The Palazzo dell'INA is a blink-and-you miss-it office building on Corso Porta Nuova, just a few metres from Piazza Bra. As with many other remnants of the Second World War, I stumbled across this building in Verona quite by chance. Patiently waiting for a green man, I happened to glance upwards and noticed the plaque (see picture to the left). Well above head height on a busy street corner, it's easy to miss. Aside from the plaque, the palazzo's historical significance isn't immediately obvious. In search of further clues, I circumnavigated the building a couple of times and subsequently returned to surreptitiously explore the building's interior. Once inside, even my inexpert eye recognised the tell-tale features of fascist-era architecture. Fascist architects in the 1920s and ‘30s drew inspiration from classical Roman buildings, but while Roman design has ornate details and rounded edges, fascist buildings are generally cold and forbidding. Symmetry, straight lines and simplicity (think Mackintosh but without the nice bits), the interior of the Palazzo dell'INA exudes conformity and order (see below). The Palazzo is now a busy office block and residence, with much coming and going. The maintenance work taking place in the enclosed courtyard at the back of the building adds to the general hustle and bustle, but most passers-by are completely oblivious to the building's dark past. [click to enlarge] On my third visit to the Palazzo, I meet the building's friendly concierge, who also happens to be something of an amateur historian. Without too much difficulty, I persuade him to show me the building's darker subterranean level, where traces of the buildings sinister past are still visible (see below). The building was constructed in 1937, during the height of Italian fascism. Mussolini had been in power for 15 years. Built to house the istituto nazionale delle assicurazioni (the INA), it was designed in the style of Marcello Piacentini, a controversial figure in the history of architecture because of his strong association with the fascist regime. The building was part of a wider plan of urban restructuring, overseen by architect Paolo Rossi De Paoli. The onset of war meant that the other parts of the plan were never realised. Corso Porta Nuova, the elegant avenue on which Palazzo delle'INA is located was originally known as Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, after the famous Italian monarch. Throughout the period of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (1943-1945), the street was renamed Corso Cangrande, in tribute to the famous 14th century warrior and autocrat. Between September 1943 and April 1945, the period of the German occupation of Italy, Verona became the headquarters of the German military administration for the whole of occupied Italy and the operations centre of the Italian Gestapo. The headquarters of the commander of the Security Police and the Security Service of the SS occupied the Palazzo dell'INA. The upper floors were home to various commands and offices. The entrances and the corners of the building were protected by concrete casemates with slits for automatic weapons. Sentries were on guard 24 hours a day. The basement level was transformed into a prison. Although not large (average capacity was around 100), it was a feared interrogation and torture centre. Some traces of the building's past use are still visible in the basement, including original doors with German markings. [click to enlarge] Natale Mihel, a young antifascist, was only 17 years old when he spent a month imprisoned in the Palazzo dell'INA before being transferred to a camp at Bolzano. Although he suffered greatly, Mihel survived the camp and returned to Verona after the war. He subsequently emigrated to Switzerland but returns to Verona every now and then. In March 2014 he was awarded the diplomi di Onorificenza dell’Ordine “Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana”. In Berlin, the Reich Security Main Office, or RSHA, was the organisational centre behind the Final Solution, first under the command of Reinhard Heydrich and then his successor Ernst Kaltenbrunner. SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Adolf Eichmann was the officer responsible for the Judenreferat, or Jewish Affairs Office, that would subsequently become known as IV B4. Its priority was the evacuation of Jews in German-occupied Europe. In Italy, arrest and deportation operations were overseen by the Gestapo and SS intelligence service. Verona was one of the railway hubs through which passed thousands of Italian Jews on their way to Mauthausen or Auschwitz-Birkenau, with the organisation and administration of that process being managed from the Palazzo dell'INA.
Many prominent Nazis were based in Verona during the German occupation of Italy and worked from the Palazzo dell'INA, including a number of so-called schreibtischtäter – ‘desk murderers’, who, with the stroke of a pen, condemned thousands to death. Men like Martin Sandberger, a former Einsatzgruppen commander in Russia, who took over the Gestapo in Verona in October 1943. At Nuremberg he was found guilty of crimes against humanity. He was released in 1951 and for decades he lived undisturbed in Germany. He died in a Stuttgart retirement home on 30 March 2010, taking the secrets of Palazzo dell'INA with him to his grave.
