La Storia Siamo Noi (Rai Doc Series)

Nicoletta Strambelli (born 9 April 1948), known professionally as Patty Pravo, is an Italian singer. She debuted in 1966 and remained most successful commercially for the rest of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Having suffered a decline in popularity in the following decade, she experienced a career revival in mid-late 1990s and reinstated her position on Italian music charts. Her most popular songs include "La bambola" (1968), "Pazza idea" (1973), "Pensiero stupendo" (1978), and "...E dimmi che non vuoi morire" (1997). She scored fourteen top 10 albums (including three number ones) and twelve top 10 singles (including two number ones) in her native Italy. Pravo participated at the Sanremo Music Festival ten times, most recently in 2019, and has won three critics' awards. At the age of seventeen, she moved to Rome where she began her career dancing and singing at the newly opened Piper Club, which earned her the nickname "la ragazza del Piper" ("The Piper Girl"). There is a number of versions as to the origins of her stage name, but most likely, "Patty" came from names of English girls that the singer was dining with on one occasion, and "Pravo" was inspired by the expression "anime prave" ("wicked souls") from Dante Alghieri's Divine Comedy. In 1968, she released what would become one of her signature songs, "La bambola" ("The Doll"). It was a number 1 hit in Italy for nine consecutive weeks, and also charted internationally in Europe and South America. The single sold a million copies within months and was later awarded a gold disc. Pravo found success in France, where she was dubbed "Italian Édith Piaf" for her interpretation of "Non, je ne regrette rien". In 1973, the singer reunited with her former label RCA and released what would become one of the biggest hits of her career, the ballad "Pazza idea" ("Crazy Idea"). It spent two months atop the Italian singles chart, staying consecutively in the top 5 for over four months, eventually selling in over 1,5 million copies. The song's parent album, also titled Pazza idea, was a number 1 on the Italian sales chart six weeks in a row. At the end of 1977, Pravo signed with RCA for the third time, and the following year released the single "Pensiero stupendo" ("Wonderful Thought"). It became one of her biggest hits, reaching no. 2 in the Italian chart and staying in the top 5 for nine consecutive weeks. Following the hostility of the Italian press, and her disappointment in Italian music scene, Pravo moved to the United States in the early 80s. Her 1984 single "Per una bambola" ("For a Doll") won the critics' award at the Sanremo Festival and was a top 20 chart success. Pravo celebrated the 30th anniversary of her musical debut in 1996 and embarked on a greatest hits tour. In 1997, the singer once again participated in the Sanremo Festival. This time it was a triumph and the ballad "...E dimmi che non vuoi morire" ("...And Tell Me You Don't Want to Die") won the Mia Martini critics' award in addition to placing 8th in the voting contest. It then entered the Italian sales chart at no. 2, turning out not only Patty's biggest hit in nearly 20 years, but also one of her most popular songs ever. The success of the song sparked a renewed interest in her music.

Ornella Vanoni OMRI (Order of Merit of the Italian Republic,) born 22 September 1934, is an Italian singer. She is one of the longest-standing Italian artists, having started performing in 1956. She has released about 112 works between LP, EPs and greatest hits albums, and is considered one of the most popular interpreters of Italian pop music. During her long career she has sold over 65 million records. Vanoni started her artistic career in 1960 as a theatre actress. She mostly performed in Bertolt Brecht works, under the direction of Giorgio Strehler at his Piccolo Teatro in Milan. At the same time, she started a music career. The folklore and popular songs she explored in her early records, especially the ones about the criminal underworld in Milan (Canzoni della Mala), resulted in her receiving the nickname cantante della mala ("Underworld Singer") for singing Milanese dialect songs on that genre. The inclusion of her song "L'Appuntamento" (1970) in the soundtrack of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve in 2004 sparked a worldwide renewal of interest in her music. In addition to her music career, Ornella Vanoni was active in other creative fields, starring in stage and TV shows, movies.

Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 19 July 1992, Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Via D'Amelio, near his mother's house in Palermo. Neither Borsellino nor Falcone had intended to get involved in the struggle against the Mafia. They were assigned cases involving the Mafia that continued to expand and became disturbed by what they discovered. They saw colleagues murdered fighting the Mafia and it became increasingly impossible to turn back. One of his accomplishments was the arrest of six Mafia members in 1980, including Leoluca Bagarella, the brother-in-law of Mafia boss Salvatore Riina. His close co-investigator, Carabiniere captain Emanuele Basile, was murdered by the Mafia the same year. Borsellino was assigned to investigate the murder and became a special target when he signed the arrest warrant for Francesco Madonia on a charge of ordering the murder of Basile. He was assigned police protection. He became part of Palermo's Antimafia Pool, created by Chinnici. The Antimafia pool was a group of investigating magistrates who closely worked together sharing information to diffuse responsibility and to prevent one person from becoming the sole institutional memory and solitary target. The group consisted of Falcone, Borsellino, Giuseppe Di Lello and Leonardo Guarnotta. In 1983, Rocco Chinnici was killed by a bomb in his car. His place in the Antimafia Pool was taken by Antonino Caponnetto. The group pooled together several investigations into the Mafia, which would result in the Maxi Trial against the Mafia starting in February 1986 and which lasted until December 1987. A total of 475 mafiosi were indicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities. Most were convicted and, to the surprise of many, the convictions were upheld several years later in January 1992, after the final stage of appeal. The importance of the trial was that the existence of Cosa Nostra was finally judicially confirmed. In 1986, Borsellino became head of the Public Prosecution Office of Marsala, continuing his personal campaign against the Mafia bosses, in the most populated city of the province of Trapani. His links with Falcone, who remained in Palermo, allowed him to cover the entirety of Western Sicily for investigations. In 1987, after Caponnetto resigned due to illness, Borsellino was the protagonist of a great protest about the unsuccessful nomination of his friend Falcone as head of the Antimafia Pool. On 23 May 1992, Falcone, his wife and three police bodyguards were killed by a bomb planted under the highway outside of Palermo. Giovanni Brusca later claimed that 'boss of bosses' Salvatore Riina had told him that after the assassination of Falcone, there were indirect negotiations with the government. Former interior minister Nicola Mancino later said this was not true. In July 2012, Mancino was ordered to stand trial on charges of withholding evidence on 1992 talks between the Italian state and the Mafia and the killings of Falcone and Borsellino. Some prosecutors have theorized that Borsellino was killed because he had found out about the negotiations. On 17 July 1992, Borsellino went to Rome where he was told by Gaspare Mutolo, a Mafia member turned informer, of two allegedly corrupt officials: Bruno Contrada, former head of Palermo Flying Squad, now working for the secret service (SISDE), and anti-Mafia prosecutor Domenico Signorino. Borsellino considered Signorino a friend and was deeply troubled by the allegation. He was further disconcerted when the meeting was interrupted by a call from the Minister of the Interior, Nicola Mancino, requesting his immediate presence. Borsellino attended to discover that Contrada was there, and knew about the supposedly secret meeting with the informer. On 19 July 1992, Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Via D'Amelio, near his mother's house in Palermo, less than two months after the death of his friend Falcone in the Capaci bombing. The bomb attack also claimed the lives of five police officers: Agostino Catalano, Walter Cosina, Emanuela Loi (the first Italian policewoman to be killed in the line of duty), Vincenzo Li Muli and Claudio Traina. Dozens of mafiosi were sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement in Borsellino's murder.

Giovanni Falcone (18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci. His life parallels that of his close friend Paolo Borsellino. They both spent their early years in the same neighbourhood in Palermo. Though many of their childhood friends grew up in an environment in which the Mafia had a strong presence, both men fought against organised crime as prosecuting magistrates. They were both killed in 1992, a few weeks apart. In recognition of their tireless effort and sacrifice during the anti-mafia trials, they were both awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Valor and were acknowledged as martyrs of the Catholic Church. They were also named as heroes of the last 60 years in the 13 November 2006 issue of Time. In the major crackdown against the Mafia following Falcone and Borsellino's deaths, Riina was arrested on 15 January 1993, and was serving a life sentence, until his death in 2017, for sanctioning the murders of both magistrates as well as many other crimes. Brusca, also known as lo scannacristiani (the people slaughterer), was convicted of Falcone's murder. He was one of Riina's associates and admitted to detonating the explosives. Dozens of mafiosi were sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement in Falcone's murder.

