MILAN – Libero Traversa, who fought against fascism from the age of 14, has died aged 89, according to president of ANPI Roberto Cenati. 

 Paying homage to the veteran, Cenati attributed his own involvement with ANPI to Traversa. “Goodbye, Libero. You will always remain in our hearts,” he said in a post on Facebook.

 Traversa grew up in a strongly anti-fascist family joined the resistance as a teenager, first against the Italian fascist regime and then against the Nazi occupation. It was a commitment which would occupy him for the rest of his life.

 In 1944, he joined the 23rd division of Giustizia e Libertà (GL), which was closely linked to the Partito d’Azione of Ferruccio Parri, a socialist and democratic party active from 1942 to 1946. He remained a member until April 25, when Italy was liberated from Nazi rule.

 After the war, Traversa became a member of the Italian Communist Party, the PCI, and later of the Communist Re-Foundation Party. He wrote for communist publications for most of his life, being a member of the Albo and then of the Ordine dei Giornalisti from 1951. He was a Provincial Councillor in Milan in the 1970s, and in 2007 he received the Ambrogino d’Oro, the city’s civic award.

 For the award, he was described as a “freedom fighter, politician, journalist, writer and poet,” who dedicated his life to Milan and its civic growth.

 Traversa was a member of ANPI’s Milanese committee, and honourary president of the Sezione 25 Aprile. Cenati described his “profound sadness” and shock at the death of his friend, paying tribute to his commitment to the association.

 “With Libero I lose a friend and a companion.” Cenati explained, “It was Libero – I told him this often – who was most responsible for my joining ANPI, the association which gave, along with resistance to Nazi-fascism, a significant meaning to his life and which it still gives to mine.”

 “Recently, Libero confessed that he no longer wanted to look on Facebook, because he would in this way become aware of all the friends and companions who had left him. But I wanted to communicate this most tragic news even on Facebook.”

  Cenati offered his sincerest condolences to Traversa’s wife and children, and all those who knew him.

 Traversa died on Saturday, just three days after the national Liberation Day which celebrated in part his own achievements.

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