Claudia Ruggerini (also known as Marisa; 1 February 1922, Milan - 4 June 2016, Rome) was an Italian partisan, activist, doctor, and neuropsychiatrist. During World War II, she joined the Italian Communist Party to overthrow the government of Benito Mussolini in July 1943.
Early life and family
Claudia Ruggerini was an Italian neuropsychiatrist, partisan, activist, and physician born in Milan, the former Italian Kingdom, in 1922. Claudia was born into a poor family in Via Padova 36, which was a street of immigrants in the 1920s. Her family was from Brianza. Her mother worked as a masseuse and later as a free trader, while her grandmother was a foundling. The women in Claudia's childhood are what drove and inspired her. Later in life, Claudia always credited her mother's work ethic and intelligence while looking back on her past academic and professional opportunities. Claudia's father was a part of the Italian Communist Party. Her father was beaten to death in 1934 by a fascists patrol in front of his house when Claudia was just twelve years old. Claudia watched her father from the window as he was horrifically beaten and left for dead.
She referred to herself as “a nerd,” as she was incredibly studious and had a love for the arts. This love for the arts is what precipitated her determination to bring awareness to anti-fascism. In Venice, where her Mother went to massage rich clients, Claudia went to churches, to the Biennale of art, and to see films of the film festival, which could not circulate in the fascist and provincial Italy. Claudia's rebellious nature could be seen in her character since early childhood. In Kindergarten, Claudia's teachers discovered that she was left-handed, a calamity that, at the time, needed to be “corrected.” While the teachers succeeded in retraining Claudia to use her right hand, this encounter seemed to awaken the “rebel” in her. Her rebellious, witty nature is what eventually propelled her to join the Milanese anti-fascist resistance against Benito Mussolini
Education
When Claudia started high school, a teacher directed her to the humanities, and in one session, she obtained her teaching diploma in classical studies. Afterwards, Claudia began her studies at University of Industrial Chemistry, then switching her focal point to medicine in 1942. When at the university, she met Hans, who was her "sweetheart", and (as she would only discover after the war) had emigrated from Vienna because he was a Jew. Claudia then joined the Garibaldi Brigade, the fifth column on behalf of the CLN inside San Vittore. Hans, in fact, had been locked up there, and through a fortuitous series of events, Claudia won the trust of the Germans who ran the prison. She stated "I was living in fear." Despite the fear, she did not give up, risking the worst. Upon studying medicine, Claudia met several anti-fascist students. In July 1943, Claudia met the leader of the Neapolitan Communist Party Antonio D'Ambrosio, one of the most respected and popular leaders of the Milanese resistance, and alongside her fellow anti-fascist peers, Claudia diligently began to fight for the cause, clearly inspired by the horrific death of her father. She was the only woman in the initiative committee, among intellectuals that the Communist D'Ambrosio, a member of the CLN (Committee for National Liberation), had set up.
Contributions and Communist Party activism
Claudia joined the clandestine Communist Party of Naples. She surrounded herself with like minded young people, joining a group of artists, writers, and journalists, great architects, painters, sculptors, poets, and art critics who inspired one another through meetings to encourage passion and creativity, harbingers of new culture, and planning. Above all, the group pushed one another to never give up hope on fighting for the cause. Her peers played an important role as a source of training and cultural enrichment. Many of these great minds would become close friends of Claudia's that stuck by her throughout her lifetime, as they met throughout the Resistance and continued to inspire each other. In 1953, Claudia went as part of a delegation to visit Picasso, to convince him, which she did successfully, to grant the first major exhibition of his work held in Milan. Claudia accepted the incredibly risky tasks of underground press distribution and the delivery of weapons to the partisans of Valdossola. She was a great risk taker and extremely proactive in the Resistance, acting fearlessly by distributing underground press materials, passing messages by bicycle, delivering weapons, and stealing valuable anti-fascist intelligence from the Prison of San Vittore.