Female R-Existence

FEMALE R-Existence A gender focus on Nazi-fascism persecution

INDEX

Authors and photogragraphers: Participants to “Female R-Existence, a gender focus in Nazi-fascism persecution” project

4 Female R-Existence A gender focus on Nazi-fascism persecution 8 Testimonies from Museum Tasso

Testimonianze dal Museo di via Tasso 10 Vera Michelin Salomon 12 Tertesa Vergalli 14 Donne

La Resistenza “taciuta” 15 Il ruolo delle donne nella Resistenza

Lotta partigiana e inclusione nei partiti 18 Women in Greece during the war (1940-1941)

Wives, Mothers, Fighters 18 An historical tract

to Greek women 20 Testimony of Ravensbruck

“Through the eyes of the survivors.

A guide to Ravensbruck Memorial Museum” 22 Lucha y Siesta

Hosting and sustaining women

rights and struggles 25 Short interviews of some

of the project participants 30 A letter from participant

Event in Athen 34 Bibliography 36 Filmography 37 Project Partners

Female R-Existence

A gender focus on Nazi-fascism persecution Women have hardly been considered among the victims of the Nazi/ Fascist regimes.

They were never persecuted as women, but usually as Jewish, Gipsy, a-social, due to their disability, etc.. But, as a matter of fact, the persecution and imprisonment in the camps of women had some peculiarities that are worth analysing and bringing to surface, along with the role of women on the side of the regimes, directly (as the doctors or the ones in the army) or indirectly (as the wives of the soldiers).

The aim of this project was to look at that period with female-focussed lens and with a special attention to the role of women in today’s societies.

The project was coordinated

by SCI Italy in partnership with SCI Hellas, SCI Germany, Utilapu Hungary, the Historical Museum of Liberation in Rome, the Cultural association MIA, ASAL organisation (Associazione Studi America Latina) and the local X Municipality of Rome, with the

support of the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union.

During the project four main events took place, involving UE citizens during public events, seminars, visits and exhibitions. The first opening event took place in Rome – Italy - in the Quadraro suburb on the 20th of April 2012, on the issue of “Gender oppression

under the twenty-years of Fascism”, inside the Festival Q44 with the support of local organizations and under the auspices of the local municipality.

The second event was an international seminar that took place in Athens at the end of June 2012. The participants had the opportunity to get more information about this topic with focus on women resistance in Greece. They visited the concentration camp in Chaidari, the execution site in Kerasiani, the detention camp and the cemetery in Kokkinia and the museum in Korai. They meet the Greek resistant Katina Sifakaki, that shared her experience and activity during the triple occupation (German, Italian and Bulgarian) and they also meet Alinda Dimitriou, the register of the documentary “Birds in Mire” that focused on Greek women resistance during the second world war. At the end of the seminar the participants express their emotions and opinions through the writing of letter to share with the public and they created a murales painting on the walls of Athens city as a remain testimony of their experienced.

Then, as the third event, some UE citizens participated at a second seminar in Ravesbruck in Germany. The group was hosted inside The Memorial of Ravensbruck, a previous concentration camp where women where detained by SS women and where you can discover a strong research centre on the stories of women detained inside the camp. The participants worked with different experts from the documentation centre and participated at several workshops (“biographies of perpetrators”; “art from survivors”; “the present situation of women in fascist/ neonazi-organisations”).

The last event took place in Rome for a concluding seminar enabling the participants to further share their experiences and knowledge they collect during the project. During that week, several study visits were organised in order to deepen the historical context of the Italian women resistance in Italy. The participants meet several partigiane at the Historical Museum of Liberation, that were imprisoned inside the Gestapo offices in Via Tasso. They also had a guided visit organised by the ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia) at the Fosse Ardeatine where a tragic massacre took place after a revenge round-up organised by the occupiers with the Italian fascist army. The last event was also the opportunity to focus on a present reflection on the situation of women, their fights for human rights and equality, and also meeting actual movements nowadays fully active. Together with the participants of the seminar several public events were organised with registers, researchers, artistic performances and exhibitions. Some of the materials and knowledge collected during the project was also presents and only a partial quantity is here presented inside this publication. Further material is available inside the dvd and the project website (www.femalerexistence.com).