Pier Paolo Pasolini (5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, writer, film director, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist and a political figure. He is known for directing The Gospel According to St. Matthew, the films from Trilogy of Life (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights) and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. A controversial personality due to his straightforward style, Pasolini's legacy remains contentious. Openly gay while also a vocal advocate for heritage language revival, cultural conservatism, and Christian values in his youth, Pasolini became an avowed Marxist shortly after the end of World War II. He began voicing extremely harsh criticism of Italian petty bourgeoisie and what he saw as the Americanization, cultural degeneration, and greed-driven consumerism taking over Italian culture. As a filmmaker, Pasolini often juxtaposed socio-political polemics with an extremely graphic and critical examination of taboo sexual matters. A prominent protagonist of the Roman intellectual scene during the post-war era, Pasolini became an established and major figure in European literature and cinema. Pasolini's unsolved and extremely brutal abduction, torture, and murder at Ostia in November 1975 prompted an outcry in Italy, where it continues to be a matter of heated debate. The main source regarding Pasolini's views of the student movement is his poem "Il PCI ai giovani" ('The PCI to Young People'), written after the Battle of Valle Giulia. Addressing the students, he tells them that, unlike the international news media which has been reporting on them, he will not flatter them. He points out that they are the children of the bourgeoisie ('You have the faces of daddy's boys / I hate you like I hate your dads'), before stating 'When you and the policemen were throwing punches yesterday at Valle Giulia / I was sympathising with the policemen'. He explained that this sympathy was because the policemen were figli di poveri ('children of the poor'). The poem highlights the aspect of generational struggle within the bourgeoisie represented by the student movement: The 1968 revolt was seen by Pasolini as an internal, benign reform of the establishment in Italy, since the protesters were part of the petite bourgeoisie. The poem also implied a class hypocrisy on the part of the establishment towards the protesters, asking whether young workers would be treated similarly if they behaved in the same way: 'Occupy the universities / but say that the same idea comes / to young workers / So: Corriere della Sera and Stampa, Newsweek and Le Monde / will have so much care / in trying to understand their problems? / Will the police just get a bit of a fight / inside an occupied factory? / But above all, how could / a young worker be allowed to occupy a factory / without dying of hunger after three days?' Pasolini suggested that the police were the true proletariat, sent to fight for a poor salary and for reasons which they could not understand, against pampered boys of their same age because they had not had the fortune of being able to study, referring to policemen as "sons of proletarian southerners, beaten up by arrogant daddy's boys". Pasolini's stance finds its roots in the belief that a Copernican change was taking place in Italian society and the world. Linked to that very idea, he was also an ardent critic of consumismo, i.e. consumerism, which he felt had rapidly destroyed Italian society from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. He described the coprophagia scenes in Salò as a comment on the processed food industry. That change is related to the loss of humanism and the expansion of productivity as central to the human condition, which he despised. He found that 'new culture' was degrading and vulgar. According to Pasolini scholar Simona Bondavalli, Pasolini's definition of neo-capitalism as a "new fascism" enforced uniform conformity without resorting to coercive means. As Pasolini put it, "No Fascist centralism succeeded in doing what the centralism of consumer culture did." A debate TV programme recorded in 1971, where he denounced censorship, was not actually aired until the day following his murder in November 1975. His opposition to the liberalization of abortion law made him unpopular on the left. Pasolini was murdered on 2 November 1975 at a beach in Ostia. Almost unrecognizable, Pasolini was savagely beaten and also run over several times with his own car. Multiple bones were broken and his testicles were crushed by what appeared to have been a metal bar. An autopsy revealed that his body had been partially burned with gasoline after his death. Pasolini's murder has never been sufficiently clarified.

