DOI: 10.7763/IPEDR. 2012. V51. 18 The Italian Resistance in Piedmont: Motives and Aspirations + Michael C. Kelly School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nazarbayev University Abstract. At the end of May, 1945, the forces of the Italian Resistance were in a seemingly impregnable position of power: they had emerged victoriously from an eighteen-month-long armed struggle against the German occupying army and Fascist Republic of Salò; they had liberated the major towns and cities of northern Italy before the arrival of the victorious Allied troops; they had installed Committees of National Liberation (CLN) throughout the north which controlled civil administration and the management of the major industrial enterprises; and their leaders had been installed in power to head a government of national unity under the leadership of the Action Party's (PdA) FerruccioParri.Yet how had this seemingly victorious movement begun? What type of Italians had joined the forces of the Resistance, and equally importantly why? What had motivated the participants in what was an essentially minority, northern Italian phenomenon, and what did they want to achieve? This paper will examine the diverse motives for joining the Resistance struggle during 1943-45, as well as examining the political aspirations of the participants. Through a series of interviews, ex-partisans from the Garibaldi, Justice and Liberty, Matteotti and Autonomi Brigades give fascinating - and varied - responses to these questions. Keywords: Italian Resistance, Partisan Warfare, Guerrilla Warfare, Italian Anti-Fascism. 1. Introduction Italy!! The belpaese – the beautiful country. The imagination runs wild. Images of the rolling hills of Tuscany, the classical cities of Venice, Florence, and the eternal city itself – Rome – come to mind. Yet between September 1943 and April 1945 there was another Italy. An Italy of burning villages; an Italy of corpses strung from trees; an Italy of torture chambers and the death's head insignia; of the Black brigades and Mussolini's hated and feared killers of the Decima Mas. It was an Italy of total war. The south, occupied by the Allied armies who crept slowly, ever so slowly to the north: a north occupied by the German army and Hitler's puppet state of the Italian Social Republic – ostensibly led by Mussolini; yet a north which also saw the rising of the second largest Resistance movement of the Second World War. Approximately 200,000 Italians fought in the Resistance and another 200,000 engaged in its support. Generally this support was spontaneous and certainly more than 100,000 partisans and civilians died in the struggle, making their losses greater than those of the Allies throughout the entire Italian campaign.1 As the Allied troops streamed into the cities of northern Italy at the end of May, 1945, they found that they had already been liberated by the forces of the Italian Resistance; the partisans had installed Committees of National Liberation (CLN) throughout the north – committeeswhich controlled local government, industrial production, public utilities and which instigated the purging of Fascists from government bureaucracy and private industry; under the Allied Military Government (AMG) they still controlled civil administration and the management of the major industrial enterprises; and their leaders had been installed in power to head a government of national unity under the leadership of FerruccioParri of the Action Party (PdA). Yet how had this seemingly victorious movement begun? What type of Italians had joined the forces of the Resistance, and equally importantly why? What had motivated the participants in what was an essentially minority, northern Italian phenomenon, and what did they want to achieve? This paper will examine the diverse motives for joining the Resistance struggle during 1943-45, as well as examining the political aspirations of the participants. Why join the Resistance? What type of society did the partisans envisage for post-war Italy? How was it to be achieved? Through a series of fifty interviews, ex-partisans from the Garibaldi, Justice and Liberty, Matteotti and Autonomous Brigades give fascinating – and varied – responses to these questions. + Corresponding author. Tel.: (+7 7172 705912); fax: (+65 6774 2528). E-mail address:([email protected]). 1 John Clarke Adams and Paolo Barile, The Government of Republican Italy, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972) 13. 