The Historical Museum of Liberation is inside a building in Via Tasso former commander and Nazi prison during the Nazi occupation of Rome, which became sadly fam a place of imprisonment and torture by the SS 2,000 anti-fascists, many of which fell shot Bravetta and the Fosse Ardeatine.

Many active women in the resistance were incarc Maria Teresa Regard, (famous member of the Roman armed resistance group GAP, via Tasso prison inmate, decorated with silver medal).

Testimonies from Museum Via Tasso

“The women detained with me changed often, but they were never less than ten. We used to sleep huddled on the floor, due to the lack of space.

Days started at 7 a.m. We used to go to the toiled, which had no door, and we were allowed to stay there, under guards surveillance, no more than two or three minutes. We had no time to get washed, not even perfunctorily. To feel dirty was part of via Tasso [prison] torment. We had neither toilet paper nor sanitary towels. And then the wait for our only meal started”

Testimonianze dal Museo DI Via Tasso

Milaide Riccio (bourgeois woman belonging to a “clandestine army” support group, detained via Tasso prison).

“I remember the union among us in that dark cell. No matter our party, there all of us were united, from the nun to the show girl passing through Carla the communist. United from hope to reconstruct, to restart everything with love, faith and freedom”.

located police i-Fascist mous as for over at Forte

cerated

Il Museo Storico della Liberazione ha sede nell’edificio in Via Tasso ex comando di polizia e carcere nazista durante l’occupazione nazifascista di Roma, che divenne tristemente famoso come luogo di reclusione e tortura da parte delle SS per oltre 2000 antifascisti, molti dei quali caddero fucilati a Forte Bravetta e alle Fosse Ardeatine.

Numerose donne attive nella resistenze furono incarcerate Maria Teresa Regard (famosa Gappista romana, detenuta in via Tasso, decorata con medaglia d’argento).

“Le donne imprigionate con me cambiavano spesso, ma non furono mai meno di una decina. Dormivamo quindi rannicchiate a terra, per mancanza di spazio. La giornata iniziava alle sette. Si andava al gabinetto che era privo di porta e nel quale si poteva restare al massimo due o tre minuti sotto la sorveglianza delle guardie. Non rimaneva il tempo per lavarsi nemmeno sommariamente.

Sentirsi sporche fu uno dei supplizi di via tasso. Non c’era carta igienica né avevamo assorbenti. Poi cominciava l’attesa per l’unico pasto”.

Milaide Riccio [donna borghese appartenente ad una organizzazione di sostegno al fronte militare clandestino, detenuta in via Tasso].

“Ricordo la grande unione che c’era tra tutte noi in quella cella buia. Di qualunque partito fossimo, dalla vecchia suora alla soubrette alla Carla Comunista, là dentro eravamo molto unite, unite da una grande speranza di ricostruzione, di ricominciare tutto da capo con amore, lotta e libertà.”

Biography

VERA MICHELIN SALOMON

Vera was born in 1923 in Torino, in a protestant family. Her parents were both in Salvation Army at that time.

In 1941 she moved to Rome and in 1943 she joined resistance. In 1944 she was arrested. The following year she was freed by Americans.

Currently she is active in schools, giving talks, and is a member of ANED (former deported Italians association).

Interview

“Before the war, I entered a lively cultural group of people in Rome which I called “the elder brothers”. The censorship was at that time already strong, and it was difficult to find ways to participate at events involving foreign music, literature etc.

I continued joining their meetings and gradually became a part of the group with my friend Enrica Filippini.

“In Rome the partisans were conducting more solitary actions, different from their comrades in mountains. As the freedom of press was almost non-existent, my task was to distribute clandestine newspapers and leaflets which were aimed to help subversion if Nazi war propaganda. Even though I was active in resistance movement, I did not know about the prison in Via Tasso. My friends and I got arrested on February 14th 1944 and were interrogated and then trialed in March by German military court. I got sentenced to three years in prison. After spending one day in Dachau, I was transferred to Stadtheim, where I stayed until April 1945. Then the Americans came.

