Seven hundred copies sold in three years, many presentations, a historical debate reopened on the reconstruction of some episodes: Lino and Nico Tordinifather and son, have certainly created great attention with theirs “Partigiani di Valgrande”, a powerful work in two volumes which has now reached its second edition.
An edition enriched thanks to the involvement of readers of the 1st edition, stimulated by the authors themselves, also in the many presentations in the area, which it has allowed to expand the story by one hundred pages and to review some parts.
“TO Milan we presented the work at Anpi Niguarda, at the Casa della Memoria, at the Anpi ATM and Centro Buonarroti, at the Cai” explains Nico Tordini, Milanese like his father. The history of the Resistance in Valgrande, Ossola and Verbano is the story of many Milanese who climbed the mountains, but not only that. So for example the presentations also touched Cuggiono (recruitment center of one of the first formations) and others Gallaratein the center of an area that provided boys and also logistical support.
Other presentations were held in Ossola, at the House of Resistance in Fondotoce and in Villadossola (at the Fabbrica di Carta exhibition).
Presentation in Gallarate
In the over 800 pages in which the story develops, the testimonies of the protagonists become an indispensable support to the narrative voice of the two authors who, exploiting the immediacy of the oral story, reconstruct in an engaging and exciting way the dramatic and tragic, but also adventurous and glorious, events which involved Val Grande and the entire Ossola during the twenty months of the Resistance.
What’s new in the second edition? «New testimoniesabove all that of the partisan Ettore Carnevale del Valdossola, contributions (above all that of the partisan Arialdo Catenazzi who presented us with dozens of additions/clarifications), identifications of previously unknown partisans. And other broader lines of investigation” says Nico Tordini.
Among the episodes further explored are the battle of Megolo in February ’44 (on the basis of Raffaella Mazzarelli’s research in the German military archives), news on Superti’s stormy biographical past before his settlement in Valgrande (thanks to Roberto Gresti’s research in Central State Archive), new details on the retreat of the “Valgrande Martire” through the Valgrande in October 1944, thanks to the acquisition of the “Barbìs” memorial, the story of the liberation of Intra and the surrender of the X Mas.
And the part relating to the destinies of some protagonists in the tumultuous post-war phase, of the “Betrayed Resistance”, of the partisan revolts is also expanded.
The scrupulous editing of each personal story in the historical context of reference has allowed us to shed light on many episodes traditionally handed down partially or imprecisely. «The mountains of Val Grande contain the story of a collective awareness which in Nico and Lino Tordini’s book reaches us through an extraordinary collection of testimonies» he writes Andrea Pozzetta, of the Scientific Committee of the Casa della Resistenza of Fondotoce. Those mountains today represent a place of memory: a place contaminated by the violence of the roundup of June 1944, but which despite the horror it is able to tell us about the efforts, hopes and plans of the men and women who populated it. Their partisan events are reconstructed by the two authors through a systematic mapping of interviews and documents, the result of passionate historiographical research. These are the stories we increasingly need to understand the present and to give meaning to our collective life.”
The first public presentation of the second edition of “Partigiani di Valgrande” will be held Saturday 22 June 2024, at the Colloro Club (VB), at 9pm.
Title: Partisans of Valgrande Authors: Nico Tordini and Lino Tordini (email: [email protected])
Publisher: Alberti Libraio Editore, Verbania (email: [email protected])
2nd Edition – June 2024 833 pages €49.00
With the patronage of: Val Grande National Park, Fondotoce Resistance House, ANPI
