On April 25, 1945, the Allied troops liberated Italy from the Nazi occupation and Benito Mussolini’s rule.After September 1943, partisan Resistance groups were active throughout northern and much of central Italy. They were most active in summer in the hills and mountains, but also in many cities. Supported by many civilians who opposed the fascist regime, they tied down thousands of German troops. The partisans fought three types of war: a civil war against Italian Fascists, a war of national liberation against German occupation, and a class war.

200,000 partisans took part in the Resistance, and German or Fascist forces killed some 70,000 Italians (both partisans and civilians).

La luce e la resistenza

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Così giunsi ai giorni della Resistenza

senza saperne nulla se non lo stile:

fu stile tutta luce, memorabile coscienza

di sole. Non poté mai sfiorire,

neanche per un istante, neanche quando

l’ Europa tremò nella più morta vigilia.

Fuggimmo con le masserizie su un carro

da Casarsa a un villaggio perduto

tra rogge e viti: ed era pura luce.

Mio fratello partì, in un mattino muto

di marzo, su un treno, clandestino,

la pistola in un libro: ed era pura luce.

Visse a lungo sui monti, che albeggiavano

quasi paradisiaci nel tetro azzurrino

del piano friulano: ed era pura luce.

Nella soffitta del casolare mia madre

guardava sempre perdutamente quei monti,

già conscia del destino: ed era pura luce.

Coi pochi contadini intorno

vivevo una gloriosa vita di perseguitato

dagli atroci editti: ed era pura luce.

Venne il giorno della morte

e della libertà, il mondo martoriato

si riconobbe nuovo nella luce……

Quella luce era speranza di giustizia:

non sapevo quale: la Giustizia.

La luce è sempre uguale ad altra luce.

Poi variò: da luce diventò incerta alba,

un’alba che cresceva, si allargava

sopra i campi friulani, sulle rogge.

Illuminava i braccianti che lottavano.

Così l’alba nascente fu una luce

fuori dall’eternità dello stile….

Nella storia la giustizia fu coscienza

d’una umana divisione di ricchezza,

e la speranza ebbe nuova luce.

Light and resistance

Pier Paolo Pasolini

And thus I came to the days of the Resistance

knowing nothing about it but its style:

a style of infinite light, memorable consciousness

of sun. It could never fade,

not even for an instant, not even when

Europe trembled in its deadest eve.

We escaped with our belongings on a wagon

from Casarsa to a village lost

among gullies and vines: and it was pure light.

My brother left, one mute morning

in March, on a train, undercover,

his gun in a book: and it was pure light.

He lived a long time in hills, which rose like the sun

almost celestial in the bleak azure

of the Furlan plane: and it was pure light.

In the attic of the farmhouse my mother

looked forever longingly at those hills,

aware of what was to come: and it was pure light.

With a few farmers around me

I lived a glorious life as a victim of persecution

of the atrocious edicts: and it was pure light.

Then came the day of death

and of freedom, the wasted world

declared itself new in the light….

That light was the hope of justice:

I knew not which: Justice.

Light is always the same as other light.

Then it changed: from light to uncertain dawn,

a dawn that grew, that stretched far

over the Furlan fields, over the gullies.

It shone on the striving labourers .

So the new dawn was a light

that went beyond the eternity of its style…

In history justice was consciousness

of a humane division of riches,

and hope had new light.

Translation by ©Matilda Colarossi