“Following the war I got a job and remained politically active. I conducted many activities with ANED (Associazione nazionale ex deportati), but only after my status of formerly deported got a formal recognition by the state in 1980. Immediately after the wartime, communism, now looked at from the cold war point of view, was more frightening than fascism, so I had to witness anti-fascism being greatly marginalized.”

Biography Vergalli Teresa was born in 1927 in Bibbiano (Regio Emilia) in a poor rural antifascist family. In 1944 she joined active resistance and was involved for the following year and three months. She was only 16 when she joined the partisans.

TERESA VERGALLI

Testimony How did your engagement in the Italian Resistance started?

During 1943 I expressed a wish to join partisans, but my parents were aware of the danger and would not allow it.

In 1944 they accepted my decision, as I had to leave school, since it required cycling 20 km in one direction each day. In the northern Italy, where I lived, there was a strong resistance with mass participation of folk. Out of 6000 inhabitants, 271 were armed partisan forces (31 women) and many more helped in supporting the cause by providing a hiding place, food, passing on messages etc. Many years after that I got to know a woman, who, whenever she spotted me, thought to herself: “Look at that girl, she collaborates with partisans; I hope nothing bad happens to her.� Everyone was wellaware of who the partisans were, even though no one spoke openly about it.

How does a partisan feel today seeing the rise of neoNazi movements?

Now we can resist neo-Nazi ideas spreading information about what we did; it is important to talk about it in schools and explain to students what caused the war. When I do these activities, I realize that there is a good Italy, with genuinely good people, not receptive to the message of hatred. Stories need to be told; all testimonies put together constitute common history.

Why did you start talking about the resistance period?

For many years I hadn’t talked about it. I used to be a teacher in Rome. However, in 2004 I wrote a book Storie di una staffetta partigiana, worrying about the emerging tendency to criticize the actions partisans undertook. There was a need to tell my story, to leave it to my grandchildren. I didn’t think of myself as a heroine, no. I simply had to say how resistance in wartime really was.

“C’è, nei confronti delle donne che hanno partecipato alla Resistenza, un misto di curiosità e di sospetto…

E’ comprensibile… che una donna abbia offerto assistenza a un prigioniero, a un disperso, a uno sbandato, tanto più se costui è un fidanzato, un padre, un fratello…

L’ammirazione e la comprensione diminuiscono, quando l’attività della donna sia stata più impegnativa e determinata da una scelta individuale, non giustificata da affetti e solidarietà familiari.

Per ogni passaggio trasgressivo, la solidarietà diminuisce, fino a giungere all’aperto sospetto e al dileggio.”

Miriam Mafai Pane Nero da Resistenzaitaliana.it Il portale della guerra di liberazione

Donne, La Resistenza “taciuta”

Partigiane: 35.000 Patriote: 20.000 Gruppi di difesa: 70.000 iscritte

(http://www.storiaxxisecolo. it/Resistenza/resistenzadonne.htm)

Arrestate, torturate: 4.653 Deportate: 2.750 Commissarie di guerra: 512 Medaglie d’oro: 16

Medaglie d’argento: 17 Fucilate o cadute in combattimento: 2.900

IL RUOLO DELLE DONNE NELLA RESISTENZA Lotta partigiana e inclusione nei partiti di Tiziana Bagnato Negli anni del fascismo e dell’occupazione nazista vi furono donne che lasciarono i focolari, le gonne, i rosari, i doveri materni e si unirono alla lotta partigiana. Quella lotta armata combattuta tra i boschi e le montagne, ma anche quella lotta fatta di gesti meno eclatanti, ma altrettanto importanti, ai quali le donne, nascoste proprio dietro la loro condizione femminile, potevano dedicarsi sommessamente.

