European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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 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 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, 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 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 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 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.

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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

We protected the partisans so much when we were kids; they were our friends and the Germans were our enemies.

One said: »I´ll do some collecting.« We used the collected money for the ›Rote Hilfe‹ (political help organ).

You would deliberately throw a spanner in the works, as long as you could and as long as you could breathe.

Well, did I kill somebody... We did shoot, but then knowing if we killed them for sure is another story.

That’s what the partisan struggle was about. Fourteen months more or less, constantly: these actions, these deaths.