"On July 20 inforcai the bike and, despite being forbidden to travel without permission from Peccioli walked towards Livorno. A parade of trucks, jeeps. Mortars and cannon were falling here and there. A cloud of dust does not say. At one point, a crossroads, I saw a signpost. It read: Leghorn. I stood dumbfounded. "What place is?" I said to myself. "
Sixty years ago, Renato Orlandini, class 1924, was one of thousands of displaced people (only about 35 000 125 000 Leghorn had remained in the city) who were liberated by the Americans back in Livorno of the Fifth Army. Under the command of Major Carl Kaith of the U.S. Army Infantry, and guided by partisan of the Third Brigade Garibaldi Oberdan Church arrived in the city the color of Indian troops, the Sighs, commanded by British officers, then the Filipinos of the 34th Division, Buffalo.
The Wehrmacht and the SS had fled to Pisa, near the Arno. Freedom had the taste of chocolate bars and donuts (a type of American friar fried) were distributed liberally by the Allies.
Sixty years ago, Renato Orlandini, class 1924, was one of thousands of displaced people (only about 35 000 125 000 Leghorn had remained in the city) who were liberated by the Americans back in Livorno of the Fifth Army. Under the command of Major Carl Kaith of the U.S. Army Infantry, and guided by partisan of the Third Brigade Garibaldi Oberdan Church arrived in the city the color of Indian troops, the Sighs, commanded by British officers, then the Filipinos of the 34th Division, Buffalo.
The Wehrmacht and the SS had fled to Pisa, near the Arno. Freedom had the taste of chocolate bars and donuts (a type of American friar fried) were distributed liberally by the Allies.
Partisan "without arms"
Orlandini was an evacuee special. Growing up first in the Association Youth "Pius XI" Don Tintori the Church of the Relief, then in Fuci ( photo below) of Don Angel ("a true school of freedom"), entered the CLN of Livorno immediately after ' September 8, together with the priest and other Christian Socialists (pictured above the Christian Social in the 50s) Luciano Merlini, Harold Figara, back in the heroic resistance of Boves Cuneo ("looked like a zuzzerellone, not a conspirator perhaps saved him it was his appearance), Renato Pini, inspector training partisan of the province of Livorno.
Orlandini was an evacuee special. Growing up first in the Association Youth "Pius XI" Don Tintori the Church of the Relief, then in Fuci ( photo below) of Don Angel ("a true school of freedom"), entered the CLN of Livorno immediately after ' September 8, together with the priest and other Christian Socialists (pictured above the Christian Social in the 50s) Luciano Merlini, Harold Figara, back in the heroic resistance of Boves Cuneo ("looked like a zuzzerellone, not a conspirator perhaps saved him it was his appearance), Renato Pini, inspector training partisan of the province of Livorno.
even twenty Orlandini was therefore one of the leaders of the Resistance of Catholics Livorno. "But not with guns've never contraption," he says with a touch of pride. "We were behind the architect Don Angeli. Away from the parts of Nardini, some walls to rescue Jews, I jumped too. Merlini and I posted for some time from CLN to the police station, trying to provide information about the enemy: the city built a network of informants, I remember that we walked through the city taking the license plate numbers of the German jeep to provide precise references' . But the bishop knew all Piccioni these activities? "And how! But cunningly pretended not to know. "
Among the rubble and "red tomatoes"
But do you remember of those first few hours free in Livorno? "I remember walking into a great cloud of dust and in a large desert, the city was ghostly in the rubble. Reached immediately Merlini and Figaro to Villa Trossi Uberti in via Ravizza. Figara was among those who had received the July 19 and higher Kaith its own division in the mansion, home of the CLN Leghorn. It may seem strange but the thing I remember most of those first few days of freedom are the red pomodoroni we ate lunch in the CLN. There was much to eat: and the color of hunger is what you have left more impressed. "
But do you remember of those first few hours free in Livorno? "I remember walking into a great cloud of dust and in a large desert, the city was ghostly in the rubble. Reached immediately Merlini and Figaro to Villa Trossi Uberti in via Ravizza. Figara was among those who had received the July 19 and higher Kaith its own division in the mansion, home of the CLN Leghorn. It may seem strange but the thing I remember most of those first few days of freedom are the red pomodoroni we ate lunch in the CLN. There was much to eat: and the color of hunger is what you have left more impressed. "
The city was a real pile of rubble: the heavy Allied bombing first, then the shameful acts of sabotage of the Germans in retreat. In the historical center, only 8% of the buildings remained unscathed ("Square of the Republic saw the harbor), industrial heritage had been virtually destroyed and the harbor was made impracticable by German sappers. General Clark's Fifth Army, wrote in Livorno, "in the German city made use of blocks of chocolate, soap, gauze packages of wallets, pencils, any explosive devices that touched or handled, exploded killing or injuring anyone found nearby. Other explosive devices were attached to windows, doors, cabinets, furniture and even bodies of Germans killed. We found more than 25,000 of these hideous devices. "
Assessor minor
The Christian-social movement was a pile of "rubble". "To the rescue - said Orlando - caught us without the most prestigious representatives: Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti had been shot, Renato Pini was killed in action in Castiglioncello, Don Italo Gambini had stepped on a landmine while accompanying a family to protect her from the Germans. Finally, Don Angelo was deported to Germany, and he did not know anything. We are going to reorganize our movement. Merlini and Figaro came to be represented in the CLN, and I took charge of the secretariat. Were we just a bunch of kids.
