Antonio Mozzanino 

My name was Antonio Mozzanino, and I was born in Craveggia, Val Vigezzo, on November 21, 1920. I died brutally on March 19, 1945, in Caddo, near Domodossola, at just 25 years old. I grew up in a poor family of farmers and pastors, like many others in these Alpine valleys. During World War II, I was an Alpine Artillery soldier in the 1st Regiment. After the 1943 armistice, I walked back from Yugoslavia and joined the Resistance in Ossola. I first joined the Partisan Brigade Perotti and later the 83rd Garibaldi Brigade, where I was known as "Lightning" for my speed and my fiery personality. I loved life and had big dreams, including marrying a widow from Crana with two children. We planned to live in Craveggia, where there’s now a plaque in my memory. Many urged me to flee to Switzerland, but my love for freedom was stronger. As a result, my girlfriend was tortured by the militia, but she never revealed where I was hiding. On March 19 1945, while patrolling the Bognanco Valley, I stopped to celebrate a failed German attack at a local inn. Suddenly, a fascist patrol commander entered, and my comrades fled in fear. I stayed, and about thirty soldiers caught me, beating me and shooting me. They tied me to a vehicle and dragged me through Domodossola, abandoning me in a manure bin, treating me like garbage. But as we farmers know, "diamonds do not come from manure, flowers of freedom are born from it."