Page 57 - NONOSTANTE IL LUNGO TEMPO TRASCORSO…Le stragi nazifasciste nella guerra di liberazione 1943–1945

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Libertà” and “Garibaldi Brigades”), and also two to hand over their weapons. In exchange they ob-
anti-fascist parties which advocated a deep so- tained a monthly subsidy of 160 million lire and
cio-political renovation, although with divergent the confirmation of their chiefs: Cadorna as the
points of view. head of CVL, and Parri and Longo as vice-com-
A significant civilian resistance developed manders. Shortly after, on December 26th 1944,
along with the military one: that is to say, an op- another agreement was signed with the Italian
position without weapons like what the military government, that acknowledged CLNAI as an an-
prisoners did after September 8th, when they ti-fascist party and designated it as the govern-
were sent to imprisonment camps in Germany ment’s representative; CLNAI accepted to act as
and Poland. 650 thousand of them refused to join its deputy, recognising that government as the
the Social Republic and remained in those camps legitimate one in the present and in the future.
until the end of war, where almost 50 thousand Those agreements of December 1944 al-
died due to hardship, bombings or executions. lowed the armed resistance to legally lead the
In the so-called Italian Industrial Triangle (Mi- national insurrection: on April 25th, CLNAI took
lan, Turin and Genoa) in March 1944, the workers all the military and civilian powers, and the gen-
promoted the only strike ever reported in German eral mobilisation of the partisan forces was an-
occupied Europe, paid with the deportation of nounced in Milan by Sandro Pertini, in a famous
thousands of workers. There were also many Ital- speech on radio “Milano libera”: “Citizens, work-
ian political deportees, sent to Third Reich’s con- ers! General strike against the German occupa-
centration camps because of their opposition to tion, against the fascist war, for the salvation of
nazifascism: 23,718 people in total (22,204 men our lands, of our homes, of our business. Like in
and 1,514 women). In the various camps they were Genoa and Turin, make the Germans face this di-
forced to wear a red triangle on their clothes, and lemma: surrender or die”.
they underwent an extremely hard prison regime The general insurrection was the key mo-
along with forced labour: 45% of them died, that ment of a long ant-fascist struggle, and it is also
is to say 10,129 people. the established date of the Liberation, even if
We should not forget what women did dur- all hostilities ceased on May 2nd 1945. The fact
ing the armed resistance against fascism: they that CLNAI proclaimed it was not just a symbol-
welcomed, protected and took care of men, who ic circumstance: it was indeed the birth of a new
were chased down in those months; we should leadership that could have represented a totally
mention the farmers too, who fed the allied sol- different country compared to the one which en-
diers that were on the run and the partisans, tered the war in 1940 and dissolved on Septem-
shared their scarce food and chose not to report ber 8th 1943.
these people to Germans and fascists. On April 29th 1945, when the Germans
On December 7th 1944, an agreement was signed their unconditional surrender at the Roy-
signed between the Commander-in-chief of the al Palace of Caserta before a delegation of the
Allied Forces in the Mediterranean -General Mait- United Kingdom, United States of America and a
land Wilson- and representatives of the Comitato soviet observer, the main cities in the North had
di Liberazione Nazionale per l’Alta Italia (CLNAI already been occupied by partisans. In Genoa,
- National Liberation Committee for Northern It- General Meinhold signed the German surrender
aly): the latter committed to collaborate with the at Villa Migone before Remo Scappini, the pres-
Allies, to acknowledge their authority after the ident of Liguria’s National Liberation Commit-
liberation and to give up “all their government and tee: it was the only case of a big European city
administration powers” to the Military Govern- in which the Germans surrendered to the “out-
ment. CLNAI accepted to hand the reins of Corpo laws”. On April 28th, all hostilities ceased in Mi-
Volontari della Libertà (CVL - Volunteers of Free- lan and the Allies entered the city on April 30th.
dom Corps) to the Supreme Commander of the On April 27th and 28th, Turin was freed thanks to
Allied Powers, to disband the partisan groups and the Partisans.

STORIA GIUSTIZIA MEMORIA HISTORY JUSTICE MEMORY 57

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