en:
  romana-verdel:
    shortbio: Romana Verdel was born in Remschenig/Remcenik in 1938 in the bilingual
      part of Carinthia/Koroska. Her familiy belonged to the Slovenian minority. Together
      with her mother Anna Rotter and other relatives, she lived at the house of Katarina
      Sluga, her politically engaged aunt and founder of the antifascist women’s association.
      Being accused of a critical attitude towards National Socialism and network
      activities, some relatives join the Slovene partisans in 1943. Romana remains
      undiscovered by the Gesatpo and is being hidden with the children by her aunt
      Amalija, who also joins the partisans in the mountains and in Solcava in the
      valley Logartal. In April 1944, Amalija returns to Carinthia/Koroska. Roman
      is being taken in at a farmhouse and survives war there. 13 of her relatives
      fall with the partisans or die in concentration camps. The orphan Romana stays
      as a maid in the farm and later moves to the farmhouse of her partents in Remschenig/Remcenik.
      For 20 years, she suffers from anaemia. By and by, her life becomes more normal,
      but »when a child suffers from war and even is lucky enough to survive – the
      fear remains all your life«.
  erwin-schulz:
    shortbio: Erwin Schulz was born on the 13th of October 1912 in Tempelhof (belonging
      to Berlin since 1920). In 1922, he joined the workers sport group “Fichte”.
      These sport groups were considered as being progressive and anti-bourgeois.
      Five years later he joined the trade union, the central association of office
      workers. After Hitler took over the power in January 1933, opposition groups
      were slowly forbidden, “Fichte” also. Erwin Schulz was condemned to five years
      imprisonment for preparation of high treason, because he had distributed antifascist
      flyers and helped to keep up the clandestine structures of "Fichte". The next
      ten years he went through the prison of Luckau, the camps of Esterwegen and
      Börgermoor, the punishment division 999, Moroccan, French, English and American
      captivity. Not until October 1946 he returned to Berlin.
  lorenz-knorr:
    shortbio: Lorenz Knorr was born on July 18th 1921 in Eger (CSSR), today called
      Cheb. He was the son of functionaries of the labour movement. Before WW2, he
      was a member of the social democratic party of the CSSR. During Nazi-rule, he
      participated in spreading information, publications, acts of sabotage on armament-
      and war-transports as well as in blowing up ammunition depots. He was called
      up for the German Wehrmacht and in 1942; he came in front of a court martial
      for undermining military strength. He was sent to a punishment battalion in
      Africa. Here, as well as later in occupied Poland, he found ways of antifascist
      action. From 1947-1950, he was county secretary of the Socialist Youth Germany
      and from 1950-1960 he was their federal secretary. In 1960, he left the social
      democrat party in protest, being opposed to its affirmation of the NATO-policies.
      Due to this, he took part in founding the German Peace Union.
  giacomo-notari:
    shortbio: Giacomo Notari was born in Busana (RE) on December 6th 1927. Today he
      still lives in this small village in the mountains near Reggio Emilia. After
      having witnessed several innocent people killed by the fascists, he was still
      very young when he decided to become a partisan. After the 8th of September
      1943 he joined the 145th Garibaldi Brigade »Franco Casoli«, operating in the
      mountains near Reggio in the area of Ligonchio, Busana and Cervarezza. His battle
      name was »Willi«. He took part in several sabotages of bridges and telephone
      poles, as well as in the last great battle to defend the Ligonchio hydroelectric
      power plant, from 10 to 14 April 1945.
  lidia-valeriani:
    shortbio: Lidia Valeriani, Montecavolo di Quattro Castella 23.01.1923 - Reggio
      Emilia 17.12.2014. Starting from 1939 she became active in »Soccorso Rosso«.
      After Mussolini’s fall, on 8 September 1943, she took part in demonstrations
      and assisted disbanded soldiers. Lidia Valeriani organized the strike in Montecavolo
      and consequently became a victim of persecution by the fascists. She then fled
      in the province of Modena, working with the »women support groups«. From March
      1944 she joined the »2nd Division Modena lowlands« of the 35th Garibaldi Brigade
      »Walter Tabacchi« working as a secretary of the headquarters. She took care
      of both dispatch rider and military tasks until the Liberation. She was awarded
      a Silver Medal for Military Valour.
