Etrusco Benci
{{short description|Italian partisan (1905–1943)}}
{{infobox person
| name = Etrusco Benci
| image = Etrusco Benci.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1905|6|25}}
| birth_place = Grosseto, Kingdom of Italy
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1943|6|12|1905|6|25}}
| death_place = Brussels, Belgium
| occupation = Typographer
| party = Italian Republican Party
Italian Communist Party
}}
Etrusco Benci (25 June 1905 – 12 June 1943) was an Italian anti-fascist typographer who fought in the Spanish Civil War and was active in the French and Belgian Resistance.
Life
Republican activist and professional typographer, in 1935 Benci clandestinely emigrated to France. In Nice, where he had found work, he joined the Communist Party and, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, was among the first to rush to the nearby Republic, where he enlisted in the anarchist formations of the POUM. Wounded in Zaragoza and decorated for his bravery, Benci returned to France after Franco's victory. French authorities interned him at Gurs, but he managed to escape from the camp at the beginning of World War II. With the German occupation, Benci participated in the resistance movement alongside French fighters. He then moved to Belgium to continue guerrilla activities against the Germans. Captured by the Nazis along with two hundred other Belgian partisans in February 1943, Benci was executed by firing squad on 12 June 1943.{{Cite web|url=https://www.anpi.it/biografia/etrusco-benci|title=Etrusco Benci|publisher=ANPI|access-date=2 May 2025}}
Commemorations
File:Stolperstein für Etrusco Benci (Brussels).jpg
Etrusco Benci is buried in the Enclosure of the executed, a cemetery for Resistance fallen in Brussels located in the municipality of Schaerbeek.{{Cite news|url=https://www.ansa.it/europa/notizie/rubriche/altrenews/2025/04/25/a-bruxelles-lomaggio-ai-partigiani-italiani-uccisi-in-belgio_569ca451-422b-4f33-a352-88b48fddf4a5.html|title=A Bruxelles l'omaggio ai partigiani italiani uccisi in Belgio|date=25 April 2025|work=Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata}} In November 2018, a Stolperstein was placed in his memory at his residence at 10 Rue de la Perle in Molenbeek.{{Cite web|url=https://stolpersteine-guide.de/map/biografie/2515/benci|title=Etrusco Benci|work=Stolpersteine Guide}}
In Grosseto, a square within the city's school district has been dedicated to him.{{Cite web|url=http://www.cantieridellamemoria.it/it/57/la-toponomastica-della-cittadella|title=La toponomastica della Cittadella|work=Cantieri della memoria}} Benci is also remembered together with Albo Bellucci and Giuseppe Scopetani with a plaster bas-relief, created by Tolomeo Faccendi, located in the atrium of the Town Hall.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pietredellamemoria.it/pietre/lapide-ad-albo-bellucci-giuseppe-scopetani-ed-etrusco-benci-grosseto/|title=Lapide ad Albo Bellucci, Giuseppe Scopetani ed Etrusco Benci – Grosseto|work=Pietre della memoria}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.cantieridellamemoria.it/it/55/il-bassorilievo-di-tolomeo-faccendi-per-tullio-mazzoncini|title=Il bassorilievo di Tolomeo Faccendi per Tullio Mazzoncini|work=Cantieri della memoria}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite book|title=Volontari antifascisti toscani nella guerra civile spagnola|editor1=Ilaria Cansella|editor2=Francesco Cecchetti|publisher=Effigi|place=Arcidosso|year=2012}}
- {{Cite book|title=Du rouge au tricolore. Les communistes belges de 1939 à 1944 : un aspect de l'histoire de la Résistance en Belgique|author=José Gotovitch|year=1992|publisher=Editions Labor|place=Charleroi}}
- {{Cite book|title=Gli italiani del maquis|author=Pia Leonetti Carena|year=1966|publisher=Cino Del Duca}}
- {{Cite book|title=Gli italiani del Belgio. Storia e storie di due secoli di migrazioni|author=Anne Morelli|year=2004|publisher=Editoriale Umbra|place=Foligno}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{Cite web|url=https://www.anpi.it/biografia/etrusco-benci|title=Etrusco Benci|publisher=ANPI|access-date=2 May 2025}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benci, Etrusco}}
Category:Communist members of the French Resistance
Category:French Resistance members
Category:Belgian resistance members
Category:Italian anti-fascists
Category:Italian Anti-Francoists
Category:Italian people of the Spanish Civil War
Category:Italian people executed by Nazi Germany