Il loro apporto fu massiccio sin dai primi momenti della lotta partigiana arrivando fino agli ultimi giorni dell’aprile 1945, con la completa liberazione del Paese. Non è possibile citare cifre che descrivano esattamente quante donne aderirono e si sacrificarono per la Resistenza perché molte di loro, appena conclusa la lotta, ritornarono in pieno alla loro vita familiare e di lavoro, scegliendo l’anonimato. Stando però ai

calcoli di esperti militari si può affermare che le donne che furono impegnate in compiti ausiliari nella Resistenza italiana non furono meno di un milione, mentre, secondo le statistiche ufficiali, le cosiddette ‘partigiane combattenti’ furono circa 35 mila.

Un dato considerevole, secondo il quale ben il venti per cento dei combattenti furono donne.

I ruoli che ricoprirono furono molteplici: dalla partecipazione alle agitazioni nelle piazze, alla pericolosa attività di spola nell’Italia allora divisa in due dalla ‘Linea Gotica’, dal rifocillamento dei feriti, alla raccolta di armi, munizioni e indumenti e, infine, alla dura e spesso sanguinosa lotta sulle montagne.

Inoltre, la Resistenza fu anche il metaforico crogiuolo che vide nascere tesi di emancipazione femminile che avrebbero costituito il presupposto per l’inserimento della donna nella società e l’ampliamento dei suoi diritti civili, politici e sociali.

Nel giugno del ’44 il Comitato nazionale dei Gruppi di Difesa inviò al Comando di Liberazione nazionale dell’Alta Italia una relazione sulla costituzione e

sull’opera dei gruppi di Difesa in cui si legge: “All’appello hanno risposto le donne italiane delle fabbriche e delle case, delle città e delle campagne riunendosi e lottando. I Gruppi sono sorti e si sono sviluppati nei grandi come nei piccoli centri. A Milano nelle fabbriche si contano ventiquattro Gruppi con circa due mila aderenti; un ugual numero esiste a Torino e a Genova. […] Sono sorti gruppi di contadine, di massaie, nelle case e nelle scuole; la loro azione viene coordinata dai Comitati femminili di città e di villaggio, regionali e provinciali, attorno alle direttive indicate dal Comitato nazionale.”

Atti di sabotaggio, interruzione delle vie di comunicazione, aiuto ai partigiani, occupazione dei depositi alimentari tedeschi, approntamento di squadre di pronto soccorso furono solo alcuni dei compiti portati avanti con coraggio e tenacia dalle donne, a cui bisogna però aggiungere anche la loro attività di propaganda politica e di informazione. Tra i diversi fogli clandestini, da loro scritti e distribuiti non bisogna dimenticare la nascita di molti giornali femminili in varie regioni.

WOMEN IN GREECE DURING THE WAR (1940 – 1941) Wives, Mothers, Fighters Mothers during 1940 …They saw her saying goodbye to her soldier and they couldn’t recognize her. What happened to the frightened little woman who had no concern other than caressing and loving her child? Calm, determined and proud, she gave bravely her hand to her son, kissed his forehead and while the neighbors hugged and patted the soldier on the back, she had only two words to whisper to him: “To victory” She said this with a coarse voice, as if she was angry. A wish and a command at the same time. Without shedding a tear, she stood on the threshold seeing her son leave, until he disappeared behind the corner of the street.

Sparta leaves again. Mothers don’t fall on their sons’ knees to stop them from leaving. They show them themselves the path of duty.

(Article by P. Palaiologos on “Elefthero Vima” 16.11. 1940)

AN HISTORICAL TRACT To Greek Women On Tuesday next, October 28th, it will one year since we have began our united fight for freedom and existence, fulfilling our duty to our historical past. This first anniversary finds us enslaved and hungry. But, nor hunger nor fear will make us forget. Slaves at the time, yes! But never humiliated!

The fight we have started is immense.

We know that everything which is immense is paid with heavy sacrifice.

It was with heavy sacrifice that the

Greeks bought their freedom in 1821. With even harder sacrifice, if needed, we will save this sacred heritage today.

Hunger and slavery are temporary.

Winners from the beginning we shall remain winners to the end. We know this and it is from this that we take the right to walk on the street with our heads high

and look at our oppressors right in the eyes and make them lower theirs to the ground. Even if our knees bend from hunger.