First day at school
With the current academic year entering its final term, our thoughts are already turning to the next anno scolastico. After three joyful years at scuola materna, our son Leo will start primary school in September. Kids go to school a year later in Italy, so he'll be six when he starts Scuola Elementare Rita Rosani in September. As a diligent parent in a foreign land, this landmark event raises some important questions... How will my child cope at school? Will he make friends? And, above all, who is/was Rita Rosani?
Who was Rita Rosani?
Rita Rosani was born on 20 November 1920 in Trieste, an ancient frontier seaport on the Italian-Slovenian border. Her family were from Czechoslovakia. She was Jewish. After completing her studies, Rita went to teach at the Israelite elementary school of Trieste.
The Italian Jews
In 1933, the Italian Jewish community, one of the oldest in Europe, numbered about 50,000. At this time, there was relatively little overt anti-Semitism in Italy. Indeed, compared to Hitler's Germany, Italy was a late comer to such persecution, only embarking on a formal policy of anti-Semitism in 1938. In 1938, the fascist anti-Semitic laws came into force in Italy. Rita Rosani experienced first hand the bitter pain of anti-Semitic persecution. Although Mussolini and other Italian fascists clearly harboured anti-Semitic and racist attitudes, Mussolini's policy seems to have been driven as much by cynical opportunism and a desire to ingratiate himself with Hitler than it was by genuine anti-Jewish fanaticism. In July 1939, Mussolini published his Manifesto della razza, a blatantly anti-Semitic document. This was followed by laws forbidding the marriage of Italians with those of non-Aryan race and the expulsion of foreign Jews who had come to Italy after 1 January 1919. Furthermore, Italian Jews were forbidden from being teachers, lawyers, journalists or bankers and Jewish children were segregated in special schools. These policies were heavily shaped by Hitler's anti-Semitic ideology and, it must be said, weren't popular with many Italian citizens. As war broke out, fascist Italy found itself in a unholy alliance with Nazi Germany. After the armistice of September 1943, Italy, now under German occupation, plunged into a brutal civil war. Anti-Semitism reached its most extreme phase. In order to avoid deportation and the concentration camps, Rosani took refuge in a village in Friuli in northeastern Italy. Mussolini was certainly aware that Jews were being exterminated in Germany, but this didn't stop him from handing over Italian Jews to the Germans. It was only thanks to a combination of resistance and incompetence, that so many Italian Jews avoided the gas chambers. In all, the Nazis deported 8,564 Jews from Italy, Italian-occupied France, and the islands of Rhodes and Kos, most of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. 1,009 returned. In addition, the Nazis shot 196 Jews in Italy, nearly half of these at the Ardeatine Cave in March 1944. Another 100 died in police transit camps or in prisons or police custody. More than 40,000 Jews survived the Holocaust in Italy, the third highest survival rate after Denmark and Bulgaria.
Italian resistance
In general, the Italian population did not approve of either the German alliance or Italian entry into the war. Following the armistice of 1943, thousands of Italian men and women took part in what became known as ‘The Resistance’. The partisans who made up the resistance were not a homogenous group, but instead were an assortment of various political factions who opposed Italian fascism and German occupation. The first partisans were disbanded soldiers who were soon joined by other young men who refused to enlist in the fascist army. Despite the harsh reprisals carried out by the Germans and the fascists for those involved in such activity, partisan groups gradually grew in strength and expertise. The brutal conflict they fought between 1943-45 became known as the Italian Civil War. Women played a very important role, not only as fighters, but also with assistance, support and exchange of information. The Resistance movement spread from the mountains to the lowlands and into the cities. At the end of the war, more than 185,000 were officially acknowledged as partisan fighters, 35,000 of whom were women. The Resistance movement in Italy suffered nearly 29,000 casualties, including 683 women (source: European Resistance Archive).
Rosani the partisan
Rita Rosani first engaged in clandestine anti-fascist activities in Portogruaro, a small town to the north of Venice. She then joined the partisan movement in the province of Verona, carrying out liaison and organisation of the nascent fighting formations. The young teacher was personally involved in the formation of a small band of partisans (the "Eagle" Brigade), fighting for months in Valpollicella and in the area of Zevio (south east of Verona). The Eagle Brigade spent a year in a hut that had become their base on Monte Comun, in the hills to the north of Verona.
