The youngest partisan in Italy lives in Belluno, who at the age of 14 received the Anpi membership card as a birthday present.
It is a boy residing in the capital of the Dolomites, Francesco Tonet, passionate about history and stories about the Resistance, which were told to him from an early age.
"The card arrived in December - Francesco said - it was a gift for my birthday. I grew up listening to the stories of some of my dad's friends. From an early age they told me about the battles fought in these areas by their parents and the role of the partisans. The curiosity to learn more about the subject thus began. Then I asked my father to accompany me to war museums, and to some places that allowed me to learn more about the Resistance".
Among the favorite places and stories of the Liberation, the one closest to him is represented by the "Chestnut Wood", which is located a short distance from the capital of the Dolomites.
"There - he explained - a rather famous massacre took place: on March 10, 1945, German soldiers killed ten Italian partisans in retaliation. A few days earlier, the German troops had found two large signs with the silhouette of Adolf Hitler where it was written 'Zigklt gut', aim well. When they approached to remove them, they realized that the field was mined and four of them died. They took partisans from the Belluno prison, who had nothing to do with those silhouettes, and hanged them. Those trees are still there today."
An unprecedented passion for a boy of his age.
"The majority of my peers - he replies - don't give a damn about the history of Italy, much less about having the PNA card. I'd rather it
weren't like that, but the kids don't look at the past, no matter how serious the events that happened, they are projected only on the future".
To revive the passion for the Resistance "we need more initiatives that allow us to 'touch' the most interesting aspects of the Resistance, the stories of those young people who risked everything for an ideal".
The vision of the fourteen-year-old from Belluno moved the Anpi section of Belluno, which gladly accepted his request for registration.
"It's a good sign - commented the president Gino Sperandio - because without young people aware of the values of the Constitution, our Republic will not only be able to have a good future, but certainly not even a good present".