Leonardo Sciascia (8 January 1921 – 20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including Porte Aperte (1990; Open Doors), Cadaveri Eccellenti (1976; Illustrious Corpses), Todo Modo (also 1976) and Il giorno della civetta (1968; The Day of the Owl). He is one of the greatest literary figures in the European literature of the 20th century. Sciascia was born in Racalmuto, Sicily, on 8 January 1921. In 1935, his family moved to Caltanissetta, where Sciascia studied under Vitaliano Brancati, who would become his model in writing and introduce him to French novelists. From Giuseppe Granata, future Communist member of the Italian Senate, Sciascia learned about the French Enlightenment and American literature. In 1948, his brother committed suicide, an event which profoundly impacted Sciascia. Sciascia's first work, Favole della dittatura (Fables of the Dictatorship), a satire on fascism in Italy, was published in 1950. This was followed in 1952 by La Sicilia, il suo cuore (Sicily, its Heart), his first and only poetry collection, illustrated by Emilio Greco. The following year Sciascia won the Premio Pirandello, awarded by the Sicilian Region, for his essay "Pirandello e il pirandellismo" ("Pirandello and Pirandellism"). In the autumn of 1957, he published Gli zii di Sicilia (Uncles of Sicily), which includes sharp views about themes such as the influence of the U.S. and of communism in the world, and the 19th century unification of Italy. After one year in Rome, Sciascia moved back to Caltanissetta, in Sicily. In 1961, he published Il giorno della civetta (The Day of the Owl), one of his most famous novels, about the Mafia, and in 1963, the historical novel Il consiglio d'Egitto (The Council of Egypt), set in 18th-century Palermo. After a series of essays, in 1965 he wrote the play L'onorevole (The Honorable), a denunciation of the complicities between government and the mafia. Another political mystery novel is 1966's A ciascuno il suo (To Each His Own). The following year Sciascia moved to Palermo. In 1969, he began a collaboration with Il Corriere della Sera. In 1971, Sciascia returned again to mystery with Il contesto (The Challenge), which inspired Francesco Rosi's movie Cadaveri eccellenti (1976; Illustrious Corpses). The novel created Polemics, due to its merciless portrait of Italian politics, as did his novel Todo modo (1974; One Way or Another), due to its description of Italy's Catholic clergy. At the 1975 communal elections in Palermo, Sciascia ran as an independent within the Italian Communist Party (PCI) slate and was elected to the city council. In the same year, he published La scomparsa di Majorana (The Disappearance of Majorana), dealing with the mysterious disappearance of scientist Ettore Majorana. In 1977, he resigned from PCI, due to his opposition to any dealing with the Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democratic party). Later, he would be elected to the Italian and European Parliament with the Radical Party. Sciascia's last works include the essay collection Cronachette (1985), the novels Porte aperte (1987; Open Doors) and Il cavaliere e la morte (1988; The Horseman and Death). He died on 20 November 1989 in Palermo.

Oriana Fallaci (29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for her coverage of war and revolution, and her "long, aggressive and revealing interviews" with many world leaders during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Fallaci's book Interview with History contains interviews with Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Yasser Arafat, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Willy Brandt, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Henry Kissinger, South Vietnamese president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, and North Vietnamese general Võ Nguyên Giáp during the Vietnam War. The interview with Kissinger was published in The New Republic, with Kissinger describing himself as "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse." Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press". Fallaci also interviewed Deng Xiaoping, Andreas Papandreou, Ayatollah Khomeini, Haile Selassie, Lech Wałęsa, Muammar Gaddafi, Mário Soares, George Habash, and Alfred Hitchcock, among others. After retirement, she returned to the spotlight after writing a series of controversial articles and books critical of Islam that aroused condemnation for Islamophobia as well as popular support. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, Fallaci wrote three books critical of Islamic extremists and Islam in general, and in both writing and interviews warned that Europe was "too tolerant of Muslims". The first book was The Rage and the Pride (initially a four-page article in Corriere della Sera, the major national newspaper in Italy). In this book, she calls for the destruction of what is now called Islam. The Rage and the Pride and The Force of Reason both became bestsellers, the former selling over one million copies in Italy and 500,000 in the rest of Europe, and are considered part of the "Eurabia genre". Her third book in the same vein, Oriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa – L'Apocalisse ("The Apocalypse"), sold some two million copies globally, the three books together selling four million copies in Italy. Fallaci received much public attention for her controversial writings and statements on Islam and European Muslims. Fallaci received criticism as well as support in Italy, where her books have sold over one million copies. At the first European Social Forum, which was held in Florence in November 2002, Fallaci invited the people of Florence to cease commercial operations and stay