Ada Gobetti - Partisan Diary: A Womans Life in the Italian Resistance

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Ada Gobetti, Diario partigiano
1956, 1996, Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino
English translation Oxford University Press 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gobetti, Ada, 19021968. [Diario partigiano. English]
Partisan diary : a womans life in the Italian Resistance / Ada Gobetti ; translated and edited by
Jomarie Alano.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 9780199380541 (hardback)ISBN
9780199380558 (ebook)ISBN 978019938056-5 (ebook) 1. World War, 19391945Underground movements
Italy. 2. Gobetti, Ada, 19021968Diaries. 3. World War, 19391945Personal narratives,
Italian. 4. World War, 19391945Participation, Female. 5. World War, 19391945
Women. 6. ItalyHistoryGerman occupation, 19431945. I. Title.
D802.I8M32513 2014
940.5345092dc23
[B]
2014007046

In memory of my father, Enrico Michael Alano,
and my father-in-law, Mark Gilmour Treat
J.A.

My thanks go first of all to Carla Gobetti, Ada Gobettis daughter-in-law and president of the Centro studi Piero Gobetti in Turin, Italy. Signora Gobetti has supported my research on Ada Gobetti from its very inception by supplying access to uncatalogued materials, gifts of books and journals, interviews, and introductions to other individuals who knew Ada Gobetti, not to mention sharing her own personal memories. She will be very happy to see this translation of the Diario partigiano come to fruition so that Adas words and experiences in the Resistenza, along with those of her late husband, Paolo Gobetti, can reach an English-speaking audience for the first time.

I am also extremely grateful to Ersilia Alessandrone Perona, director of the Istituto piemontese per la storia della Resistenza e della societ contemporanea Giorgio Agosti in Turin, for the expert advice and countless hours of her time she has given me for many years, and especially for the invitation to speak about Ada Gobetti and her life of resistance at a conference in Turin in May 2012, entitled Giellismo e azionismo: Cantieri aperti.

Members of the staff at the Centro studi Piero Gobetti, especially Franca Ranghino and Piera Tachis, were always there to find a missing piece of information, scan a photograph, or make a contact for me. I have deep respect for their research skills and treasure their friendship. I also appreciate the efforts of Pietro Polito, director of the Centro, who invited me to speak about my translation of the Diario partigiano in Turin in May 2012. The Centro is located on 6 Via Fabro, the house of miracles where Ada Gobetti welcomed so many who fought in the Resistenza.

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and interview two women who fought in the Resistenza with Ada Gobetti and figured prominently in the Diario. Bianca Guidetti Serra spoke to me about the Gruppi di difesa della donna and shared a scrapbook containing clippings about her work and that of other women in the Resistenza. The late Frida Malan, who co-edited with Ada the clandestine newspaper La Nuova Realt beginning in February 1945, shared her experiences as a partisan in the Resistenza. Both women remained active in politics in Turin and fought for womens rights long after the war was over.

Cesare Alvazzi drove me to Adas former home in Meana in the Susa Valley outside of Turin, where he had been among the many partisans who used this home as a base of operations. He is the Cesare of the Diario, Paolos good friend, whose family home in Oulx provided a safe haven for Ada Gobetti and her family. How else would I have known that partisans carried both a gun and an umbrella when they were in the mountains?

Thank you to my mother, Franceschina Santilli Alano, and my husband, William Mark Treat, for reading every word of this translation; to Celia Applegate for making valuable suggestions about style; and to Valeria Dani for extensive help with vocabulary. Thank you also to Paula Schwartz for believing in the importance of my work on Ada Gobetti, including the biography I am writing, and to Stanislao Pugliese for wanting so much to see the Diario translated into English. Un abbraccio for my dear friend Bruna Ponso, who sent newspaper clippings and the latest editions of Ada Gobettis books from Turin and provided warm hospitality during my frequent visits to her native city. Nancy Toff, my editor at Oxford University Press in New York, and Antonella Tarpino and Anna Dellaferrera at Giulio Einaudi editore in Turin worked tirelessly to make the publication of this translation possible, and I appreciate it very much.

Finally, a special thank-you goes to Andrea Ferrero, owner and chef of the delightful Cafe Torino in Warrenton, Virginia. Originally from Turin, Andrea answered all of my questions about the translation, including the Piedmontese expressions that I could not translate. He shared various legends that appear as references in the Diario, and helped me with usage specific to the Piedmont region. Sometimes we worked while he was making gnocchi in the kitchen; at other times, we sat at a table in his restaurant, and he helped me between customers. Thanks to Andrea, words came to life. This translation is better because of him.

The dedication is in memory of two men who served bravely during World War II: my father, Enrico Michael Alano, who was with the 88th Infantry Division or Blue Devils in Italy, and my father-in-law, Mark Gilmour Treat, who was a pilot in the 70th Bomb Squadron of the Army Air Corps and served in the Pacific Theatre. We miss your goodness and your love. The diaries you kept have given our family a personal account of your service. Now your granddaughter, Anastasia Mary Treat, will know something of the grandfathers she never met. Thank you.

The first edition of the Diario partigiano by Ada Gobetti Marchesini Prospero was published in Turin, Italy, by Giulio Einaudi editore, in 1956. It won the Premio Prato, an annual prize for a work inspired by the Resistenza