80 2. Italian Resistance in Piedmont Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this study concerns the political motivations for becoming a partisan. Although some respondents clearly had a well-developed political conscience, overwhelmingly the majority of partisans had little understanding of politics and no official political affiliation of any kind, prior to their involvement in the Resistance. Even the Garibaldini, regarded by most historians as ideologically- committed communists, had very little understanding of politics. As the ex-Garibaldini of the Verzuolo branch of the National Italian Partisan Association (ANPI) stated (Carlo Ferrero, Ermanno Genovese, Giovanni Torre, Lorenzo Gallo, Federico Gèrello, and LelioPeirano) 'We were all around eighteen years old: before, we didn't even know what politics was.'2 Similarly, Giellista Marisa Sacco, on reading some literature on the Youth section of the Action Party in 1943 remarked: 'It was the first party I had ever encountered in my life. Before, I didn't even know the names of the parties.'3 If any affiliation existed, it tended to be, like Giellista Renzo Minetto – and most other Italians of the time – membership of the Italian Fascist party; in the case of Minetto, in the GruppoUniversitarioFascista. As he admitted, in a somewhat embarrassed manner, he had accepted the Fascist regime until 1943.4 Almost all partisans – like AutonomoGiulioNicoletta – had been members of the Fascist youth group, the Balilla.5 Of the minority who had distinct political affiliations with anti-fascist groups prior to the Resistance, this led almost invariably directly into partisan involvement. Furthermore, of such respondents interviewed, the vast majority was linked to the Action Party. GiellistaTullioFornasari stated that he had been enrolled in the Action Party for a couple of months prior to September 8 1943 and immediately a clandestine Committee of National Liberation (CLN) had been established at his place of work in Turin. Being a member of the Action Party meant immediate political involvement in the factory committee (CLN) and thus in the Resistance.6 Giorgio Diena, also a Giellista, frequented groups of friends of a social-democratic political stance and joined the Action Party after the 25 July 1943 and moved naturally into the Resistance, where he fought in a Justice and Liberty formation.7 Similarly, UgoSacerdote was already a member of the clandestine Action Party in the period immediately prior to the Resistance struggle,8 and Marisa Sacco was a member of the Youth section of the Action Party. Interestingly, however, she commented that her membership was not a political choice. She stated that, '…instead, I ended up in the Action Party because a friend of one of my brothers told me "listen, some young people need our help, what do you think?" and I responded "of course I'll help!"' 9 As well as party affiliation, at times religious ties could prove instrumental in moving towards the Resistance. This was particularly true in Jewish families. GiellistaUgoSacerdotewas a member of the clandestine Action Party. His mother, Irma Nizza, and aunt, Paola Levi, had both been active anti-fascists before the war. While Sacerdote had never been a particularly devoted Jew, he began attending meetings of young Jewish clubs in 1941-42 – partly as a result of his exclusion from the Italian school system in 1938 following the racial laws of that year. At these meetings he encountered other anti-fascist spirits such as the now famous Primo Levi. As Sacerdote stated, these meetings formed, '…a disguised school of anti- fascism…in private we exchanged highly formative ideas…and so practically the racial campaign of 1938, which excluded us from state schools, was the catalyst for a more active participation in the anti-fascist movement.'10While Sacerdote considered these meetings to be somewhat passive exercises in criticism of Fascism and current events, they would soon propel him into a more active phase in the early months of 1943 when Sacerdote would distribute anti-fascist pamphlets and political propaganda for the Action Party.11 In this sense, therefore, the young Jewish groups proved to be embryonic forms of later resistance. The vast majority of partisans, however, had no concrete political affiliation with clandestine parties or groupings. Many of them, however – particularly those who would fight in the left-wing formations (the 2 Interview with Carlo Ferrero, Lorenzo Gallo, Ermanno Genovese, Federico Gèrello, LelioPeirano and Giovanni Torre of ANPI Verzuolo, 4/11/2000. Tape in possession of author. 3 Interview with Marisa Sacco, 12/12/2000. Tape in possession of author. 4Interview with Renzo Minetto, 7/12/2000.Tape in possession of author. 5Interview with GiulioNicoletta, 8/11/2000.Tape in possession of author. 6Interview with GiannettoAsteggiano and TullioFornasari, 6/12/2000.Tape in possession of author. 7Interview with Giorgio Diena, 14/12/2000.Tape in possession of author. 8Interview with UgoSacerdote, 4/12/2000.Tape in possession of author. 9Interview with Marisa Sacco. 10Interview with UgoSacerdote. 11 Ibid. 81 Garibaldini, Giellisti and Matteottini) – were firmly influenced by attitudes of family members. The father of Garibaldino Giovanni Torre had worked in France before the war and had developed distinct anti-fascist tendencies.12 The father of Matteottino Gino Cattaneo was a communist, and under his influence his entire family joined the partisans.13Garibaldino Bruno Carli was influenced by the flight of his anti-fascist uncle into France in 1922, the opinions of his father, who had been involved in the early trade union struggle while working in France, and by his older brother, Carlo, an outspoken anti-fascist.