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33
LUIGI PERUZZI
1910: born in Italy
1926: migrates to Luxembourg and works as a bricklayer and a miner
1940: joins the anti-Fascist resistance in Luxemburg
1942: arrest by the Gestapo and imprisonment in the SS concentration camp at Hinzert (D)
1943: extradition to Italy
joins the Italian army after the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
German captivity and forced labour
1945: liberation by the Red Army
1946: return to Luxembourg
Et presque tous les mois, la troupe d’acteurs amateurs organisait des soirées culturelles. La participation était satisfaisante et l’argent allait presque toujours à des œuvres d’assistance pour les familles touchées par les expulsions. […] mais elle fut aussi une espèce de couverture pour des activités du Parti communiste et de la résistance au fascisme. Aux répétitions, il y avait toujours un groupe de personnes qui n’avaient rien à voir avec les artistes qui répétaient leurs rôles. Ils étaient là, soit pour une réunion d’information, soit pour distribuer les différentes charges toujours liées au mouvement antifasciste.
Luigi Peruzzi, Mes Mémoires, 1969
Luigi Peruzzi grew up in an orphanage. In 1926 he came to Luxembourg to live with his grandmother. Already an avowed anti-Fascist before the war, Peruzzi continued his resistance during the occupation: he disrupted Fascist cultural meetings and published an illegal newspaper. He established close links with the Communists and with the French resistance in the border area. In September 1942 he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Hinzert SS concentration camp, where he was regularly maltreated and interrogated. In 1943 he was extradited to Italy and placed under house arrest. Freed after the fall of Mussolini, he joined the Italian army. While fighting against the Germans he was taken prisoner and had to do forced labour in Berlin (D).
J’aurais pu crier de joie en entendant que je suivrais le même destin que tant d’autres antifascistes. Je savais qu’on allait me remettre aux mains de la police fasciste, mais comparés aux Lager allemands, les prisons et l’exil en Italie étaient encore préférables.
Luigi Peruzzi, Mes Mémoires, 1969
Work
After arriving in Italy, Peruzzi was registered by the police and placed under house arrest. Italian police photos (1943)
I tell you the truth, my love, life here is terrible. If you could see Berlin!!! It’s something that human imagination can never dream of unless you see it. Have you ever seen any painting or picture where everything is destroyed, where you can't see a soul? It’s the same here. Yesterday we witnessed an absolutely staggering bombing. The planes were so low to the ground, the light hurt the eyes, and the bombs screamed so frighteningly that it froze our blood.
Luigi Peruzzi, diary entry, 1945
Entry in Luigi Peruzzi’s diary during his time as a forced labourer in Berlin, 15 Apr. 1945
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