  stanislaw-baranowski:
    shortbio: He was born on November 16th, 1924 in Warsaw. He joined the scouts from
      in the mid-thirties. During the siege of Warsaw in October 1939 He helped the
      troops to move around the city. During the first years of occupation he engaged
      as a member of the Main Tutelary Council (RGO) and helped the poor and the war
      prisoners. He often illegally provided food and organized the evasions of Polish
      officers from German prisons. At the same time he took part in life-saving actions
      in the ghetto, leading Jews to the Arian side. He was a member of the Armia
      Krajowa (the Home Army), was arrested in 1942 and put in Pawiak prison. Later
      he was moved to Majdanek, Buchenwald and Schonebeck concentration camps. He
      is living in Warsaw today.
  stefania-dambrowska:
    shortbio: She was born on October 12th, 1916 in St. Petersburg. Before World War
      II her family bought the estate in Orwidów Dolny in the Vilnius county, today
      Lithuania. On Sept 17th 1939 the Soviet Army invaded the territory, the Vilnius
      county became a part of Lithuania, and after that of the Soviet Union. In the
      spring of 1941, her mother was deported to the Soviet Union inland during the
      surge of repression on Polish people. After the German invasion in the summer
      of 1941, Stefania started to hide people oppressed by the occupant in the estate
      where she lived alone. Several refugees from Warsaw, Jews, members of the leftist
      resistance movement were hiding there. Most of them survived the war. Stefania
      Dąmbrowska engaged in the works of the Polish Committee of National Liberation
      (PKWN) in Lublin as well as the committee documenting the Nazi genocide in the
      Majdanek concentration camp. She was awarder the medal of the Just Among the
      World’s Nations. She lives in Warsaw.
  tadeusz-sulowski:
    shortbio: He was born on February 4th, 1929 in Warsaw. At the beginning of the
      war he engaged in the scouts’ activities, took part in reconnaissance actions
      and acts of sabotage. During the Warsaw Uprising he took part as a member of
      the AK (Home Army) in the unsuccessful attack on the Okęcie airport. Later on
      he reached the forests near Warsaw and subsequently served in three partisan
      squads. After the war, for a few years he was imprisoned in communist prison
      for subversive activity. He lives in Józefów near Warsaw.
  ana-zablatnik:
    shortbio: Ana Zablatnik was born in 1923 in the village Ludmannsdorf/Bilčovs in
      the southern part of Carinthia. She belongs to the Slovenian speaking minority.
      Early, she and her family were confronted with humiliations. The threat of being
      deported by the Nazis in 1942, from which she and her family luckily stayed
      unharmed, led to the decision to contact the partisans of the „Osvobodilna fronta“,
      the Slovenian liberation front. They were active in 1943 near her home village.
      On May 6th 1944 she was arrested and brought to a Gestapo-prison in Klagenfurt.
      From the beginning of 1945, she awaited her trial in the notorious court of
      justice, but it was not realized anymore. She was released in the last days
      of war (4.-6. May 1945). She kept her resistant attitude against any form of
      discrimination up to today.
  lucien-ducastel:
    shortbio: Lucien Ducastel was born on August 28th,1920 in Darnetal. Soon he joins
      the Communist Youth Movement. As a member of the Communist Party (which was
      banned along with other Youth organisations and Workers) his activities consist
      of raising awareness of the French population regarding the occupation by distributing
      leaflets, especially at the factory gates, and hanging up posters protesting
      against the occupation and the Vichy government. He is arrested at his parents
      home in Petit-Quevilly by the French police on October 21st,1941 and taken to
      the prison in Rouen, from where he is transported to the Camp of Compiègne,
      a hostages camp, along with a hundred comrades. After eight months of imprisonment
      in the camp of Compiègne he is deported to Auschwitz on July 6th,1942. This
      transport will later on be called the convoi of the 45000s, as the deportees
      of this convoy, essentially political opponents, will be registered in Auschwitz
      with the numbers 45157-46326. Lucien gets the number 45491. He is one of the
      few that will ever return to France. Upon his arrival, Lucien Ducastel is transferred
      to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he will stay for 8 months before returning to the
      Stammlager Auschwitz I. From there he will be transferred to Gross-Rosen in
      August 1944 and afterwards to Dora-Mittelbau, where he will finally be liberated.
