Teresa Vergalli has died, farewell to the partisan Anuska: "We must remain attentive and united on the rights we have won"
He was 98 years old
A partisan courier from a very young age, a witness to the Resistance and a militant of the Udi, she never stopped questioning herself. "The government has never come to terms with historical fascism: what have we not done enough of?"
She was just 17 when she joined the Resistance, at 98 she continued to write and update her blog. For everyone she was Anuska , her battle name. Her birth name was Teresa Vergalli . Her death was announced by the national secretariat of the Anpi , the National Association of Italian Partisans, with the provincial committees of Reggio Emilia and Rome. “Ciao Teresa and thank you for your life. Tutta Partigiana”, the farewell of the Anpi.
Vergalli was born in Bibbiano , in the province of Reggio Emilia, in October 1927 to a peasant family. Her father Prospero suffered the consequences of his activism against fascism . He was also detained, after the armistice of September 8, 1943 he organized the Liberation committees. His daughter joined the Resistance, like her entire family in 1944, she acted as a courier as the ANPI of Reggio recalled. "She always carried a small pistol with her in case she was caught by the Nazi-Fascists, so as not to endure their torture."
She said that in the 1946 referendum she helped women who had not studied like her but who, unlike her, could vote – she was just 19 years old – to put the correct mark on the ballot paper to choose the Republic . She was an elementary school teacher, a witness to the Resistance and a militant of the Udi (Unione Donne Italiane). She never stopped questioning herself about the path of the Italian Republic and the effects of her activism. “The current right-wing government has never come to terms with historical fascism ,” she said in an interview with Repubblica a year ago. “The prime minister can’t even say the word anti-fascists, and the president of the Senate never misses an opportunity to cast shadows on the Resistance. For me, all this is just a great pain, a dull suffering that obscures everything else. But I ask myself: what haven’t we done enough of?”
Anuska's last appeal on the blog she continued to update at 98 years old. "Please, make sure that the future connects to the past. Back, back, under our wrinkles there is all our courage, our unpreparedness, our recklessness. That is, dreams, generosity. Material dreams, often fulfilled. Deep dreams still far away, still to be brought out and given a name, even a new one, not from artificial intelligence but better, from human intelligence, that is, from the heart, from altruism, from infinity". Last April 24, on the occasion of the last Liberation Day, interviewed on Piazza Pulita she warned: "We must be careful, vigilant, united on the rights we have conquered".
“This is how Teresa defined herself: stubborn,” recalled the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein. “With her, a woman who did nothing but defend rights and freedoms all her life disappears. She joined the Resistance while still a student and held dangerous and delicate positions, and after the war, she was instrumental in founding the Udi, the Union of Italian Women, and in the battles for gender equality. Teresa is leaving us, but she leaves us an enormous legacy and a warning, contained in her last interview: ‘We must be careful, vigilant, united on the rights we have won’. Because rights are never won once and for all. And this will continue to be our commitment .”
l'Unità