home. Furthermore, she compared the ESF to the Nazi occupation of Florence. In 2002, in Switzerland, the Islamic Center and the Somal Association of Geneva, SOS Racisme of Lausanne, along with a private citizen, sued Fallaci for the allegedly racist content of The Rage and the Pride. In November 2002, a Swiss judge issued an arrest warrant for violations of articles 261 and 261 bis of the Swiss criminal code and requested that the Italian government either prosecute or extradite her. Italian Minister of Justice Roberto Castelli rejected the request on the grounds that the Constitution of Italy protects freedom of speech. On 3 June 2005, Fallaci published on the front page of the Corriere della Sera a highly controversial article titled "Noi Cannibali e i figli di Medea" ("We cannibals and Medea's offspring"), urging women not to vote for a public referendum about artificial insemination that was held on 12 and 13 June 2006. In her 2004 book Oriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa – L'Apocalisse, Fallaci expressed her opposition to same-sex marriage, and also against parenting by same-sex couples. She also asserted the existence of a "gay lobby", through which "the homosexuals themselves are discriminating against others". Fallaci died on 15 September 2006, in her native Florence, from cancer. She was buried in the Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori in the southern suburb of Florence, Galluzzo, alongside her family members and a stone memorial to Alexandros Panagoulis, her late companion.

La Storia siamo Noi (English: We Are History) is a RAI television program exploring history created in 1997 by Renato Parascandolo, who at the time headed Rai Educational. The program has been hosted by Maurizio Maggiani, Corrado Augias, Michele Mirabella, and Marino Sinibaldi from 1997 to 2002, and currently by Giovanni Minoli from 2002 to 2010 and since 2024. The show's title is taken from the opening line of Francesco De Gregori's song "La storia," (The History) from the album "Scachi e tarocchi." De Gregori's tune also served as the program's theme song during Renato Parascandolo's direction. Currently, the program's theme song is the opening theme of the first movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. Each episode addresses a theme related to events in 20th-century history through documentaries, films, and contemporary interviews, sometimes combined with reconstructions. The program's presentation and investigation method is analytical, and the events, especially those that shaped the country's transformation, are presented in chronological order. In addition to strictly historical events, the program also covers famous unsolved mysteries, current affairs, and the figures who shaped the 20th century, all supported by the vast Rai archive. The project consists of 240 hours of history per year. Particular emphasis is placed on the sociological aspect of history. Aldo Moro (September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and prominent member of Christian Democracy (DC) and its centre-left wing. He served as prime minister of Italy for five terms from December 1963 to June 1968 and from November 1974 to July 1976. Moro served as Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 1969 to July 1972 and again from July 1973 to November 1974. During his ministry, he implemented a pro-Arab policy. He was Italy's Minister of Justice and of Public Education during the 1950s. From March 1959 until January 1964, he served as secretary of the DC. On 16 March 1978, he was kidnapped by the far-left terrorist group Red Brigades; he was killed after 55 days of captivity. Moro was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war prime ministers, leading the country for more than six years. Moro implemented a series of social and economic reforms that modernized the country. Due to his accommodation with the Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, known as the Historic Compromise, Moro is widely considered to be one of the most prominent fathers of the modern Italian centre-left. On 16 March 1978, on via Fani, in Rome, a unit of the militant far-left organization known as Red Brigades (BR) blocked the two-car convoy that was carrying Moro and kidnapped him, murdering his five bodyguards. On the day of his kidnapping, Moro was on his way to a session of the Chamber of Deputies, where a discussion was to take place regarding a vote of confidence for a new government led by Andreotti, that would for the first time have the support of the PCI. It was to be the first implementation of Moro's strategic political vision. Additionally, he was considered to be the frontrunner for the 1978 Italian presidential election. In the following days, trade unions called for a general strike, while security forces made hundreds of raids in Rome, Milan, Turin, and other cities searching for Moro's location, as places linked to Moro and the kidnapping became centres of minor pilgrimage. An estimated 16 million Italians took part in the mass public demonstrations. After a few days, even Pope Paul VI, a close friend of Moro's, intervened, offering himself in exchange for Moro. Despite the 13,000 police officers mobilized, 40,000 house searches, and 72,000 roadblocks, the police did not carry out any arrests. The event has been compared to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and referred to as Italy's 9/11. Although Italy was not the sole European country to experience terrorism, the list including France, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, the murder of Moro was the apogee of Italy's Years of Lead. Many details of Moro's kidnapping remain heavily disputed and unknown.

