European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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 26 December 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.

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 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.