A tall, robust pine tree, solidly planted in the ground, stands out at the edge of the shooting range where the shooting continues. But if today those who go there and hold a gun do so as a hobby or for training, 80 years ago, on the morning of May 4th, whoever shot it did so to kill a worker just 24 years old, Remo Dovano, nickname “Donovan ”.
Dovano was one of the partisan workers of Way Assauto, a poet worker, to be honest, driven, like many others of his age, by the exasperation of the war and the fascist dictatorship. Remo had been captured four days earlier because he had been caught by the fascist Black Brigades hanging posters praising peace and work.
Yesterday, Saturday, a large delegation from the ANPI, led by vice-president Guido Cardello, thanks to the authorization of the management of the Sessant shooting gallery, paid homage to the place where the young worker was killed. To commemorate that shooting there has long been a plaque at the entrance to the range and that pine tree, tall and majestic, which is 80 years old because it was planted shortly after the end of the war by Remo’s father and some partisan friends at the point exactly where the worker was shot.
At his feet he placed a bouquet of red roses, the ones he sent to his girlfriend Rina together with extraordinarily poetic and poignant readings, like the last one written shortly before he was killed.
Laurana Lajolo, who this year was also the official speaker on April 25th in Piazza San Secondo, traces his memory: «Remo was one of the first Garibaldians and was part of the SAP, patriotic action teams. On the night between 30 April and 1 May 1944 he was arrested together with other comrades who were putting up anti-war posters and calling for a demonstration strike”. After the arrest, four days of torture by soldiers from the Political Investigative Office. «They did the thirst torture for six hours after making him swallow anchovies and salt. They made him lie on a plank for 36 hours with his spine against the edge and his head down and a weight on his legs. He was then compared with three other SAP communist comrades: Dario Carosso, Valerio Fresia and Pierluigi Miroglio. The latter said that when they entered the police station room they didn’t recognize Remo, he was so destroyed physically. But not in his ideal and he never recognized them, saving their lives.”
Laurana Lajolo also read one of the poems dedicated to Rina. Immediately after the ballad that Daniele Dal Colle dedicated to Remo Dovano, setting to music his last letter written before his death.
The tribute continued at the Circolo Way Assauto in front of the monument which has stood in the garden since last year as a permanent reminder of the sacrifice of that young worker.
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