      After a long recovery he returns to his work on construction sites and takes
      up his political activities in the French Communist Party and the Workers Union
      as well. He starts a family and moves to Nanterre in the 50s, where he still
      lives today. He is an active member of a association called « Mémoire vive »
      (alive memory) and visits school classes to talk about his experience during
      the war. This activity is extremely important to him.
  fernando-cavazzini:
    shortbio: Fernando Cavazzini was born in Reggio Emilia on 23 September 1923. On
      25 July 1943 he took part in public demonstrations in Reggio Emilia, demanding
      peace and celebrating the fall of the fascist regime. From then on he was involved
      in the antifascist struggle. After the 8th of September 1943 he assisted soldiers
      by providing them with plain clothes and helping them to flee. He later became
      a partisan and left for the mountains, joining the 26th Garibaldi Brigade »Enzo
      Bagnoli«. His battle name was »Tony«. He took part in the battle of Cerrè Sologno,
      in the Appennini mountains near Reggio, one of the most significant battles
      between the partisans of the mountains and fascists and Germans. He later became
      the head of a sapper unit called »Demonio«, that had to mine and blow up all
      the bridges in the Province of Reggio. After the war, he was awarded a Bronze
      Medal for Military Valour.
  giacomina-castagnetti:
    shortbio: Giacomina Castagnetti was born in Roncolo di Quattro Castella (RE) on
      11 November 1925. She now lives in Castelnovo né Monti (RE). From 1940 she collected
      contributions in the area of Quattro Castella for »Soccorso Rosso«, an underground
      Communist network that assisted antifascists who were victims of political persecution
      during the fascist regime. She joined the Resistance movement after the 8th
      of September 1943, in the »women support groups«, women organizations set up
      by the CLN in order to assist the partisans. She operated in the area of San
      Martino in Rio (RE) until the Liberation, on 24th April 1945.
  anita-malavasi:
    shortbio: Anita Malavasi, Quattro Castella 21 May 1921 - Reggio Emilia 27 November
      2011. She began supporting the partisan struggle after the 8th of September
      1943. From the spring of 1944 she operated as a dispatch rider, transporting
      weapons from the city to the mountains. Her battle name was »Laila«. She then
      joined the 144th Garibaldi Brigade »Antonio Gramsci«, taking part in the armed
      struggle in the Reggio area of the Appennini mountains from 2 January 1945 until
      the Liberation. In that period she was also one of the few women appointed Detachment
      Commanding Officer, while at the end of the war she was finally appointed Sergeant-Major.
  pierino-beggi:
    shortbio: Pierino Beggi was born on 3 March 1920 and died in Reggio Emilia on
      9 January 2015. He was in the military when the fascist regime fell. When the
      armistice was signed he was in Piemonte, near the French border, and managed
      to avoid being captured by the Germans. When he returned in Reggio Emilia, in
      1943 he enrolled in the GAPs (Patriotic Action Groups). His battle name was
      »Gigi«. Beggi carried out attacks and sabotages and also took part in the action
      that lead to the rescue of the valuable curtain of Reggio Emilia’s »Valli« theatre.
      He contributed to the Liberation of Reggio Emilia on 24 April 1945 and witnessed
      the arrival of the Allies.
  giovanna-quadreri:
    shortbio: Giovanna Quadreri was born in Carpineti (RE) on 14 July 1928. She now
      lives in Reggio Emilia. She was involved in the partisan struggle from September
      1944 until the Liberation, operating between Reggio Emilia and the mountains
      near the city. Giovanna Quadreri, whose battle names were »Giorgio« and »Libertà«,
      acted as a dispatch rider in this area, taking care of communications between
      the Resistance movement city headquarters, the 284thFiamme Verdi Brigade »Italo«
      – a catholic unit operating in the area of Toano (RE) – and the central headquarters
      in the Appennini near Reggio. From the beginning of 1945 she joined a special
      unit called »Gufo Nero« (Black Owl), which received orders directly from the
      central headquarters of the mountains and took care of communications with the
      Allied battalion led by Major Lees, a British officer.
  alenka-gerlovic:
    shortbio: Alenka graduated in 1941 and became a painter. She was on vacation in
      Ljubljana when Germany attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (6 April 1941). The
      Kingdom of Yugoslavia capitulated 17 days after Germany’s attack and this was
      a huge disappointment for Alenka. Ljubljana, situated in the Italian occupied
      zone, was the centre of the resistance movement and headquarters for Partisans.
      Following the arrest of her father in early 1944, she had to go into underground.
      After four months in hiding, she left Ljubljana and joined the partisans in
      the summer of 1944. She worked in the partisans print, with graphics, leaflets,
      posters and propaganda. She was active as a cultural worker and created scenes
      for several plays. Alenka married Vito Globočnik, also a Partisan, but lost
      him soon after the war due to illness. The most beautiful day in her life was
      the day she returned to a liberated Ljubljana, on 9th May 1945. Alenka worked
      as a teacher of art up until her retirement, and since then has been painting
      landscapes.
