Comenius project: Travelling across Europe through history. Liceo Augusto - Rome

1. RESISTANCE IN ROME
Places and people

2. The partisan attack in Via Rasella
• It was an action undertaken
by Italian partisan groups
against the German police
regiment “Bozen” right in
the centre of Rome.
• An Italian student, Rosario
Bentivoglia, triggered a
bomb when the regiment
was approaching.
• 42 German soldiers and two
Italian civilians died.

3. The consequences
• The German reprisal consisted in
the Ardeatine Massacre.
• 335 people were gathered. 10
hostages for every dead German
soldier.
• The hostages were brought to
some pozzolana Caves.
• There they were shot.
• Their bodies were hidden by the
Germans, who blasted the caves.
• Now the place is a shrine-national
monument.

4. Forte Bravetta
Forte Bravetta is one of the 15 forts of Rome built between 1877
and 1891. It was used as a place for death penalties executions by
the state defense court. There is a monument next to the entrance
that remembers the shooting of 77 people done during the
German occupation.

5. The Victims
GIOGIO LABO’
He partecipated in
numerous sabotages.
He was caught by the
German forces,
arrested and brought in
via Tasso prison. He
was brought to Forte
Bravetta and he was
shot without a trial.
FORTUNATO CACCAMO
He partecipeted inthe
difense of Rome
exspecially in Monti
Albani and Palestrina. In
1944 he was caught in
Bologna square and he
was brought to via Tasso
prison. He was brutally
tortured. After his trial he
was shot in Forte
Bravetta

6. ‘ROMA CITTA’ APERTA’
It wa a movie directed by
Roberto Rossellini in 1945.
The most famous actor and
actress were Aldo Fabrizi in
Don Morosini and Alda
Magnani in Pina, a working
class woman .
(
He was a priest and an italian
partisan. He was accused of giving
weapons and food to partisans .He
was brutally tortured by th German
forces because they want he
declared the names of his
partners.He tried to accuse himself
for everything. He was shot in Forte
Bravetta in 1944.

7. The Movie
These are two scenes of the
movie Roma Città Aperta: the first
when Morosini was killed
Pina’s run to wards his husband
who his caught by the German
soldiers and her shooting. It is
One of the most famous scenes of the
Italian movies

8. Salvo D’Acquisto
On 22 September some
German soldiers were
inspecting boxes of munitions
at Palidoro when there was an
explosion. One died and two
others were wounded. The
commander blamed the death
on "unnamed locals" and
demanded the cooperation of
the Carabinieri. D'Acquisto ,
the commander of
Carabinieri , declared he alone
was responsible for the
"murder". He was shot on the
spot. He was 22. For his heroic
behavior Salvo D’Acquisto
received a gold medal

9. Resistance in Quadraro
• Quadraro was the area where a search
was carried out in 1944 in which 947
men were brought to concentration
camps in Germany and in Poland.
• On 17 April, around 4 a.m., ranks
surrounded the neighborhood, blocking
any way out.
• They searched every house, taking
away about 2000 men between
nineteen and fifty.
• After a few days the selected men were
moved to their final destinations.
• Only half of them survived after the
Liberation

10. Quadraro
• The “Operation Whale” was
held after the killing of three
soldiers by the Quarticciolo
Hunchbacked’s troop to
eliminate as many opponents
to the regime as they could.
• It was disguised as an act
aimed to the enrolment of
manpower for the
Wehrmacht.
• On 17th April 2004 the
neighborhood was honored
with the Gold Civilian Merit
Badge.
A park in that area was named
“Park 17th April 1944” and
enriched with a monument, in
memory of the event.

11. Fernando Montelli’s Story
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Fernando was born in Rome in 1922 and he lived at the Quadraro
district
He got engaged to Graziella, who wrote to him as a war
godmother
On 17 April 1944 he was at home at Quadraro district when the
roundup started. 1500 men were taken to the Cinema
Quadraro.They were redirected to other places in Italy
Fernando managed to escape and got on a train that was
hijacked to Germany by the the Nazi the train
When he arrived he was taken to a labour camp where he
worked in ammunition manufactoring
Fernando was young and good-looking . A young German
woman, Evelyn, helped him and they started a relationship
In 1945 the Allies freed the camp. Fernando escaped

12. Happy ending
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He arranged to meet Evelyn to escape together
When he arrived the Allies had just bombed the place and Evelyn
was not there
Fernando believed she had died during the attack
He went on foot to Italy, walking for a month. When he arrived in
Rome he looked for Graziella and told her everything about his
imprisonment
Graziella understood and after some months they got married
and went back at the Quadraro
In the ’80s a letter written in German arrived.
They discovered that Evelyn was not dead and Fernando had a 40
yea-old daughter in Germany
Fernando’s family understood and welcomed the “German
daughter”
They keept in touch even after Fernando’s death, in 1999
In May 2013 Graziella turned 90 and Evelyn’s daughter came in
Rome to celebrate

13. Resistance
• While the Second World War
was ending lots of people
fought against fascism.
• They belonged to every social
class and to every political
party.
• They were called Partisans.
• They were not a legal army,
and they were divided into lots
of groups.
• Most of them were in the
North of Italy.
• Partisans were supported by
common people, who helped
them in many ways.

14. Women in the resistance
• There were not only men. Partisans were also women.
• Women were an important part in the resistance.
• They left their role as mothers and wives, and they started
fighting for freedom and justice.
• They passed from inside jobs, helping hill people, to working
as partisan's relay.
• They worked instead of men, sometimes in war or in the
resistance itself.
• They also collected money in order to help relatives of
arrested people.
• Relays were young women between sixteen and eighteen
years old.
• They had no weapons and they sometimes escorted rebels.

15. Role of women
• Partisans women were important even if they were not
allowed to use weapon.
• Their job was extremely dangerous because if they were
caught with the partisan's messages they could be killed.
• Women often used double-bottom bags in order not to be
discovered.
• An important relay was Calrla Capponi, that received the gold
medal of honor.
• Carla Capponi was one of the organizers of the attack in "Via
Rasella".

16. Insitutional role of women
• Women also had institutional roles,
• Gisella Floreanini was the first woman that
was a politician in the partisan republic of
Osella.
• At the end she became a member of
Consulta nazionale, and then was elected in
the camera dei deputati.
• Another important woman was Nilde Iotti, a
member of the PCI (Italian Communist
Party).
• After the referendum of 2 June 1946 Nilde
Iotti was elected in the Italian Parliament.
• She helped creating the third article of the
Italian constitution, that is about citizens
equality.
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17. Teresa Gullace
• One of the resistance symbol was Teresa
Gullace.
• She was a Italian partisan whose husband
was arrested by SS.
• Teresa tried to stand near him but a soldier
shot her with a gun.
• She died taking with her their sixth son, who
was in her womb.
• Teresa Gullace’s story was the inspiration of
Roberto Rossellini for the movie "Roma
città aperta".
• In that film Anna Magnani plays the role of
Pina, that died in the same way as Teresa.
• "Roma città aperta" is a film of 1945.