Greek women! On Tuesday next, it is a year since the first Greek boy fell in Epirus, writing with his blood the first word of this epic story we live today. You have a duty to honor, on that day, all the dead, all of those who fought for the Motherland.

We do not ask for heroism,

or sacrifices, or dangerous acts.

On that day, Tuesday October 28th, what ever the weather is, whatever business you may have, get up early in the morning, take a few flowers, a few plants, a small tree branch and lay it down on the monument of the Anonymous Soldier. If needed, just throw it on the marble pavement in front of the monument.

If the monument is unreachable on that day, go to the National Gardens and lay it down on the marble bust of Solomos.

Those of you who have children, take them with you. Let them loose for one day, the wisdom of their classroom. Take them with you, explain to them, let them place the flowers on the monument. They will remember it later and be proud of you for it.

Greek Women! We do not send this flyer to give rise to conversation.

You don’t need to discuss this with people you don’t trust or who will not understand.

Most of all, don’t just say that “it’s a nice idea”, letting someone else to apply it. Each and everyone of you should fulfill this debt without expecting the others to follow.

A year from now, on that day, our COUNTRY will be FREE!!!

Greek women, courage and patience!

TESTIMONY OF RAVENSBRUCK

“Through the Eyes of the Survivors A Guide to Ravensbrück Memorial Museum“

p. 14, Marie Jarosovà “There, they made us strip off naked, and we had to walk into this bathroom, where a young SS-man was sitting holiday a baton. You know, it was so terribly humiliating (…).”

Loretta Walz, Erinnern an Ravensbrück, Oranienburg, 1998, p.15 f. In: Lagergemeinschaft Ravensbrück, 2004: Through the Eyes of the Survivors – A Guide to Ravensbrück Memorial Museum. Stuttgart : Schmetterling Verlag

p.24, Antonia bruha, Austrian resistant fighter “I will never forget how they brought in the gipsy women for sterilization, often really young girls, half-children in a way. Some of them at the infirmary consented to being sterilized by signing with a cross. None of them knew what sterilization meant.(…)”

Ich geb Dir einen Mantel, dass du ihn noch in Freiheit tragen kannst, Vienna 1987, p. 156.

Att Breur, resistance fighter from the Netherlands “March 1, 1945. A group of people from our block – Sinti women and NNs (…) including myself – have to step forward during roll-call. I`ve been in the camp long enough to know what it means: Removal from the camp record and transport. They`re going to murder us.

Hiadi Hautval, who I met in the infirmary when I had pleurisy, is walking down the lines (…). She sees me pulls me out of the line and give me a little white cloth with a black number on it. Somehow she organized the number of somebody who died. (…)”

Dunya Breur, Ich lebe, weil Du Dich erinnerst, Frauen und Kinder in Ravensbrück, Berlin 1997, p. 196 f.

p.52, Maria Günzl “(…) On day four, after being interrogated, I had a midday and evening meal comprising a watery soup.

Then nothing for the next three days. And then all over again…At night we could often hear keys rattling, boots walking, screaming and shouting. People were being taken from their cells, never to return (…). I often thought; shooting would be merciful.”

Letter from Maria Fischer to the editor of Frankfurten Rundschau, January 1947

“Lucha y Siesta” Hosting and sustaining women rights and struggles The project “Lucha y Siesta” took birth after the reflection of some women inside the movement to fight for the house “Action”, known as “Action-A”.

We couldn’t ignore the fact that the vast majority of people in poor housing conditions that came by the doors of “Action” are lonely women, women fleeing violence or living in precarious conditions or in complete solitude, without Italian or foreign parental network.

In a context characterized by the concentration of wealth in the hands of men, by the inequality of access to jobs and resources among gender, this situation wasn’t a surprised but it had created an urgent need for a

response inside our community.

On the 8th of March 2008, therefore, a self-organized group of women occupied an abandoned building belonging to ATAC public company for more than 10 years in the Cinecittà area.

This is how The House of Women “Lucha Y Siesta” was born, where today about 20 women, Italian and foreign, and several youngsters. Since then, the House has been crossed by many women who have contributed and enriched with their own desires and different knowledge this new

experience.

