Obituary Giacomo Notari (1927 – 2024)

29. November 2024

It is with sadness and respect for his life’s work that we bid farewell to Giacomo Notari, partisan and long-time witness to the Italian Resistanza. He died a few days before his 97th birthday in his home town of Marmoreto di Busana (Reggio Emilia).

Born on December 6, 1927, he – like his brother Giuseppe – joined the partisans as a teenager. He joined the 145th Garibaldi Brigade “Franco Casoli” at the age of 17. His combat name was “Willy”. Their operational area was the mountains near Reggio and the area around Ligonchio, Busana and Cervarezza. He took part in sabotage operations against bridges and telephone lines. Of particular importance during the retreat of the German units in April 1945 was the defense of the Ligonchio hydroelectric power plant against its planned destruction. His brother Giuseppe was killed on March 11, 1945. Giacomo Notari was not only a fighter, he was also a staunch anti-fascist and became a member of the Communist Party as a partisan.

After the end of the war, he alternated between working in his father’s fields and political commitment to a new anti-fascist beginning. He attended evening classes at the “party school” in Bologna, became a local councillor in Busana and was elected to the provincial council in the early 1960s. He was mayor of Ligonchio from 1970 to 1983 and president of ANPI in the province of Reggio Emilia from 2002 to 2016. He combined this role with his great commitment as a contemporary witness. He initiated and supported regional commemorative work and the “Banditi e rebelli” exhibition, which also received international recognition. In this work, he was connected with FIR.

Giacomo Notari lived in his home town of Marmoreto di Busana until the end. He died at the end of November 2024. We express our deepest sympathy to his family and his comrades from ANPI on the loss of this important anti-fascist personality.