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Jacopo Dentici 1926 - 1945 Edit

Born 11.9.1926 in Rio Grande do Sul
Died 1.3.1945 in Gusen

Biography

After Jacopo’s birth his family returned to Italy and settled in Voghera (Pavia province). Jacopo attended the Grattoni grammar school and thanks to his talent, he began to study physics at the University of Milan already at the age of 17. Between 25 July 1943 and the day of the Italian armistice, 8 September 1943, he joined the Fronte della Gioventù (Youth Front) and made the acquaintance of Ferruccio Parri, who was living in Voghera at that time, just a short distance from the Denticis’ apartment.

After 8 September Jacopo joined the Gruppi di Azione Patriottica[1] of the Piazza di Voghera commando, where he was involved in bringing in weapons and transporting Allied solders who had escaped from prisoner of war camps to the mountains. Classified as a dangerous element by the political investigative bureau, in June 1944 he moved to Milan, where Parri personally assigned him to work in the general headquarters of the Corpo Volentari della Libertà (Volunteer Corps for Freedom) at his office at 45 Viale Bianca Maria. Here Dentici was caught unawares by some squads of the Fascist ‘Muti’ legion while attempting to secure and hide some extremely important documents. He was arrested and immediately imprisoned in the Salinas barracks, where he was interrogated and tortured by the SS. After this he was taken to the San Vittore jail in Milan and, on 16 January 1945, transferred to the Bolzano camp, where he remained for about 2 weeks.

On 1 February he was deported to Mauthausen and a few days later, on 4 February, here was transferred to the Gusen II camp. There the 18-year-old died on 1 March 1945. In November 1946 the University of Milan posthumously awarded him an honorary doctorate.

The last letter written by Jacopo Dentici to his sister from the camp at Bolzano:

‘My dear, so we’re here now. We’ll be off very early to G., I suppose. Therefore I fear that there’s not much more to be done. I wasn’t able to escape. The only hope is that an exchange request will be granted as soon as possible. Do what you can, but I won’t hope too much. But in any case don’t hang your head!
Kiss mother for me. You’ll see, I’ll manage. God, I’m ugly without hair!
Bye (sister), thanks to you all for what you’ve done for me. Kisses.
I am in very good health.
Jacopo.’


Igor Pizzirusso

INMSLI – Istituto Nazionale per al Storia del Movimento di Liberazione in Italia, Milano

 

Translation into English: Joanna White



[1] Patriotic Action Groups, http://lombardia.anpi.it/voghera/gap.htm.

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