All together we have created a space for hosting (socially and concretely) women for women, where not only we draw paths of emancipation and self-determination but also help rebuilding a new scenario on gender policies.

In these years we have developed many projects, despite many practical difficulties that we have had to face such as the lack of funding and the need to adapt the location to new uses and needs. Since the early months we opened a public desk to listen and shelter women in difficult socio-economic situations, creating a network with social services of the municipality and local organisations that provide assistance to women (against violence centres, pink telephone, etc.) and hosting, when space was available, many women.

Then we created, thanks to the voluntary support of citizens who approached the House, an Italian language course for

immigrant women, in order to provide them with some of the tools necessary to improve their social and economic status and to support an integration process respecting the difference. We have created English courses, group psychotherapy, pottery workshop, tailoring and theatre.

Over the years we have tried various ways to promote and bring out the cultural and artistic expressions of women that too often remain in the background: we have organized art and photo exhibitions, film projections and theatre festivals, presentations of books and researches close to the gender matter.

These activities, aimed at promoting the welfare and cultural life inside the house, were accompanied by initiatives directed outwards, to claim and promote the civil, political, economic and social rights of women. A path of individual and collective search for a gender identity that can represent us in the respect of cultural differences that we bear. We are learning to live together and respect our differences through dialogue and sometimes clash, through the understanding of our plurality.

In a context of complete dismantling of the welfare state, of a diffusion of a culture ridiculously macho, of attack to structures won through years of struggle such as the counsellings, the human and financial cuts to social services, of the replacement of the idea of “favour” on the of rights, we believe that “Lucha y Siesta” is a valuable and precious place for all women and men of the city Rome.

For more information: http://luchaysiesta.wordpress.com/

SHORT Interviews of some of the project participants

Iro, Greece “Everything that we learned was very striking and interesting. It is not easy to separate one.

However one of the most striking and sad thing at the same time for me was our visit in the basement of 4 korai street, in the central of Athens ,in Greece.

There were the prison cells of Gestapo. There thousands of people were tortured .It was a place without lights and it was even tough to breathe. 
All over the walls there are thousands of messages from the imprisoned. They were asking for food and water, because they were without any food and water for days. Also there are messages with the personal data of the imprisoned and many drawings. It is difficult for me even to imagine how a human being can survive in such a place.

Marina, Serbian During the seminar I got to understand that tolerance and openness can always be improved and further extended in order to create a better functioning society.

Maria Petrou, Greek When you meet 90-years-old partigiani women that have endured tortures and concentration camps, and still have alive the flame of resistence inside them, still believe in the necessity of an free and fair society, or when you see a collective of contemporary women that have self organized their lives against an opressive, inhuman and humiliating reality, in favor of self determination and dignity, its very hard not get inspired by and really believe in the vital importance of this years-long resistence. Now i feel more than never that it is my obligation to be a part of it by any means needed.

Raffaella, Italian Even if many things have been changed, we women, still have a lot to fight for.

For example we still have to work on the process of emancipating ourselves from certain cultural stereotypes we still are perpetuating.

We are more often mothers, protective sisters, wives, elegant and immaterial creatures than soldiers, travellers, workers or simple human beings. This is just one of many.

Porphyria, Greek The fact that the partizans (and women in general) in the past had to fight for all these things that WE now take for granted. I was only in the seminar in Rome and i think that the meeting with the partizans was the most valuable experience, but the visit at “Fosse Ardeatine� cave was the most striking example.

Gianvittorio, Italian The most important human value I gained from the relations with the participants is the “ collaboration”. We had a lot of discussions and reflections about the topic, we helped each other in going further and deeper in the knowledge and we had very nice workgroup. Plus, while we were in Germany, those who speak German, translate for us some descriptions and so on… in Italy, the Italians did the same for the rest of the group.

Frank, German My perspective is broader and more differentiated than before. The seminar motivated me to read more about the Italian partisan movement.

