Lidia Menapace (3 April 1924 – 7 December 2020) was an

Italian Resistance The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italy, Italian Resistance during World War II, resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic ...

fighter and politician who served as provincial minister of

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

for

Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

from 1964 to 1968, and then as

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

from 2006 to 2008, representing the

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...

Biography

Lidia Menapace (née Brisca) was born in the northern Italian city of

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

. Her father was a surveyor named Giacomo Brisca and espoused

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

, republican, and Mazzinian politics. Her mother was Italia Vercesi, a homemaker whose family tended towards

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

. While in primary school during the dictatorship of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

, her teachers taught the children to honor and love the regime. Her mother told her to destroy school reports in which she was classified as belonging to the "Aryan race" because " are not animals". In 1943, her father was sent to a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

because he would not obey the authority of the

Republic of Salò The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...

, a recently created Nazi puppet state in northern Italy. Two years later, he was freed, and in the meantime she had joined the Resistance at age 19. During the time she was a literature student at the Catholic University of Milan, Menapace delivered messages to anti-fascist soldiers. She also helped Jewish men to escape Italy by bringing them to the Swiss border, and she helped organize escapes from prison. She hid bombs and copies of a Resistance newspaper in the basement of her family's home. She also passed secret messages to political prisoners in jail. After her role in the World War II resistance as a

partisan Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Ital ...

, during which she rode her bicycle to deliver encoded messages to other Italian resistance fighters, Menapace became a

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

activist and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

advocate. She was a member of the collective that founded ''

il manifesto (; English: "the manifesto") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy. While calling itself " communist" and broadly left-wing, it is not connected to any political party A political party is an organization that coordin ...

'', a left-wing newspaper. She was the first woman elected to a legislature position 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 ...

. Menapace was married to Eugenio Menapace. She died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

on 7 December 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy was part of the COVID-19 pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2 ...

References

External links

* Files about her parliamentary activities (in Italian)
XV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menapace, Lidia 1924 births 2020 deaths Italian female partisans People from Novara Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore alumni Communist Refoundation Party politicians Senators of Legislature XV of Italy Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol 20th-century Italian women politicians 21st-century Italian women politicians Italian resistance movement members Women members of the Senate of the Republic (Italy)