  ciril-zlobec:
    shortbio: 'Male, born on 4 July 1925 in Ponikve na Krasu, Slovenia. Already as
      a child, Ciril Zlobec, as a member of the Slovene minority in Italy, was subjugated
      to fascist denationalization procedures: he had to attend an Italian school
      and he was not permitted to speak Slovene in public. He wrote his first poem,
      expressing his Slovenian civil rights, at the age of 13. In 1941, Zlobec was
      expelled from the high school located in the small theological seminary in Koper,
      when he was caught writing poems in Slovene. He became an activist in the Liberation
      Front of the Slovene Nation in 1942 and at the beginning of the following year
      he was mobilized to the special battalions (political confinement for young
      Primorje Slovenians). Upon the fall of Italy in September 1943, he returned
      home and joined the partisans. He was a fighter, a political delegate, a courier
      and an informer. He founded Slovene schools throughout the Karst area, he taught,
      and he gave lectures at the Partisan’s People’s University. Zlobec continued
      his studies in Ljubljana and graduated as a Slavic scholar. He then worked as
      a reporter and an editor. He is a poet, a writer and a translator. He served
      one mandate as the president of the Yugoslavian Writer’s Association. He was
      elected to the Presidency of the first independent Slovene state at the first
      multi-party elections in 1990. He is an ordinary member of the Slovene Academy
      for Arts and Sciences. He has published several collections of poems, two novels
      and five books of essays and journalisms. 18 of his books are translated into
      foreign languages. He has received several literary awards at home and abroad.'
  ivo-srcnik:
    shortbio: Male, born on 19th of April, 1924 in Šentjanž (Rečici ob Savinji), Slovenia,
      Catholic. Prior to WWII, Ivan Srčnik was a member of the SKOJ, the association
      of young communists of Yugoslavia. Following the German occupation of Lower
      Styria, he was forcibly mobilized in the German Army in 1942 and sent to the
      Russian front. He was captured by the Red Army in Bakaleja. At the end of December
      1943, he left the POW camp at Kolomina and, as a combatant of the Yugoslav battalion,
      headed towards Yugoslavia. He fought on the Yugoslav front as a member of the
      Yugoslav resistance movement up to the liberation.
  lipej-kolenik:
    shortbio: Lipej Kolenik was born on the 22.9.1925 in Margarethen near Bleiburg/Šmarjeta
      pri Pliberku. He had his first contact with partisans in spring 1943. He did
      courier jobs. In August 1943, he had to go to the Wehrmacht; firstly, to be
      trained, but soon he was transtered to Slovenia and in the end of 1943 to the
      Italian front. Here he got heavy frostbites on his feet and was moved to several
      military hospitals, in the end to Klagenfurt. On the occasion of a visit on
      the farm of his parents, he deserted to the partisans. He was active in various
      units. In March, he was severely wounded and witnessed the liberation hidden
      in a bunker, with hardly any medical support. After war he was unemployed and
      stayed politically active. He was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned. He is
      chairman of the Carinthian partisan association.
  vincent-pascucci:
    shortbio: Vincent grows up in the Communist working class, his father soon takes
      him along to different demonstrations. As soon as he can, he joins the Communist
      Youth Movement. After the defeat (la débâcle) in June 1940 he returns to Nanterre.
      Upon his return to Nanterre he participates in political actions, as the reproduction
      and distribution of leaflets and posters. He is part of the « Forces unies de
      la jeunesse patriotique (FUJP) », the United Forces of the Patriotic Youth,
      a youth movement of political and religious orientation. In 1942 he goes underground,
      as he refuses to leave for forced labour in Germany. The character of his activities
      change, he becomes part of the Francs-Tireurs et Particants (FTP) (snipers and
      participants) and is responsible for the safety of the comrades that have public
      appearances. As an FTP-FFI he is responsible for the safety of the Communist
      mayor, Raymond Barbet, during the liberation of Nanterre on August 21st, 1944
      and then assists during the fall of the fortress Mont Valérien. Vincent is demobilised
      in June 1945. After the war he returns to Nanterre and takes up his former profession
      as a mechanic in the Simca factory. But he is fired in 1947. From 1954 to 1966
      he is head of the department childhood and physical education. In 1966 he begins
      to work in the office of the Sports and Gymnastics Labor Federation (FSGT) until
      his retirement in 1980. Throughout this time he keeps up his activities as a
      local representative in the municipality.Today he is the president of the ANACR
      section in the Hauts-Seine department. He visits schools together with former
      deportees to relate his experience as a former resistance fighter.
