Claudia Ruggerini

Claudia Ruggerini (also known as Marisa; 1 February 1922, Milan - 4 June 2016, Rome) was an Italian partisan, activist, doctor, and neuropsychiatrist. During World War II, she joined the Italian Communist Party to overthrow the government of Benito Mussolini in July 1943. Early life and family Claudia Ruggerini was an Italian neuropsychiatrist, partisan, activist, and physician born in Milan, the former Italian Kingdom, in 1922. Claudia was born into a poor family in Via Padova 36, which was a street of immigrants in the 1920s. Her family was from Brianza. Her mother worked as a masseuse and later as a free trader, while her grandmother was a foundling. The women in Claudia's childhood are what drove and inspired her. Later in life, Claudia always credited her mother's work ethic and intelligence while looking back on her past academic and professional opportunities. Claudia's father was a part of the Italian Communist Party. Her father was beaten to death in 1934 by a fascists patrol in front of his house when Claudia was just twelve years old. Claudia watched her father from the window as he was horrifically beaten and left for dead. She referred to herself as “a nerd,” as she was incredibly studious and had a love for the arts. This love for the arts is what precipitated her determination to bring awareness to anti-fascism. In Venice, where her Mother went to massage rich clients, Claudia went to churches, to the Biennale of art, and to see films of the film festival, which could not circulate in the fascist and provincial Italy. Claudia's rebellious nature could be seen in her character since early childhood. In Kindergarten, Claudia's teachers discovered that she was left-handed, a calamity that, at the time, needed to be “corrected.” While the teachers succeeded in retraining Claudia to use her right hand, this encounter seemed to awaken the “rebel” in her. Her rebellious, witty nature is what eventually propelled her to join the Milanese anti-fascist resistance against Benito Mussolini Education When Claudia started high school, a teacher directed her to the humanities, and in one session, she obtained her teaching diploma in classical studies. Afterwards, Claudia began her studies at University of Industrial Chemistry, then switching her focal point to medicine in 1942. When at the university, she met Hans, who was her "sweetheart", and (as she would only discover after the war) had emigrated from Vienna because he was a Jew.