Guido Valota

Born 3.12.1905 in Bariano
Died 5./6.4.1945 in auf dem Todesmarsch bei Steyr

Biography

Guido Valto moved to Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) in the 1920s to find work. First he worked in the Falck steel works, then as a toolmaker for the Breda Aeronautica factory. In 1942 he resigned from Falck because, for no plausible reason, he had been sent to the BMW works in Munich for nearly two years. Guido also played the violin, having taught himself, played in the La Leonina municipal orchestra and gave music lessons to children. After 8 September 1943 he became an ever more active opponent of Fascism and kept secret slips of paper on which he noted down the sums of money he received and passed on to the families of workers who had gone into hiding or who had already been arrested by the Nazi-Fascists. This operation was called ‘Red Help’. Guido was arrested on the night of 14 March 1944 at home by Fascists as a result of the strikes that had taken place over the first eight days of March across northern and central Italy. These had been economically and politically motived strikes that sought to oppose the state of economic emergency and drive away the Fascists and Nazis, and they were strikes which sought peace. Together with hundreds of other striking workers and anti-Fascists, Guido was held first in the San Vittore jail in Milan, then in Bergamo. The Nazis transferred him and all the other inmates in the barracks there on the next transport to the concentration camps. 564 deportees on this transport were registered in Mauthausen on 20 March 1944 and given prisoner numbers. Guido’s prisoner number was 59186. First he was transferred to Gusen and in April he and several other prisoners were transported to the Vienna-Schwechat subcamp – next to the airport – where he remained until the heavy Allied air raid on the airport, which took place at 12pm on 26 June. In the first days of July he was taken first to Hinterbrühl, where he worked in the underground caves at Mödling, then to Vienna-Floridsdorf. Here is worked in the cellars of the Gambrinus brewery assembling aeroplane parts for Heinkel. The barracks were located on the football pitch of the Floridsdorfer Athletiksport-Club. On 1 April 1945, at Easter, the camp was evacuated and Guido and thousands of other concentration camp prisoners left Vienna for Mauthausen. They marched on foot, around 30 kilometres per day, and slept outdoors with nothing to eat, dragging along carts carrying the Nazis’ mess kit and provisions. On about 5 or 6 April Guido came to the end of his strength and gave up; a Nazi then ripped off all the prisoner numbers sewn onto his uniform, kicked him with the heel of his boot until the armband engraved with his number was destroyed and fired a bullet into his neck. This meant that the deceased could no longer be identified. Witnesses I spoke to said that Guido was murdered in Steyr; five years ago a memorial plaque with text in Italian and German was erected in his memory at the cemetery there. On Christmas Eve 1944, Guido was summoned by the camp administration to play the violin for them. He returned to the barracks with a salted fish given to him by the SS. He divided the fish into six pieces. Guido, Sordini, Croci, Arrisari, Saladin and Cima had their Christmas meal that evening. There was solidarity in the camp too. Humanity had rediscovered itself again.

Giuseppe Valota

 

ANED, Sesto San Giovanni-Monza section

Translation into English: Joanna White

Location In room