Marisa Diena

Marisa Diena (September 29, 1916 – May 8, 2013) was an Italian-Jewish resistance fighter active in World War II. She was a member of the Garibaldi Brigades, a communist partisan resistance group operating in the Torre Pellice mountains. As a child growing up in a fascist-run state, Marisa was encouraged to embrace fascism. Marisa and her family moved to Rome. They moved back in 1943 after Mussolini fell from power. On September 8, 1943, Italy joined forces with Germany and was relabeled as the Italian Social Republic, conceding to Nazi control.

Partisan fighting

Following the German invasion of 1943, the standing underground opposition to fascism emerged as direct, open, and armed resistance. A few days after Nazi occupation of Turin, Italy, Marisa left to join resistance fighting in the mountains of Torre Pellice.

As a woman who passed as Aryan, Marisa was able to use the inherent prejudice against women in her favor, traveling unnoticed and unscrutinized by Nazi forces. During this time she went by the name of Mara, her nom de guerre for her partisan actions, acquiring false identification papers for her activities. Due to her ability to move around in broad daylight, Marisa initially acted as a courier and message deliverer, riding her bicycle from home to home to spread news and intel. The information she collected was then relayed back to the brigade commander. She also took on the role of a trainer, instructing other local women and teaching them to be part of the resistance fighting. Marisa was promoted to the Vice-Commander of Information services for her brigade in 1944.

With over 300,000 partisan fighters in Northern Italy, a national liberation committee was created in the early months of 1945. Collectively they pushed forward to liberate Italy from fascist control, Marisa's brigade liberating Turin on April 25, 1945.

Later life Marisa continued to remain active in her country's politics after the end of World War II, remaining involved with the Italian Communist Party. In 1949, she joined the PCI national female school as a teacher, returning to Turin in 1953 and becoming the female leader of the communist Piedmontese regional committee. She ceased her official commitment to the party in 1957 and became a middle school teacher in 1958. She published an autobiography of her life in 1970, titled "Guerriglia e autogoverno: Brigate Garibaldi nel Piemonte occidentale 1943-1945", and continued to involve herself in the National Association of Italian Partisans throughout the remainder of her life. She died on May 8, 2013, in her home country of Italy.