Chapter Seven - The Resistenza (1943–1945)

Summary

At four o'clock in the afternoon of September 10, 1943, Ada stood passing out leaflets at the busy corner of Via Cernaia and Corso Galileo Ferraris in Turin. Suddenly, a line of German automobiles passed before her. She could not believe her eyes. Ada's immediate thought was that the “vacation” was over. That morning, she, Ettore, Paolo, and her friend Lisetta Giua had participated in a demonstration at the Camera del Lavoro (labor exchange). They had joined representatives of the various antifascist parties who were trying to incite the Turinese people to resist the German occupation. At first, Ada did not fully comprehend the situation. Surely Turin would be defended! A crowd gathered around her. Many thought she had some information, since she was distributing fliers. The words on the leaflets—resistance, revolutionary spirit, justice, and liberty—suddenly seemed unreal to her. Soon Ada learned the truth. Italian General Adami Rossi had conceded Turin to the Germans, and Roberto Farinacci had announced from Monaco the reconstitution of the Fascist Party. When Ada returned home, a young man who had been listening to the radio greeted her excitedly with the news, calling Farinacci's speech a “true incitement to civil war.” Ada did not share his concern: “I shrugged my shoulders with a sense of annoyance. At that moment, Monaco and Farinacci mattered little to me. I thought there were more urgent things to do right now, like burn documents, especially the cards of those who were registered in the ‘Volunteers of the Armed Nation’ for the ‘Italian Resistance Front.’ A heavy physical weariness began to weigh on me. While Lisetta made me a cup of coffee, I set about collecting the dangerous documents” (Dp, 19).

Meanwhile Paolo was arguing heatedly with some friends who had gathered at their home on 6 Via Fabro: “We have to do something. We cannot surrender like this. Let's remove the rails; let's raise the barricades,” he shouted. Ada noted his tone of desperation: “It was the first time his heart had been broken.