  carlo-porta:
    shortbio: 'Carlo Porta was born in Gavasseto di Reggio Emilia on May 18, 1919,
      into a large family of farm workers who followed the socialist ideas of Camillo
      Prampolini. At the age of sixteen he was already an active member of the Socialist
      Party, taking part in the International Red Relief by collecting small amounts
      of money or goods for the Republican fighters in Spain. After being employed
      as a factory worker at Officine Meccaniche Reggiane, an engineering plant that
      manufactured armaments during Mussolini’s regime, in 1938 he is called up for
      military service. While in the Army, authorities find out about his antifascist
      militancy: he is arrested and imprisoned in Civitavecchia, Regina Coeli (Rome),
      Reggio Emilia and Castelfranco Emilia. Perfunctorily judged by the Special Tribunal
      for National Security, he is sentenced to three years’ confinement in the farming
      penal colony of Pisticci (Matera), in the region of Basilicata. While in confinement,
      he meets chief figures of the Italian Communist Party, whose teachings would
      contribute to mould his political beliefs. At the end of the three years of
      confinement he returns to Reggio Emilia, but a few months later he is called
      to the Army again and sent to Albania with the Italian occupation forces. He
      is in Albania on the 8th of September of 1943, the day of the Armistice: captured
      by the Germans, he is sent to internment camps in Germany in stock wagons. He
      reaches his first destination after sixteen days and is interned as a IMI (Italian
      Interned Soldier) in the marshalling camp of Neubrandenburg. His identification
      number was 108 481. He is freed only two years later, while in the Wickede camp,
      near Dortmund.'
  camillo-marmiroli:
    shortbio: Camillo Marmiroli was born into a family of socialist day labourers
      and was called Camillo in honour of Camillo Prampolini. At the age of 19, he
      was tortured because of his decision not to take part in fascist activities.
      In March, 1940, he was sent to Yugoslavia with the Italian army and stayed there
      for almost three years, becoming a witness of the atrocities carried out by
      his fellow nationals. After September 8th, 1943, he managed to get back to Italy
      after a long journey together with some 600 brothers in arms. When he reached
      Reggio Emilia he had to hide, being a deserter, and after a few months joined
      the partisans adopting the nickname Mirko, in honour of a Slavic resistance
      fighter he knew. He was immediately deployed in the area between Villa Minozzo
      and the province of Modena and took part in a number of military actions in
      the Apennines like the attack to the fascist outpost in Busana and the Sparavalle
      battle on June 10th, 1944. During his time in the resistance movement he took
      advantage of his military experience in the Yugoslav war, teaching a lot of
      young fighters the tactics of warfare. At the end of the liberation war he was
      appointed vice-commander of the 144th Garibaldi brigade.
  ulisse-gilioli:
    shortbio: Ulisse Gilioli was born in Montecavolo near Quattro Castella in the
      province of Reggio Emilia on May 26th, 1921 into a peasant family. Ulisse studied
      at the Salesians in Montechiarugolo near Parma and then as an autodidact until
      he started working at Capolo, where he worked for short periods. In Montecchio
      he became friends with some other young people united by the aversion to the
      fascist regime. In 1939-40 he worked in Rome at the Ministry of Transport until
      he had to start military service.  At the beginning of the war he took part
      in military actions as an airman on the Mediterranean islands. On September
      8th, 1943 he was on duty in Milano from where he fled to return to Montecchio.
      He later joined his brother Guerrino and other fellows in the mountains. With
      the nickname Orazio he fought on the mountains near Villa Minozzo and took the
      inspiration from these episodes for writing partisan stories and poems. Together
      with Lando Landini and Davide Valeriani he wrote in the journals “Il Volontario
      della Libertà” and “Il Garibaldino” that were read among the resistance fighters
      and civilians in the mountains.
  francesco-bertacchini:
    shortbio: Francesco Bertacchini was born on June 24th, 1926 in Reggio Emilia.
      As a young apprentice in a radio and gramophone shop he discovered his love
      for music and his aversion to the fascist regime because of the restrictions
      he had to suffer from in his daily life. After the armistice of September 8th,
      1943,aged 17 he and his best friend went to the mountains looking for the “rebels”.
      They were willing to become a rebel themselves and eventually succeeded, joining
      the 144th Garibaldi Brigade. Francesco took part in actions in the area of Succiso
      and Cerreto, attempting sabotage actions against the German troops on the road
      number 63. He was part of the “Antifascist” unit and of the “Cervi” unit with
      the nickname “Volpe” (“Fox”) and by pure chance was not involved in the Legoreccio
      massacre of November 17th, 1944, in which all his companions were killed. He
      took part in several actions in the Enza valley and in fights in Bibbiano, Barco
      and Cavriago. As he found himself surrounded by German troops he crossed the
      river Enza in October, 1944, and reached the territory of Parma first and Piacenza
      later. He took part in the Liberation of Parma and reached his home town Reggio
      Emilia in the night of April, 24th, 1944, when the city had already been liberated.
