The evening my grandfather came back from the war in Russia, he ate paniscia (traditional risotto recipe from Novara) and gorgonzola. The very same night, he joined the partisans in Val d'Ossola fighting against Nazi-Fascism (Photograph: Battaglia delle Casse, Val Formazza, 1944)
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Today is Liberation Day in Italy: Liberation from the Nazi-Fascist oppression. On this day, we also remember the sacrifice of young partisans who died for our freedom – my grandfather came back, many didn't. Our Deputy PM is boycotting this commemoration: Italy is in danger.
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"If you want to go on a pilgrimage to the place where our Constitution was born, go to the mountains, where partisans fell, to the prisons where they were incarcerated, and to the fields where they were hanged...
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... Wherever an Italian died to redeem freedom and dignity, go there young people and ponder: because that was where our Constitution was born" (Piero Calamandrei, 'Discorso ai giovani sulla Costituzione nata dalla Resistenza')
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Italian Partisan Women. Irma Bandiera (1915–1944) was a member of the seventh Gruppo di azione patriottica. In 1944, she was captured, blinded, and killed.
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Prosperina 'Lisetta' Vallet, partisan in the autonomous partisan brigade of the Vertosan Valley, Aosta Valley, and wife of partisan Rino Mion, who fought alongside her under codename Fulmine (November, 1944) italianintransito.com/2015/03/31/bel
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A year ago today, April 25 2018 my husband and I happened upon the Liberation Day celebration in Monterosso al Mare. We stood quietly as the names of the Partisans who had sacrificed their lives for freedom were being read. The band played. One lone surviving veteran was honored.
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After the band played, the speeches were over, the priest had made his blessing and people were disbanding, I sought out the man who had been running the event. The best I could manage was "Mio tio. World War II. Italy." "Thank you. Thank you. For your uncle." came the response.
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