Lodi, 17 novembre 2022 – “It was the Russians who entered the Ravensbruck concentration camp where my grandmother was imprisoned. She couldn’t even take a step anymore. I don’t know how they communicated, they didn’t even speak French. But two of them carried her on their shoulders and walked her through Germany, on foot, and handed her over to the Red Cross at the Swiss border.”
“Brave and generous”
This morning, the naming ceremony of the new Luigia Mazzini Folli street, a partisan from Lodi born in 1897 and deported to Ravensbruck, Germany on August 16, 1944 (registration number 77351), moved the many people present. The ceremony took place between the hospital parking lot and the pier and was carried out by one of her granddaughters, Marinella Folli.
Accompanied by her brother Massimo, the witness recounted various episodes of her “atheist and communist” grandmother, who had a strong and difficult character but was certainly “brave and generous”. During fascism, Luigia Mazzini Folli joined the underground network, hosting several people persecuted by the fascists in her home. At that time, 47-year-old Luigia Mazzini Folli lived on Via Vecchio Bersaglio, right next to the river Adda, to which the newly named avenue leads.
Hiding fugitives from the fascists
“At the end of her street,” the granddaughter recalled, “there was a brothel, with constant coming and going, and for this reason, her house was considered a suitable place to hide fugitives.” This brave woman was part of the partisan network, which also included former socialist mayor Ettore Archinti, and she had hosted several people, including English paratroopers who were captured along with her and Archinti during a raid. The granddaughter also recalls that it was “a vagabond” whom her grandmother, out of generosity, hosted in her home along with the others, who acted as a “spy”.
The “generosity” of the Russian soldiers
The former mayor, she remembered, “was the only one who did not return” (he died in the Flossenburg concentration camp). The partisan, on the other hand, was saved thanks to those Russian soldiers and their “generosity”. But the story does not end there: “In the 1960s, despite living in the USSR, those two people obtained permission to visit my grandmother: they brought her two paintings as gifts. Even the English prisoners came to Lodi during that time to thank her.”
The granddaughter remembered her grandmother’s determination, who died in Lodi in 1985, even when, in 1918, at the age of 21, she went to the Karst region to visit her brother, who was wounded in a field hospital. She managed to be by his side as he died, at a time when women hardly left the house alone, and in a war-torn Italy. The granddaughter is certain that her grandmother, with her somewhat gruff character, would have been happy about the street naming and the study that involved so many students and schools in Lodi.
300 students from 3 schools and the national prize
The figure of Luigia Mazzini Folli was brought to light through the research work carried out by 13 classes, totaling 300 students, guided by 11 teachers from three schools: the Francesco Cazzulani comprehensive institute, the Agostino Bassi technical school, and the Alessandro Volta and Maffeo Vegio high schools, on Mazzini Folli and the Boccalini sisters. This activity was awarded the special prize “Scuola in verticale” (Vertical School) in 2022 at the 9th Competition on the Paths of Gender Equality in Toponymy.
Passing on the research to other students
The students, under the guidance of their teachers, collected a considerable amount of material, from the interview with Luigia Mazzini Folli recorded in 1976 by historian Ercole Ongaro to the interview with Luisa Folli, another granddaughter who lives in Lodi.
Among the many works produced and left as a legacy to future students, there is also a (hypothetical) video interview with the partisan in the streets of Lodi, conducted by some students, in which the woman tells her story.
Many people remember Luigia
This morning, two classes from the Cazzulani middle school were present at the naming ceremony, along with teachers and the principal, who wanted to be there. Delegations from other schools, including two university professors who had participated in the project in 2021, were also present, as well as teachers, law enforcement officers, the parish priest, representatives of the Women’s Toponymy and Se Non ora, quando? Snoq Lodi associations (which coordinated the activity between schools, associations, and the municipality until the unveiling of the plaque). The deputy mayor, Laura Tagliaferri, was also present.
