Memorial plaque dedicated to Sandro Gallo and Angelo Coatto in the atrium of the Benedetti Tommaseo High School
Sandro Gallo was born in Venice on May 30, 1914. He began his education in the city, studying at the Marco Foscarini classical high school.
From an early age, he developed socialist-inspired ideas, such that he questioned the fascist regime, thus becoming a strong opponent. However, until 1936, his opposition was limited to purely theoretical criticism.
Between 1936 and 1938, he began to interact with various anti-fascist organizations, maintaining relations with different socialists, including Giavi, Lombroso, and Sullam, as well as with many communists, such as Enrico Longobardi, Calò, and others.
At the same time, Sandro Gallo became a Marxist and, in 1937, joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which would play an essential role in the anti-fascist resistance by creating the well-known Garibaldi Brigades. These partisan units fought against the occupation of the country by Nazi-Fascist forces.
After graduating in law, he decided to enroll in philosophy at the University of Padua but still needs to complete the course. He then started working as a teacher in various schools before finally arriving at the Liceo Scientifico G. B. Benedetti.
During the lessons of philosophy and history Sandro Gallo held, he transmitted a forceful sense of freedom to his students.
On June 10, 1940, the dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, declared war on the United Kingdom; this was the moment when the fascist war propaganda began to run at full steam, involving students as agitators in it by launching the so-called demonstration campaign.
The students of the Lyceum Benedetti have also participated in one of these demonstrations.
Upon their return to the classroom, the future partisan, as a sign of protest, examined his students, and they all received terrible grades. This episode became an essential experience for all of them. Later, Benedetti high school would become a center of anti-fascist resistance, thanks to professor Gallo and many other professors.
In 1941, the political activist collaborated to reconstitute the Venetian communist organization by distributing leaflets.
In 1942, he was arrested by the regime for his subversive activities; later, in 1943, he was released only to continue his conspiratorial work. In the same year, by the decision of the Italian Communist Party, he left for Cadore to organize armed resistance.
He would be the founder and commander of the “P.F. Calvi” Brigade, a part of the Garibaldi “Nino Nannetti” Division, and operated in the Cadore region, sabotaging the German war effort and fighting against the invaders. Unfortunately, Sandro Gallo was killed during the military operation, which involved the attack on German military trucks and three other comrades fighting for freedom, on September 20, 1944.
Source: https://www.anpive.org/wordpress/2011/03/27/garbin/