Francesco Neffat

Biography In 1924 Neffat entered the Italian Communist Youth Federation, the youth organization of the Communist Party of Italy, and in 1926 he entered the Communist Party of Italy. Later that year, on May 1, he distributed leaflets and waved the red flag in the civic high school, now the Humanities Department of the University of Pula.

After spending two years in the Italian navy in La Spezia (1928–1930), he returned to Pula. He then refused to enroll in a fascist union, and thereafter had to change jobs frequently, even though he was a respected blacksmith.

From 1936 to 1938 he worked for the organization of a party in a cement factory in Pula, but was arrested when the police discovered the organization and the members of the KPI, who on May 28, 1938, distributed printed leaflets against solidarity with fascist Spain. Nefat was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Neffat entered the city together with the Yugoslav army and on May 5 he was appointed president of the CLN of Pula, holding the municipality for the first period of Yugoslav administration.