Ondina Peteani

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Ondina Peteani (born April 26, 1925 in Trieste ; died January 3, 2003 there ) was an Italian resistance fighter at the time of World War II , an obstetrician , trade unionist and a member of the ANPI and the Italian Communist Party .

resistance

Peteani grew up in fascist Italy. In 1942 she began to work in a shipyard in Monfalcone , where she made her first contacts with the anti-fascist underground movement. Peteani joined as a partisan of the Garibaldi unit, an association of Italian communists and the Slovenian Osvobodilna Fronta ("Liberation Front") , who were already active in the area. She supported the resistance as a courier and supplied the partisans with food and messages. She always operated under the code name “Natalia”. She was arrested for the first time on July 2, 1943 and imprisoned in Trieste until the armistice between Italy and the Allies in September. After that, she rejoined the partisans and was involved in armed operations against Italian spies and Nazi fascists. On the night of February 11, 1944, however, she was arrested again and held by German soldiers in Trieste. After she was exposed as a partisan in an interrogation by the SS, she was taken to the "Coroneo" prison in Trieste in early March, from which many political prisoners were murdered by the Nazis.

On May 31, 1944, Peteani and other prisoners were deported to Auschwitz via Germany in a cattle wagon . She was then transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and from here in October 1944 temporarily used in a war production facility in Eberswalde. Thanks to her previous knowledge from the shipyard, she was able to slow down the production cycle in the factory. In April 1945 she managed to escape during a death march that was supposed to bring her back to Ravensbrück and arrived back in Italy in July after having covered 1,300 km.

Life and engagement after the war

Peteani suffered from the psychological and physical consequences of her war experience throughout her life. Nevertheless, she remained active and continued to be involved in the PCI , in the ANPI , as a trade unionist and practiced as a midwife .

“Per lei l'antitesi [...] di una giovinezza di violenza e sofferenze. Con quel lavoro poteva "dare la vita", il massimo con quel suo lacerante passato. "

- Gianni Peteani

In 1962 she founded the communist publishing house “Editori Riuniti”.

death

In 2003, at the age of 77, Ondina Peteani died of a lung disease. Despite the years of illness before her death, which had tied her to her apartment, her last words, often quoted, are said to have been “È bello vivere liberi” ( Ondina Peteani ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Queen of the Neighborhood Collective. "Revolutionary Women: Biographies and Stencils" . Edition Assemblage, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-942885-05-8 , p. 66f.
  2. ↑ a b c “Ondina Peteani” . July 25, 2010, accessed May 24, 2020
  3. ↑ a b "ONDINA PETEANI- Prima staffetta partigiana d'Italia" , accessed on May 24, 2020
  4. ^ Carlo Muscatello: "Ondina, da Auschwitz alla lotta per la libertà" January 23, 2011, accessed on May 24, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Ondina Peteani
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Trieste
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 2003
Place of death Trieste