The Christian-social movement was a pile of "rubble". "To the rescue - said Orlando - caught us without the most prestigious representatives: Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti had been shot, Renato Pini was killed in action in Castiglioncello, Don Italo Gambini had stepped on a landmine while accompanying a family to protect her from the Germans. Finally, Don Angelo was deported to Germany, and he did not know anything. We are going to reorganize our movement. Merlini and Figaro came to be represented in the CLN, and I took charge of the secretariat. Were we just a bunch of kids.
"The Party," joked Don Mario Volpe said, "is based on Merlin's beard and the title of accountant dell'Orlandini. We would like, the op was 
reconstruction, to make concrete some of our ideals. We wanted above all to be worthy of those who, for these ideals, they had sacrificed their lives or suffered in Nazi concentration camps. " And she was so eager to become perhaps the first history of the Republican minority commissioner? "Yes - he laughs - in November of 1944 I received the communication that I had been appointed prefect and commissioner all'annona anagrafe: 21 more years to accomplish. What energy I had then! I worked at the Commercial Bank, gave the university exams, participating in rallies and Christian Socialists did the commissioner! I remember the first few meetings with the Executive Mayor Diaz on the first floor of the building corner of Via Roma and Via Marradi, where he had placed the town hall. "
reconstruction, to make concrete some of our ideals. We wanted above all to be worthy of those who, for these ideals, they had sacrificed their lives or suffered in Nazi concentration camps. " And she was so eager to become perhaps the first history of the Republican minority commissioner? "Yes - he laughs - in November of 1944 I received the communication that I had been appointed prefect and commissioner all'annona anagrafe: 21 more years to accomplish. What energy I had then! I worked at the Commercial Bank, gave the university exams, participating in rallies and Christian Socialists did the commissioner! I remember the first few meetings with the Executive Mayor Diaz on the first floor of the building corner of Via Roma and Via Marradi, where he had placed the town hall. " But if they saw that they had appointed a commissioner without the capacity to act? "Of course, after a while '. The prefect Miraglia, realizing the gaffe, he sent for me and asked me with great diplomacy, if I could resign. I resent it now: my office gave luster to the Christian society. What would they say friends? What shape would I do? Beautiful grounds! I made him this. He raised his arms: "Forget it," he said quietly. "If she does not want, will not be the prefect who will give it to him." So I was commissioner until 1946. "
The Christian social and CLN.
"Mamma mia I do!"
Renato Orlandini twenty years ago he wrote an extraordinary book of memoirs (about forty, Livorno, MCS, 1990), which shows, in rapid frescos and sparkling, the life of Catholics between fascism and Leghorn postwar period. Here we report an excerpt describing the approaches of the early Christian social with other anti-fascist parties, after the September 8, 1943.
"One of our primary concerns was to make contact with members of other anti-fascist parties. Was to "Commercial", where they now worked for more than two years, a blond little man in his fifties with blue eyes and intelligent. [...] He was called Aladdin, but, in fact, that was the name of his father: he was Manlio Benetti, a former Socialist councilor of twenty-one. Manlio put us in contact with the other movements of "Concentration" and so, together, form the Committee of National Liberation.
I attended several times in meetings that were held in a variety of locations. In particular, I remember a house engineer John Bacci, a fine figure of a gentleman and a socialist, still a young man who died a few months after liberation.
Renato Orlandini twenty years ago he wrote an extraordinary book of memoirs (about forty, Livorno, MCS, 1990), which shows, in rapid frescos and sparkling, the life of Catholics between fascism and Leghorn postwar period. Here we report an excerpt describing the approaches of the early Christian social with other anti-fascist parties, after the September 8, 1943.
"One of our primary concerns was to make contact with members of other anti-fascist parties. Was to "Commercial", where they now worked for more than two years, a blond little man in his fifties with blue eyes and intelligent. [...] He was called Aladdin, but, in fact, that was the name of his father: he was Manlio Benetti, a former Socialist councilor of twenty-one. Manlio put us in contact with the other movements of "Concentration" and so, together, form the Committee of National Liberation.
I attended several times in meetings that were held in a variety of locations. In particular, I remember a house engineer John Bacci, a fine figure of a gentleman and a socialist, still a young man who died a few months after liberation.
lived on the ground floor of a building in viale Mameli. The window of the room where we gathered onto the street, so every now and then some of us went out to make sure it could run but few items and not suspects. This time nothing happened. Instead, they arrested us all if we had not canceled a meeting with George Stoppa. He was a policeman to warn Don Angeli.
I must confess that the first meeting, to see some guys who are in work clothes, dirty sludge even in the hands and face, we were a bit 'confused. "My God I do!" I whispered Merlin. We came from a petit bourgeois, a little perbenistico. But it was a short-term concern, because we were convinced that those people, described by the regime as subversive, enemies of the country, and so on, we had a lot to learn. Although workers. Indeed, precisely for that. Men like Adolf Mingo, Alfredo Pagani, Vasco Iacoponi, and the same Benetti, gave us an example of moral rectitude, courage, love of liberty, of deep humanity.
felt, even as Catholics, that the era of the barriers had come, and that fighting for the fundamental and inalienable rights of man, we were fighting all, believers and not, for the triumph of what would Gerard Bruni then defined secular Christianity. Maybe that was the best experience that traemmo from eight days in September. "
(published in La Toscanaoggi-week of 20 July 2008)
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