Leone Ginzburg (, , ; 4 April 1909 – 5 February 1944) was an Italian editor, writer, journalist and teacher, as well as an important

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers wer ...

political activist and a hero of the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

. He was the husband of the renowned author

Natalia Ginzburg Natalia Ginzburg (, ; ; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, f ...

and the father of the historian

Carlo Ginzburg Carlo Ginzburg (; born April 15, 1939) is an Italian historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: ''The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an Ital ...

Early life and career

Ginzburg was born in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

to a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish family.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

began while the family was on vacation in

Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...

, Italy, and while his older brother and sister (then 15 and 18) traveled with their mother back to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, Leone remained, with his

governess A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, ...

, for the duration of the war. He was reunited with his family when his mother and siblings fled to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

following the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...

in Russia.Avalle, M. Clara, ''Da Odessa a Torino: Conversazioni con Marussia Ginzburg'' (Collana Libertà E Giutizia) Claudiana Editrice, 2002. p. 30-32. He studied at the Liceo Ginnasio Massimo d'Azeglio in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

.Ward, David. "Primo Levi's Turin." In: Gordon, Robert S.C. (editor). ''The Cambridge Companion to Primo Levi'' (Cambridge Companions to Literature). Cambridge University Press, 30 July 2007. , 9781139827409. CITED: p
11
This school molded a group of intellectuals and political activists who would fight

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

Fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

and, eventually, help create the post-war democratic Italy. His classmates included such notable intellectuals as

Norberto Bobbio Norberto Bobbio (; 18 October 1909 – 9 January 2004) was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily ''La Stampa''. Bobbio was a social libe ...

Piero Gobetti Piero Gobetti (; 19 June 1901, Turin – 15 February 1926, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was an Italian journalist, intellectual and radical liberal and anti-fascist. He was an exceptionally active campaigner and critic in the crisis years in Italy after ...

Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese ( , ; 9 September 1908 – 27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time. Early lif ...

Giulio Einaudi Giulio Einaudi (; 2 January 1912 – 5 April 1999) was an Italian book publisher. The eponymous company that he founded in 1933 became "a European wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and political theory"Saxon, Wolfgang ''The New ...

Massimo Mila Massimo Mila (14 August 1910 – 26 December 1988) was an Italian musicologist, music critic, intellectual and anti-fascist. Biography He studied at the Liceo classico Massimo d'Azeglio in Turin, where he was a pupil of Augusto Monti and wher ...

Vittorio Foa Vittorio Foa (18 September 1910 – 20 October 2008) was an Italian politician, trade unionist, journalist and writer. Biography Foa was born in Turin in 1910 into a middle-class Jewish family. He attended Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio in ...

Giancarlo Pajetta Giancarlo Pajetta (24 June 1911 – 13 September 1990) was an Italian communist politician. Biography Pajetta was born in a working-class district of Turin to Carlo, a bank employee, and Elvira Berrini, an elementary schoolteacher. He attended ...

and

Felice Balbo Felice is a name that can be used as both a given name, masculine or feminine, and a surname. It is a common name in Italian, where it is equivalent to Felix. Notable people with the name include: Given name Arts and literature Film and theater *F ...

. During his time in Turin he contributed to '' Il Baretti'', a literary magazine launched by

in 1924. In the early 1930s, Ginzburg taught

Slavic Languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

and

Russian Literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were composed. By the ...

at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

, and was credited with helping to introduce Russian authors to the Italian public. In 1933, Ginzburg co-founded, with

, the publishing house

Einaudi Einaudi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), Italian politician *Mario Einaudi (1905–1994), Italian political scientist, son of Luigi *Giulio Einaudi (1912–1999), Italian publisher, son o ...

. He lost his teaching position in 1934, having refused to swear an

oath of allegiance An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to a monarch or a country. In modern republics, oaths are sworn to the country in general, or to the country's constitution. Fo ...

imposed by the Fascist regime.Short biography of Leone Ginzburg
Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (ANPI) (accessed October 30, 2010)

Persecution and internal exile

Soon after this, he and 14 other young Turinese Jews, including Sion Segre Amar, were arrested for complicity in the so-called "

Ponte Tresa Ponte Tresa ( Lombard: ''Punt da Tresa'') is a former municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 18 April 2021 the municipalities of Croglio, Monteggio, Ponte Tresa and Sessa merged to form Tresa. History ...

Affair" (they were carrying anti-fascist literature over the border from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

), but Ginzburg's sentence was light. He was arrested again in 1935 for his activities as leader (with

Carlo Levi Carlo Levi () (29 November 1902 – 4 January 1975) was an Italian painter, writer, activist, communist, and doctor. He is best known for his book '' Cristo si è fermato a Eboli'' (''Christ Stopped at Eboli''), published in 1945, a memoir of ...

) of the Italian branch of ''

Giustizia e Libertà Giustizia e Libertà (; en, Justice and Freedom) was an Italian anti-fascist resistance movement, active from 1929 to 1945.James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224. The mov ...

'', the ''Justice and Freedom Party'', which

Carlo Rosselli Carlo Alberto Rosselli ( Rome, 16 November 1899 Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, 9 June 1937) was an Italian political leader, journalist, historian, philosopher and anti-fascist activist, first in Italy and then abroad. He developed a theory of refor ...

had founded in Paris in 1929. In 1938, he married

(née Levi). The same year he lost his Italian citizenship when the Fascist regime introduced

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

racial laws. In 1940, the Ginzburgs received the fascist punishment known as ''confino'', or internal exile, to a remote, impoverished village, in their case Pizzoli in the

Abruzzi , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1 ...

, where they stayed from 1940-1943.Biography of Natalia Ginzburg
, Rai International (accessed October 30, 2010) Somehow, Leone was able to continue his work as head of the Einaudi publishing house throughout the period. In 1942, he co-founded the clandestine

Partito d'Azione The Action Party ( it, Partito d'Azione, PdA) was a liberal-socialist political party in Italy. The party was anti-fascist and republican. Its prominent leaders were Carlo Rosselli, Ferruccio Parri, Emilio Lussu and Ugo La Malfa. Other prominent ...

or "Action Party", a party of the democratic resistance. He also edited their newspaper ''

L'Italia Libera ''L'Italia Libera'' (meaning ''Free Italy'' in English) was the newspaper of the Italian anti-fascist organization and political party Partito d'Azione (abbrev: Pd'A) (Action Party). History and profile ''L'Italia Libera'' was founded in July 194 ...

''.

Capture and murder

In 1943, after the Allied

invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...

and the fall of Mussolini, Leone went to Rome, leaving his family in the Abruzzi. When

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invaded in September, Natalia Ginzburg and their three children fled Pizzoli, simply climbing aboard a German truck and telling the driver that they were war refugees who had lost their papers. They met with Leone and went into hiding in the capital. On 20 November 1943, Leone – who now used the false name Leonida Gianturco – was arrested by the Italian police in a clandestine printshop of the newspaper ''

''. He was taken to the German section of the Regina Coeli prison. They subjected him to severe torture. On 5 February 1944 he died there from the injuries he received; he was 34 years old.Opposition to Fascism
, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Works

* ''Scrittori russi'' (1948) * ''Scritti'' (1964)

References

External links

Books of the Times; Richard Bernstein, "Telling the Bigger Story With the Small Details"
''The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...