This memorial stone marks the place where the Fossoli inmate Leopoldo Gasparotto, an anti-fascist and a key figure of the Milanese Resistance, was murdered by the Nazis at dawn on June 22, 1944 after being taken from the Fossoli camp. To his memory he was awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour.
Known as 'Poldo', Gasparotto was born in Milan on December 30, 1902 in a family rooted in the Risorgimento and originally from Sacile, in the Friuli region. Brought up according to the guiding values of fatherland and democracy, he joined the Republican Party in 1922. His father, Luigi, was an influential politician, MP and minister both before and after fascism. After fulfilling his military service, Leopoldo graduated in Law at the University of Milan. A convinced anti-fascist and passionate mountain climber, he became himself a climbing trainer in Aosta, using these opportunities to spread anti-fascist ideas.
In 1942, Gasparotto began to actively collaborate with the Partito d'Azione (Action Party) in Milan, contributing to the circulation of the underground publication 'L'Italia Libera' (Free Italy). After the armistice, he worked on the creation of a National Guard to oppose the Germans and under the battle name 'Rey', he became a pillar of the Resistance in the Lombardy region, working closely with Ferruccio Parri.
On December 11, 1943, he was arrested in Milan and imprisoned in San Vittore; even if tortured, he never disclosed any information. On April 27, 1944 with other comrades, he was transferred to the Fossoli camp, where he became inmate No.205 and was assigned to barrack No.18. Although being imprisoned, Gasparotto did not stop to fight, he kept in touch with his comrades outside the camp and encouraged his inmates in the camp. During his in Fossoli he kept a journal that miraculously survived, a document of great interest.
His journal records end on June 21, 1944, the day after his death. This is how his fellow prisoner Ludovico Barbiano Belgiojoso, architect and designer of the Museum-Monument to Deportees in Carpi, remembers the last time he saw him: “He was wearing a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and some sandals, and before going out, he had left a folder with his journal for his friend [Giovanni] Barni.”
His death, covered up with the fake report of an escape attempt, left an unbridgeable void in the hearts of his comrades and the whole Resistance movement. His body, initially buried in an anonymous grave in the Carpi cemetery, was later transferred to the monumental cemetery in Milan, where it now rests.
