By Kevin Seabrooke
The author brings to life the efforts of four women in different parts of Italy, who each in their own way found it within themselves to resist both Italian fascists and Nazi invaders.
In Florence, Teresa Mattei—who would later help write Italy’s new constitution—wrote articles for underground newspapers, led political education meetings and smuggled vital intelligence between resistance leader Bruno Sanguinetti and other partisan leaders during the German occupation. It was during this time that Mattei was raped and tortured, but managed to escape with the help of a sympathetic soldier. In Rome, Carla Capponi made bombs and delivered them to the targets herself. Anita Malavasi lived in camps in the Apennine Mountains where she led hundreds of partisan fighters through the dangerous terrain. In the Alps, Bianca Guidetti Serra was a courier who delivered information to anti-Fascist forces hidden in the mountains, as well as printing and distributing anti-Fascist posters and materials.
Some 70,000 women participated in Women’s Defense and Assistance groups during the Italian Resistance of 1943-45. But they were not just battling fascists, they were planning for the future of women in Italy. This detailed look at four of the women who helped rebuild their country is a fascinating read and long overdue.
Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis (Suzanne Cope, Dutton, New York, NY, 2025, 480 pp., maps, photographs, notes, index, $32 HC)
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