Ada Buffulini (28 September 1912 – 3 July 1991) was an Italian medical doctor and anti-Fascist campaigner, who led the resistance movement at

Bolzano Transit Camp Bolzano was a transit camp operated by Nazi Germany in Bolzano from 1944 to 3 May 1945 during World War II. It was one of the largest Nazi ''Lager'' on Italian soil, along with those of Fossoli, Borgo San Dalmazzo and Trieste. History After ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Personal life

Buffulini was born in 1912 in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

, Italy. Aged 18, she moved to

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

to study medicine. She graduated in 1936. She met her husband Carlo Pierino at

, as they had both been deported there.

Campaigning

Buffulini joined the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

after the September 1943

Air raid on Frascati An air raid of USAAF planes against Frascati, a historic town near Rome, Italy, was made on 8 September 1943. The target was the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone (O.B.S.) and the Italian headquarters, scattered in buildings ...

. She moved underground in Milan in November. On 4 July 1944, Buffulini was arrested in

. She was at the house of

Maria Arata Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

, attending an Italian Socialist Party meeting. The whole group were taken to

San Vittore Prison San Vittore is a prison located in the city center of Milan, Italy. Its construction started in 1872 and was opened on 7 July 1879. The prison has place for 600 inmates, but it had 1036 prisoners in 2017. History The construction of the new pri ...

, where Buffulini was held for two months. She was then deported to Bolzano Transit Camp, where she worked as a doctor in the Lager infirmary. Buffulini led the resistance movement at Bolzano, and kept in communication with

Lelio Basso Lelio Basso (25 December 1903 – 16 December 1978) was an Italian democratic socialist politician, political scientist and journalist. Early life Lelio Basso was born in Varazze (in the province of Savona) into a Liberal bourgeois family. In ...

. At Bolzano, she also met Communist leader . In February 1945, the SS locked Buffulini up in the cells. In 2008, a road in

Bolzano Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The ...

was dedicated to Buffulini on the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of the Bolzano camp.

Publications

*Buffulini, Ada, The Bolzano Lager (1976)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffulini, Ada 20th-century Italian physicians 1912 births 1991 deaths Physicians from Trieste Italian socialists