Katerina, Greek I would say that the most striking was my experience in Kesariani, in Athens. Where we went to the place a lot of executions have happened and one of the biggest ones in 1st May 1944 were 200 people executed. We walked exactly the way the resisters did to be executed. We stood where the resisters were shot and where the soldiers shot.

And we followed the way dead bodies were following. It was a very emotional experience and this made me think how would I be in their position. Actually I kept thinking that I was in their position and this made me wonder about today’s situation in Europe.

Valeria, Italy The most important human value I gained from the relations with the people was the awareness that the comparison with people that are different from us enriches us a lot and that despite the diversity you can share a lot with them.

Giorgos, Greece The most striking and interesting think I have learnt was about the personal stories of women who acted as perpetrators of violence, it was completely new to me to discover the psychology of human beings that committed such cruels behaviours.

Sofia, Greek My perspective on female resistance has changed in the sense that I have altered my way of thinking. I have become more dynamic, energetic and active.

Eugenia, Ukraine For example, they often need to work harder than men to gain the recognition in professional sphere. But also I believe that women should resist the tendencies of becoming the same as men, they should stay feminine.

Eva, Greek The will and the power to fight against fascismnazism for human and no political reasons.

Chiara, Italian There is still a “double morality� which must be challenged somehow.

Elina, Greek Before this seminar I did not know a lot about female resistance and how active female were in Italy. I was really shocked about female fighting in the mountains, but the most difficult for me to understand, was how did they succeed both fighting against fascism and against the chauvinism they faced from the male partisans.

Melinda, Sweden My opinion is that even though women work as much as men they are still expected to take the responsibility of the children.

The consequences of these gender based expectations are several. One of them is that women struggle with achieving high positions at work. In the same time as men struggle with the acceptance of parenthood.

Reka, Hungarian In my opinion there will be always platforms of resistance, against domestic violence, work related discrimination and in political manifestations (for example: pussy riots..)

Noémi, Hungarian I haven’t had any knowledge in this topic, so for me everything was new. My perspective hasn’t changed but I’ve learned enough to have an opinion and female resistance (I think) is a really important topic for every woman and man, because they make us examples and we have to follow these examples.

BIBLIOGRAPHY . Partigiane. Le donne della resistenza – by Marina Addis Saba . Guerra alle Donne: Partigiane, vittime di stupro, «amanti del nemico» (1940-45) – by Michela Ponzani . Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women’s Concentration Camp – by Jack G. Morrison . The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System – by Daniel Patrick Brown . New Voices in the Nation: Women and the Greek Resistance, 1941-1964 - Janet Hart . Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich – by Alison Owings . Mothers, Sisters, Resisters: Oral Histories of Women who Survived the Holocaust – by Brana Gurewitsch . Outwitting the Gestapo – by Lucie Aubrac . Ci chiamavano libertà. Partigiane e resitenti in liguria 1943-1945 – by Alfonso Donatella . Women in the Resistance – by Margaret L. Rossiter . Things We Couldn’t Say – by Diet Eman . A Train in Winter - by Caroline Moorehead . Women, resistance, and revolution: a history of women and revolution in the modern world – by Sheila Rowbotham . African Women Writing Resistance: An Anthology of Contemporary Voices – by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, Pauline Dongala, Omotayo Jolaosho, Anne Serafin

. Unruly Women: the Politics of Confinement and Resistance – by Karlene Faith . The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights - by Minky Worden . Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943-45 – by Jane Slaughter . The Becoming of Bodies: Girls, Images, Experience - by Rebecca Coleman . Women, Power and Politics in 21st Century Iran - by Tara Povey and Elaheh Rostami-Povey . Gender, Agency and Political Violence: Rethinking Political Violence - by Linda Åhäll and Laura J.Shepherd

