Senza tornare - 1922-1945: l’esilio antifascista di Umberto Marzocchi

Abstract

Umberto Marzocchi (1900-1986) was an Italian anarchist who spent most of his life in exile as a militant. He fled from Savona in 1922 and returned twenty-three years later. Formerly an Ardito del Popolo and USI trade unionist, he escaped to France. He then fought in Spain in the Francisco Ascaso’s column and eventually he joined the French Maquis. The article, based on many original sources, is centred upon his exile. The narration mixes the misadventures of his private life with accounts from exiled anarchist groups, including his friendship with Camillo Berneri, his contacts with Rosselli and his commitment into the first experiences of anti- fascist armed struggle in Spain and later in France. The Spanish experience deserves attention: the civil war marked deeply the mind and heart of the protagonist with his revolutionary libertarian and self-management experiments, not to mention the irreconcilable conflict with the Communists.