a difficulty that can be common, first feel ashamed and helpless and then, thanks to a school project on the story of Paolo Borsellino, will find the strength to react. The book, published by Rizzoli, starts from a fictional story, to explain to the children what the pool was, what it did, what the mafia is, who the repentants are. Not only the protagonist, but also the other boys in the book, will find a different inspiration in Paolo Borsellino.

“Borsellino was a very human man», Says Sara Loffredi,« He asked his son to give the moped to the son of a boss who died in a mafia ambush because he wouldn’t have had the chance to work otherwise and he would have ended up like his father ». This humanity is still in the Casa di Paolo which is in the neighborhood of the Kalsa where the family had their pharmacy. Roberta Gatani, Borsellino’s nephew, runs it with volunteers, doing after-school activities for children and courses to give children an alternative. “Borsellino himself wondered how the children he grew up with could be on the other side: he a magistrate, they in the mafia. He was said to have taken a different path because he had had different tools like the ones that the family now wants to give to these kids “, explains the author.

The choice was to remove the aura of a hero, but to bring these magistrates closer to the boys. «I would like to ensure that they see injustices in daily life and that they perceive them with humanity as Borsellino did. The difference is the human factor also in justice and commitment in everyday life, each in its measure“.

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