20 Facts About Giovanna Berneri

Giovanna Berneri was born and died in Italy, but, largely for political reasons, spent much of her life in other countries: some of her most productive years were lived in France.

Giovanna Berneri was one of five recorded children of Giuseppe and Caterina Simonazzi Caleffi.

Giovanna Berneri emerged from her education in 1915 with a teaching diploma.

On receiving her teaching diploma in 1915 Giovanna Berneri started to work as an elementary school teacher at Santa Vittoria, a quarter of Gualtierei.

Camillo and Giovanna Berneri fell in love and married on 3 January 1917 or 4 November 1917, with the written permission of their parents, possibly reflecting the fact that they were neither of them yet 21.

Giovanna Berneri was therefore not able to be present for the birth of their elder daughter, Maria Luisa, who was born on 1 March 1918.

Giovanna Berneri fled secretly to Paris in March or April 1926.

Camillo Giovanna Berneri was betrayed by a comrade called Ermanno Menapace who turned out to be a spy for the Italian security service.

In 1933, with economic support from Louis Lecoin, Giovanna Berneri opened a grocery store in order to be able to subsist.

However, the bitter splits in the Soviet Communist party which made the period one of Purges in Moscow sent out powerful echoes in the west, and early in May 1937 Camillo Giovanna Berneri was one of several prominent fighters together with members of Workers' Party of Marxist Unification to be assassinated in Barcelona, probably on the orders of Joseph Stalin.

Giovanna Berneri started writing for "Controcorrente", an Italian language anarchist newspaper based in Boston.

On 18 October 1940 Giovanna Berneri was arrested, like other Italian political refugees, at the behest of the Italian government and held at the prison of La Sante for three months.

In February 1941 Giovanna Berneri was transferred to Austria and from there to Germany, where she spent approximately five months in detention in a succession of prisons, before being returned to Austria, and from there to Italy.

Giovanna Berneri believed that the anarchist movement needed to adapt to the new energies of the times, and to the new internationalist dynamic emerging with the victory of the allied powers in the Second World War.

Together with Cesare Zaccaria, Giovanna Berneri was committed to distributing information on methods of birth control.

The "Colonia Maria Luisa Giovanna Berneri" endured, though burdened by growing indebtedness, till 1957, when the house ceased to be available following the break-up of the relationship with Zaccaria.

In 1956 Giovanna Berneri Caleffi relocated to Nervi, which by this time had been subsumed into the long coastal Genoa conurbation.

Giovanna Berneri received much support from comrades, and managed to acquire a suitable property, less than half a mile from the beaches, at Ronchi near Marina di Massa.

Giovanna Berneri managed to keep the operation running for three years, supported by her surviving daughter and her friend, Aurelio Chessa.

Giovanna Berneri Celeffi died from a heart attack on 14 March 1962 while being released from hospital where she had been treated for another condition.