In 1945 the Communist partisans executed 18 anti -fascists of the Osoppo. A dark and silent page of the Italian resistance.
People downstream of Porzûs realized that they had killed them for the smell of death that came out of the woods. Throw on each other, under four land fingers, the corpses made themselves “feeling”. They had abandoned them at the same point where they had been cut short by the gusts of machine gun. Naked. They had to take off their boots who, in the mountains, were precious goods and were forced to deliver clothes to the executioners. To respond to the growing protests of the inhabitants, the head of the partisans Rossi, the “jacket” Mario Toffanin was forced to entrust the work of Becchini to the two with the most robust stomach. And they too – also waterproof to emotions – had to resort to an entire bottle of grappa to hold the disgust. Eighteen the dead killed: of 17, in the immediate post -war period, some remains were recovered to which an honorable burial was ensured.
In spite of scrupulous research, nothing of the last victim was found: a bricklayer of Taipana of Udine called Egidio Vezzaz, a battle name of “Ado”. Seven February 1945 – shiny winter day for the reflections on the snow – The communist partisans exterminated the liberal partisans. The topic is of those classified difficult around which it has often been silent, as normally it is silent for embarrassing issues of your own. The testimonies came only by the protagonists directly involved and suggested by the – evident – interest to defend themselves, before to tell the truth. The processes that followed (five) condemned about fifty people but nobody served the sentence. The major managers were in Yugoslavia, Romania or Czechoslovakia. By unraveling the climate of silence, Tommaso Piffer, professor of history at the University of Udine, juggling between mutilated documents and reports only partially reliable, managed to reconstruct the essential passages of the “massacre” of Porzûs. Significantly, the book is entitled Blood on the resistance And, in 234 pages, it brings out how, to a war against the Nazi -fascists who were consuming the latest energies, they were overlapping another for the conquest of a vacant power.
The lands of Friuli between Val Resia and Collio were straddling Slovenia and Italy and, like all border areas, gave life to that “melting pot” capable of mixing idioms, customs, traditions and families In the last census available (of that time) on two million residents, there were 350 thousand Slovenians and 150 thousand Croatians but it was enough for Tito’s Yugoslav partisans to demand the annexation of the entire territory, claiming it “up to the Tagliamento river”. The Italian communists accepted the leadership of the General Staff who operated in Slovenia. The partisan war had to respond to the orders of Boris Kidric and Edvard Kardelj who shot with the red star on the wing of the Basque and the finger on the pistol trigger to be more ready to shoot. The choice was not shared by everyone. In the mountains, equally anti -fascist and in war in the same way against Mussolini’s regime, there were also groups of partisans who were not willing to replace the black dictatorship with another red color. Claim that Friuli was Italy and Italy had to remain. They refused to obey the Yugoslav managers. And, in accordance with the principles they were inspired, to name their military detachment, they chose “Osoppo” by borrowing the name from a location in the area where, during the Risorgimento, the Friulians fought against the Austrians. For your autonomy: not to put yourself at the service of a foreign potentate.
They were children of generically liberal inspiration. Some had non -trivial studies behind Baltiero Michielon who attended the faculty of languages in Venice or Antonio Cammarata who had attended the seminary and the master’s schools or, again, Franco Celledoni who was missing a nothing to graduate in medicine. Others were soldiers – carabinieri or finance guards – and after September 8, 1943 they chose to leave their respective departments for the partisan guerrilla. Angelo Augello, for example, that before wearing the uniform was a carpenter; Antonio Previti “Guidone” who had worked as a barber or the farmer Nunziato Rizzo who, not surprisingly, smearing the weapons against the fascists, chose to rename “reborn”. The contrasts between those who fought with the communists and those who intended to stay away from them were unusual with the “reds” committed to delegitimizing the opponents by inventing infamous accusations which, however, in times of communications slowed by the spaces and by the need to live hidden, became publicly accepted truths. As the accusation that those of the Osoppo killed the Garibaldini partisans.
In reality, it was a good crippled truths to make them seem the opposite. A shooting between two partisans in love with the same woman – a certain brunette, who lived in Marsure’s hamlet of Povoletto – was propagated as an unacceptable ideological contrast. Two robbers executed because they terrified people who worked became victims of party hatred. The password that began to make its way concerned the need to “get rid of the fascist elements” who camouflaged themselves among the partisans in order to close “the pernicious question” with those of the Osoppo. The “jacket” Toffanin was commissioned to lead the commando destined to execute intellectually honest and physically courageous patriots. They moved in one hundred with a pincer maneuver to surround the porzûs barracks who, a thousand meters above sea level, served the shepherds for the summer when they brought animals to the “high” pastures. To deceive those of the Osoppo, they moved in five pretending to have skidded and military in other partisan units. To the commander of the department Francesco De Gregori who was indicated as “bubble” in battle made a bad impression. They seemed bad to him in the tool and, perhaps, unreliable. He sent to call the “political manager”, “Enea” Gustavo Valente, who was a university professor of economics but who, in the academic career, had preferred the calls of freedom.
But no pity. In “Bolla” they broke the jaw with the kick of a rifle. “Aeneas” was tied to the wrists with the iron wire that saw the meat to the bone. They shot them with Elda Turchetti who accused of being a spy. In fact, she had been contacted by the fascist command but, before being involved in some operation, she had managed to escape the mountains. For this reason they had attributed the battle name of “Livia” which corresponded to the serial number 1755. Crudelly fierce operation. At the end of the war, some justified themselves for having obeyed orders from Yugoslavia. From Slovenia they indicated that the responsibilities were of the Italian Communist Party. Which, in turn, unloaded his barrel on the “hot heads” that were in the mountains. In any case, everyone referred to poorly communicated decisions and worse interpreted to the point of causing a chain of misunderstandings impossible to manage. Only the “jacket” Toffanin kept hard by claiming the goodness of his work. He said that “Bolla”, before being executed, had time to scream: “Long live international fascism”. He repeated it several times with ever less conviction. Moreover, how to claim – with the pretense of being believed – that one, in front of the mouths of the machine guns, with the face to pieces, could scream a phrase in contradiction with his entire past?
At that moment in the barracks of Porzûs there had remained few. The rest of the troop enjoyed a kind of leave. They captured fourteen. Giovanni Comin “The tiger” was killed while went up to the mule track. It was not part of the Osoppo. He played among the Garibaldini, had been captured by the Nazis and beaten in a wagon to be deported to Germany. He managed to escape by earning the mountain road but did not have time to be recognized. The others were divided into small groups and moved to different directions. They did not let them live for a long time. Between 10 and 18 February they were massacred, one by one. Guido Pasolini «Ermes» showed the somewhat shaking resolve of the 18 years. He contested the communist who wanted to impose a “political lesson” and, when being shot, he tried to escape. He was injured, he asked the people of the Sant’Andrat hamlet for help but, for fear of passing through supporters, they handed it over to the partisans who hunted him. When they found him, he had his head open in two.
