Liana Millu

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Liana Millu (born December 21, 1914 in Pisa ; died February 6, 2005 in Genoa ) was an Italian writer and survivor of the Holocaust .

biography

The daughter of a Jewish couple lost her mother at an early age and grew up with her maternal grandparents. Her father, a train station master by profession, lived a long way from his family. She became interested in journalism very early on and wrote articles for the Livornese daily Il Telegrafo , which she signed with the name Millu , a modified form of her original name Millul .

From 1937 Millu taught at a school in Montolivo near Volterra . In addition, she continued to work as a journalist. Because of the racist legislation introduced in fascist Italy , Millu was fired. She then worked as a private tutor for a Jewish family in Florence before moving to Genoa in 1940 , where she worked in various professions, but continued to work as a writer: under the pseudonym Nàila - anagram of her first name Liana - she published two in the magazine Settimo Giorno Stories, Il collega and Monte Pio .

In resistance

After the armistice on September 8, 1943 , Millu was actively involved in the Italian resistance : She joined the underground organization Otto (derived from the name of the founder, Ottorino Balduzzi), which, among other things, had the task of maintaining contact between Englishmen , Americans and English prisoners of the to establish dissolved prisoner of war camp .

While on a mission for her organization, Millu was arrested after a denunciation in Venice . After internment in Fossoli di Carpi was the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau deported . From there she was transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and finally to Malkow near Stettin , where she was used for forced labor in an armaments factory.

Millu was freed in May 1945 after almost a year of imprisonment and returned to Italy in August. She later resumed her position as a teacher and, when she returned home, devoted herself to telling stories about her deportation.

Works

Her book Der Rauch über Birkenau , which describes the experiences of six female inmates during their imprisonment in Birkenau, was published in 1947, the same year the first edition of Is that a person? by Primo Levi , with whom she was good friends. As Millu herself said, she started working on this work in the first days after the liberation .

Her second book, the novel Die Brücke von Schwerin , was published in 1978 and tells of her return home and the time after her captivity.

In the early 1980s, she worked with Rosario Fucile Dalla Liguria ai campi di sterminio ( From Liguria to the extermination camps ), which was published by the Liguria region together with the ANED organization, the association of former Italian deportees. Millu himself worked for ANED for many years and held important positions.

bibliography

  • Il fumo di Birkenau , Florence: La Giuntina, new edition 2008, ISBN 9788885943285
  • I ponti di Schwerin , Poggibonsi: Lalli 1978, ISBN 9788880121121
  • Dalla Liguria ai campi di sterminio
  • La camica di Josepha , Genoa: ECIG 1988, ISBN 9788875452506
  • Dopo il fumo. Sono il n. A-5384 di Auschwitz-Birkenau , Brescia: Morcelliana 1990, ISBN 9788837217457
  • Diary: Il diario del ritorno dal lager , Florence: La Giuntina 2006, ISBN 9788880572459 (published posthumously)
  • Campo di betulle: Shoah, l'ultima testimonianza di Liana Millu , Florence: La Giuntina 2006, ISBN 9788880572503 (published posthumously)

Published in German:

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Millu, Liana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian writer and survivor of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Pisa , Tuscany
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2005
Place of death Genoa