Surrounded
One Sunday morning in September 1944, the outpost of the “Eagle” Brigade was surrounded by a large unit of fascists who had received an anonymous tip-off and were determined to capture, by any means necessary, the small group of partisans that included Rita Rosani. A bloody battle followed. The partisans resisted for hours. Finally they decided to launch a counter-attack. The men suggested to Rita that she flee while they create a diversion. Her response, "You must be joking!". Musket in hand, she threw herself into the battle. Wounded and captured, Rita was shot in the head by a Republican lieutenant who was subsequently sentenced to twenty years. He was soon released. After her death, Rosani was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour.
Back to school
In September 2014, when I drop Leo off for his first day at primary school, it will be his special day. But, I'll spare a thought for the young Jewish teacher who died fighting for "the highest ideals in humanity", and in whose memory his school is named.
...and the village priest who foiled it
One of my regular (okay, occasional) runs takes me into the hills to the north of Verona, above the sleepy village of Avesa. Following a well-marked route, the country road gives way to a dirt track and finally a rugged and rocky scramble to the top. After a lung-busting 15 minute climb, I soon emerge at the Croce dell’ Ongarine (Avesa's very own version of Rio's iconic Cristo Redentor!).
The Cross offers fantastic views over Avesa and Verona itself. To the south, on a clear day, you can see beyond the city to the flat Venetian plain and the Val Padana (the Po Valley) to the west you can just catch a glimpse of the distant Lake Garda and the mountains beyond. Pausing for 5 minutes to catch my breath and enjoy the views from the Cross, the path (now mercifully flat) continues northwards. Another 5 minutes along the trail and I break right, making a fairly steep lateral descent through the brush. I soon re-emerge on the main path, still high above the northern part of the village of Avesa. A cluster of rather sinister looking caves dares you to enter. So far, I’ve resisted the urge. Instead, I navigate my way through the olive groves to the valley floor and am soon passing a long-disused quarry and entering the village itself from the north side. Stopping to buy a brioche and something sweet to drink, I make my way to the long, shady piazza, across the footbridge, over a narrow babbling brook and, finally, underneath the spring blossom, to a statue that I’d noticed on a previous run. At the foot of the statue is a plaque that describes the dramatic events that took place here on 25 April 1945. In order to understand the significance of that day, we need to go back a little, to September 1943. Allied invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of the Italian mainland had begun in early September 1943. The Allies had hoped to make a quick drive north, through the "soft underbelly" of Europe, and into the German heartland. Instead, nineteen months later, after hard fighting up the rugged mountainous spine of the Italian peninsula, the Anglo-American alliance had still not reached its objective. Operation Grapeshot, the spring offensive in Italy, started on 6 April 1945. It’s objective, "...to destroy the maximum number of enemy forces south of the Po, force crossings of the Po and capture Verona”.
In order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, at dawn on 26 April 1945 the German commanders based in Verona received orders to destroy 40,000 crates of TNT. The explosives were stored in a limestone quarry in the hills to the north of Verona, just beyond the village of Avesa. The explosion, it is said, would have caused the destruction not only of Avesa, but also of much of the city of Verona. The village priest
Don Giuseppe Graziani, a military chaplain, had been told of the German plan to blow up the munitions dump by a local teacher. On hearing the news, the priest rushed by bike to the city headquarters of the German command and begged permission to safely remove the TNT from the polveriera before it was detonated. Don Giusseppe hastily returned to Avesa, taking three bells from the altar of the church and summoning the men of the village, who respond immediately to his call. A human chain of 1000 people work through the night to remove the explosives from the munitions dump. With rosary beads in hand, the women and the elderly gather at the church, praying for a miracle.
Meanwhile, the German occupiers receive news that the Nazi leadership in Berlin is crumbling and that the allies are near. The order is given to blow up the gunpowder. The people of Avesa flee the quarry, leaving many crates of TNT still inside. Shortly after dawn on the 26 April 1945 American forces penetrate the city of Verona. At 6.30 am, the order to detonate the TNT is executed. There is a huge explosion, clouds of white and black smoke erupt with tongues of fire. A huge boulder lands on a house, causing extensive damage. Seven villagers are killed in the explosion. Had it not been for the bravery and courage of the people of Avesa, led by Don Graziani, the damage would have been much worse. A few days later, on 28 April 1945, Mussolini is captured and shot by Italian partisans near Lake Como. A few days later, Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin. The war in Europe is over. Liberation Day
The 25th April is Liberation Day in Italy. In Avesa, the people will gather on this day to remember the dramatic events that took place here all those years ago. I will be joining them to commemorate the end of this dark chapter in world history.
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AboutRichard Hough writes about history, football, wine, whisky, culture + travel and is currently working on a trilogy about wartime Verona.
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