FILMOGRAPHY

. Sisters in Resistance - a film by Maia Wechsler . La donna nella Resistenza - a documentary by Liliana Cavani . Bandite - a documentary by Alessia Proietti . Staffette – a documentary by Paola Sangiovanni . La mia bandiera - a documentary by Giuliano Bugani, Salvo Lucchese . No Job For A Woman: The Women Who Fought To Report WWII - a film by Michèle Midori Fillion . Poetry of Resilience - a film by Katja Esson . Quest for Honor - a film by Mary Ann Smothers Bruni . Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh - a film by Roberta Grossman . Female Agents - a film by Jean-Paul Salomé . Carve her name with pride - a film by Lewis Gilbert . Odette – a film by Herbet Wilcox . Charlotte Gray - a film by Gillian Amstrong . Sophie Scholl - a film by Marc Rothmund . Black book – a film by Paul Verhoeven . Lucie Aubrac - a film by Claude Berry . Living Along the Fenceline - a film by Lina Hoshino . Grrrl Love and Revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC - a film by Abby Moser . Atomic Mom - a film by M.T. Silvia

pROJECT pARTNERS SCI Italia - www.sci-italia.it SCI Italia is part of the international movement Service Civil International, promoting since 1920, peace, volunteering and intercultural learning through the exchange of volunteers. SCI Italia also aims at empowering grass root organisations and citizens through their active participation in voluntary projects in different fields. It promoted projects on the II world war in Italy, aiming at creating awareness whilst keeping memory connected to the resistance period in Italy and also in also cooperates with SCI Germany in international activities for the preservation of memorials and concentration camps associated with mass deportation in Germany.

For further information on the project: info@sci-italia.it SCI Germania - www.sci-d.de SCI Germany is also part of the international movement Service Civile International, and aims to support local projects with volunteers from different countries and through this promote active citizenship on local, national and international level. An important part of the work are youth exchanges and long terms projects which support memorial places on the grounds of former concentration camps (e.g. Bucheswald, Dachau, Ravensbruck) and workcamps about resistance against fascism.

SCI Hellas - www.sci.gr SCI Hellas is the Greek branch of the Service Civile International. It promotes peace, volunteering and intercultural learning through the exchange of volunteers and aims to support local projects with volunteers from different countries and through this promote active citizenship on local, national and international level. It is the founder member of the Greek Antipoverty Network.

Utilapu Halozat - www.utilapu.org Utilapu Halozat is the Hungarian branch of Service Civil International, promoting peace, volunteering and intercultural learning through the exchange of volunteers and aims to support local projects with volunteers from different countries and through this promote active citizenship on local, national and international level.

Historical Museum of Liberation - www.viatasso.eu Since fifty years the Historical Museum of the Liberation, located in the old Nazi prison in Via Tasso in Rome, is one of the most symbolic place in Rome’s Resistance to Nazifascism.

In the link between past and present social commitment, also with the reference to the Republican Constitution, the Court of the UN and the European constitutional process, the Historical Museum of the Liberation supports different initiatives for human and people rights , as well as studies, researches and educational, cultural and editorial activities.

Municipio X The X Municipality of Rome has launched in 2012 an important remembrance celebration called Q44 in order to maintain an active attention to its local history, its resistance during the second world war and also on the round-up of the 17 of April 1944 when 947 men form the Quadraro were deported by the Germans to concentration camps.

Associazione Culturale MIA - www.cybertuba.org The cultural association “MIA” collaborates with local, national and international organisations that promotes equal opportunities and gender equality polocies. “MIA” was created in 2009 within the context of the “Tuba” women’s library. “Tuba” is the only women’s library in Rome. It is run by women and it only sells books by women authors. More importantly, “Tuba” is a meeting point for dialogue and discussion between

women. It regularly organises book launches, seminars, workshops and art exhibitions.

ASAL – Associazione Studi America Latina www.asalong.org Over the last 40 years ASAL has carried out a large number of international and national projects in the area of information, education and training, in defense of human rights, in the search for sustainable development and in the struggle against poverty. On the issue of Historic Memory, ASAL has published several materials, among which the first edition of the first report on human Rights violations during the dictatorship in Argentina; it has been in the organisation of several projects and initiatives, collaborating since 1995 with the Historical Museum of the Liberation of Rome.

“The project has been funded with the support form the European Commission. This publication “Female Re-Existence” reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any us which may be made of the information contained therein”

www.femalerexistence.com