Thread by @NickWhithorn

14 August 1944, Italian partisan Irma Bandiera (photo) is executed by fascists after being tortured for six days and blinded [Thread] >> 1

Irma is born in Bologna in 1915. Her father Angelo is a master-builder with antifascist sympathies that grow under Mussolini's régime. At the outbreak of war, her fiancé is called up & serves with the Italian army in Greece >> 2

When Italy surrenders on 8 September 1943, he is captured by the Germans on Crete & destined for deportation to a labour camp in Germany, along with thousands of his comrades. The ship on which he is held is bombed in Piraeus harbour & sinks. His body is never recovered >> 3

Back in Bologna, Irma begins to help disbanded Italian soldiers who want to avoid conscription into the army of Mussolini's newly declared Italian Social Republic (RSI). This activity brings her into touch with members of the Resistance, which she eventually joins >> 4

She joins 7th Brigade of 'Gruppi di Azione Patriottica' (GAP), operating in Bologna, with the nickname 'Mimma'. As is often the case for women recruits, she is given the task of carrying messages & transporting arms, a high risk job. If intercepted, there is no-one to help you>>5

On 5 August 1944, partisans in Funo, just to the north of Bologna, kill a German officer & an Italian blackshirt commander. On 7 August, Irma transports arms to members of her Brigade in Castel Maggiore & then goes to her uncle's house in Funo to stay the night >> 6

The Germans & Italian fascists are carrying out sweeps in the areain search of partisans following the killings & Irma is arrested, along with two other partisans hiding in the house. She is separated from the others & taken to Bologna >> 7

She is handed over to an irregular fascist police force, known as the 'Compagnia Autonoma Speciale'. Many cities in the RSI have such groups, autonomous of the official police force, authorised by some fascist official, given a free hand over arrests & punishments >> 8

This group is commanded by Renato Tartarotti, a hated & feared figure in Bologna, noted for the brutality of his methods. He is brutal even with his own men if they refuse to obey some of his more extreme orders. His group is little more than a band of criminals >> 9

For six days and nights Irma Bandiera is cruelly tortured in an attempt to extract names and information, but without success. Her torturers even use a bayonet to blind her. Eventually, on 14 August 1944, they take her into the street, near the Meloncello Arch, and shoot her >>10

As they often do in such cases, the fascists leave her body on view for a whole day, as a warning to the public of what will happen to them if they help the Resistance. When her body is finally taken to the mortuary, one of the staff takes a photo as evidence of the torture >> 11

Renato Tartarotti is arrested at the end of the war and, despite escaping once, is put on trial in Bologna for his numerous crimes (photo, Tartarotti in handcuffs). Sentenced to death, he is shot by firing squad in Bologna on 2 October 1945 >> 12

Irma Bandiera
b. 8 April 1915, Bologna
d. 14 August 1944, Bologna