"La Storia siamo Noi" di Giovanni Minoli analizza, attualizzandoli, i grandi avvenimenti del passato: fatti, luoghi, personaggi, protagonisti e non della nostra storia. In questa puntata la storia del processo che portò alla fucilazione di alcuni gerarchi fascisti accusati di tradimento, l'11 gennaio 1944. Tra di loro anche il genero di Mussolini, marito di Edda, Galeazzo Ciano. Il processo di Verona fu un procedimento giudiziario avvenuto, dall'8 al 10 gennaio 1944, nell'omonima città veneta che, all'epoca, era sotto la giurisdizione della Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI). Il processo si tenne a Verona in Castelvecchio, nella sala da concerto degli Amici della Musica dove, nel novembre dell'anno precedente, aveva avuto luogo il I Congresso nazionale del Partito Fascista Repubblicano (PFR). Esso vide sul banco degli imputati sei membri del Gran consiglio del fascismo che, nella seduta del 25 luglio 1943, avevano sfiduciato Benito Mussolini dalla carica di Presidente del Consiglio. Le condanne a morte furono eseguite l'11 gennaio 1944 al poligono di tiro di forte San Procolo da un plotone di 30 militi fascisti comandati da Nicola Furlotti. Di tale esecuzione resta anche un filmato. Dei diciannove membri del Gran Consiglio del Fascismo accusati, soltanto sei erano presenti al processo: tra questi Tullio Cianetti, che, dopo aver ritrattato, venne condannato a 30 anni di reclusione. Gli altri cinque, vale a dire Galeazzo Ciano, Emilio De Bono, Luciano Gottardi, Giovanni Marinelli e Carlo Pareschi, furono condannati a morte e fucilati alla schiena. Gli imputati assenti, condannati a morte in contumacia, furono Dino Grandi, Giuseppe Bottai, Luigi Federzoni, Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Umberto Albini, Giacomo Acerbo, Dino Alfieri, Giuseppe Bastianini, Annio Bignardi, Giovanni Balella, Alfredo De Marsico, Alberto De Stefani ed Edmondo Rossoni; nessuno di loro venne catturato dalle autorità repubblichine e tutti sopravvissero alla Seconda guerra mondiale.

Italo Balbo (Quartesana, 6 giugno 1896 – Tobruch, 28 giugno 1940) è stato un politico, generale e aviatore italiano. Iscritto al Partito Nazionale Fascista dal 1920, fu prima squadrista e poi uno dei quadrumviri della marcia su Roma, diventando in seguito comandante generale della Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, quindi nel 1925 sottosegretario all'economia nazionale e poi alla Regia Aeronautica. Nel 1929 assunse l'incarico di ministro dell'aeronautica, veste in cui promosse e guidò diverse crociere aeree come la crociera aerea transatlantica Italia-Brasile e la crociera aerea del Decennale. Fu insignito del grado di Maresciallo dell'aria. Considerato un potenziale rivale politico di Benito Mussolini a causa della grande popolarità raggiunta, Balbo fu nominato nel 1934 governatore della Libia. Allo scoppio della seconda guerra mondiale organizzò voli di guerra per catturare alcuni veicoli del Regno Unito, e proprio durante il ritorno da uno di questi voli, il 28 giugno 1940, fu abbattuto per errore dalla contraerea italiana sopra Tobruch. La vedova di Balbo, Emanuela Florio, sostenne che la morte del marito fosse dovuta a un ordine giunto da Roma; l'insistenza nelle accuse portò Temistocle Testa, prefetto di Ferrara (dove la donna viveva), a sollecitare l'intervento del capo della polizia Bocchini «...perché si lascia andare a dichiarazioni compromettenti».