Geppino Micheletti (July 18, 1905 – December 8, 1961) was an Italian doctor active in

Pula Pula, also known as Pola, is the largest city in Istria County, west Croatia, and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria, Istrian peninsula in western Croatia, wi ...

at the end of the Second World War, and then in

Narni Narni () is an ancient hilltown and (municipality) of Umbria, in central Italy, with 19,252 inhabitants (2017). At an altitude of , it overhangs a narrow gorge of the River Nera in the province of Terni. It is very close to the geograp ...

. In 1947 he was awarded the Silver Medal for Civil Valor and the Great Gold Medal of the Municipality of Pula. He is remembered for having operated on the wounded from the

Vergarola explosion The Vergarola explosion, also known in Italy as the Vergarolla massacre, took place on 18 August 1946 when the sudden detonation of 12 large pieces of assorted ammunition#Ordnance ammunition, ordnance, containing an estimated 9 tons of explosiv ...

continuously for over 24 hours on Sunday, August 18, 1946. The son of Giuseppe Michelstadter and Irma Mejer, who was of Jewish origin, Micheletti was a cousin of the Gorizia philosopher

Carlo Michelstaedter Carlo Raimondo Michelstaedter or Michelstädter (; 3 June 1887 – 17 October 1910) was an Italian philosopher, artist, and Intellectual, man of letters. Life Carlo Michelstaedter was born in Gorizia, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian County ...

. He studied in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, qualified in

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 ...

, and specialized in surgery in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. He settled in Pula in the 1920s. During the Second World War, from 1941 to 1943 he was director of the 41st auxiliary surgical group stationed in Croatia, and he was decorated with three War Merit Crosses. In the Vergarolla explosion he lost not only his brother Alberto and his sister-in-law, but also his only two children, Carlo and Renzo, ages 5 and 9, who had gone to the beach like many other children for a traditional swimming competition. Carlo's body was found, but only one shoe remained from Renzo. Despite being informed of their fate, he continued to take care of seriously injured and maimed patients for more than 24 hours at Santorio Santorio Provincial Hospital in Pula. Following the peace treaty, Geppino Micheletti left Pula with his wife Jolanda in March 1947, after being commended for duty by the Red Cross as indispensable, and having coordinated the evacuation of hospitalized patients. In June 1947 of the same year he found work in

Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

. He remained there and practiced surgery for 14 years, until his death following a postoperative embolism. A plaque installed at Rosmini Square (''Piazzale Rosmini'') in 2008 in Trieste commemorates Micheletti. Next to the memorial stone commemorating the Vergarola explosion at the Pula Cathedral there is also a small memorial stone with his image. The Croatian Post Office paid tribute to Micheletti in 2010 with a commemorative cancellation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Micheletti, Geppino 1905 births 1961 deaths Physicians from Trieste People from Narni 20th-century Italian surgeons