European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

but now in my old age I have dedicated myself entirely to my primary vocation – painting.

I must say that we imagined a different world after WWII. A different world would arise than the one we live in now.

But one just has to adjust one’s expectations to what is going on in society.

and practically every day you would be informed of something horrible.

It is difficult to say whether one could even feel in the mood to create some great piece of art.

usually doing things similar to that in the program at the Zagreb Academy – just enough to stay in condition.

It was later, when I joined the partisans that I could finally make use of my painting skills.

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 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 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 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, 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.

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.

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.

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.