Sandro Gallo was born in Venice on May 30, 1914 and attended the Foscarini high school. His political aversion to fascism materialized when, between 1936 and 1938, he entered into contact with some Venetian anti-fascist groups and with membership of the PCI.
After graduating in law, in 1936 he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy of Padua; in the meantime he obtained a professorship in a professional institute and then at the Benedetti scientific high school in Venice, educating students in the love of freedom and making the high school a center of anti-fascist initiative.
Cesco Chinello (one of the protagonists of the “Beffa” of the Goldoni Theater) was among his students during the first year of the war and, thanks to his testimony, confirms the work of open and declared anti-fascism carried out by Sandro. In 1941 he actively collaborated in the reconstruction of the Venetian communist organization and circulated leaflets illegally. This cost him two years in prison, because he was accused of spreading writings against the regime and the head of government.
Later he was sentenced to two years of confinement in the area of Avezzano. During this period with some comrades, despite the condition of confined or interned, he still managed to pick up enemy radio communications and then exploited them for his anti-fascist work. In 1943, at the end of the period of confinement, ill, he returned to Venice and collaborated in the foundation of the Anti-Fascist Union Committee, organizing an armed resistance.
He will also be the founder of the brigade “P.F Calvi” and will operate in the Cadore region, choosing “Garbin” as its nom de guerre. The term means, in Venetian dialect, “wind of libeccio”.
On September 20, 1944, he led an attack on three German trucks and, due to the violent reaction of the opponents, lost his life along with two other partisans. After the war he will be awarded the silver medal for military valor and memory, while the University of Padua will grant him the second degree “honoris causa”.
Angelo Coatto was born on 7 August 1914 in Vicenza. He studied at the Benedetti scientific high school in Venice until 1933 and in the meantime became the animator of a movement of students, thanks to his predisposition and dedication in the associative field.
In 1940 he participated in the Littoriali dealing with the theme of “purity of the race as a factor of demographic development” and ranked third in the medical-biological section.
He graduated with honors and became a doctor in Feltre, and then took up positions in the hospitals of Venice and Marostica.
His rise in the medical field, however, was hindered by Italy’s entry into the war, which saw him forced to arms. On 11 November 1942 he left for France as a medical second lieutenant and in 1943, following the armistice of 8 September, he reached the first partisan nuclei in western Liguria.
Back in Venice he served at the civil hospital as an assistant radiologist, without abandoning his political and social activity.
In March 1944 he supported some Venetian medical colleagues, threatened by the Germans with deportation to Germany. Following this stance, his situation worsened and he decided to move to Pula.
His determination against fascism led him to join, as a doctor, a partisan gang.
On September 16, 1944, he was arrested while rescuing wounded. He was taken to Gallesano along with 20 other hostages and within a short time he was shot.
During his time at the front with the fascist army, Angelo kept a diary:
“Before God and to respond to his will I fulfill integrally, with the serene sacrifice of my life, my duty as an Italian […] I feel this war unjust and inopportune. May God have mercy on my soul, sustain my family, always protect my beloved homeland. Long live Italy.”
Angelo Coatto, Pensieri dal diario di Angelo Coatto, Bettinelli, Verona 1954.
From this excerpt we understand the deep love for the homeland and for God nourished by Angelo and the aversion to war and fascism that characterized his life.
A plaque was dedicated to Sandro Gallo and Angelo Coatto inside the Liceo Benedetti Tommaseo in Venice.
Sources: https://biografieresistenti.isacem.it/biografie/coatto-angelo/ https://www.anpive.org/wordpress/2011/03/27/garbin/
