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it:Rinaldo Arnaldi

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Rinaldo Arnaldi (19 June 1914 – 6 September 1944) was an Italian soldier and partisan who died fighting against Nazi German troops for his country. He was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour, Italy's highest award for gallantry. He has been recognised by Vad Yashem as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jewish people from the Holocaust.

Biography
His father (the sources give neither his given name nor his dates), was a municipal official in Dueville, Province of Vicenza; his mother (died 1966) was Mimmo. Rinaldo was born in Dueville. He had an elder brother, Antonio ("Tom"), and a sister, Mary. His father was harassed by the fascists after they took power in 1922 because of his opposition to them. In 1940, Rinaldo graduated from the University of Venice with a doctorate (dottore) in economics, commerce and political science.

His father was a staunch anti-fascist. Rinaldo nevertheless signed up as a carrista to serve his country.

In September 1943, when the Allies and Italy signed the Armistice of Cassibile, he was a sergeant in a tank regiment (carristi) in Vicenza. When the Nazis learned of the Armistice, they forcibly disarmed their Italian former allies. Arnaldi was one of those who, rather than submit, took to the macchia (hilly shrubland) in Altopiano di Asiago, Vicenza. He adopted the nom de guerre 'Loris'. He helped to organise, and became commander of, the partisan unit Brigate «Mazzini» ('Mazzini Brigade', named after the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872)). That Brigata later became a unit within the Divisione Alpina Monte Ortigara ('Alpine Division of Mount Ortigara'), commanded by his friend Giacomo Chilesotti (1912-1945).

On more than one occasion, he helped people at risk from the Nazis – Allied soldiers and Jews – to escape to the safety of neutral Switzerland. Others involved in this work were his sister Mary, alpinist and partisan Gino Soldà (1907-1989), partisan Torquato Fraccon (1887-1945), and parish priest Don Antonio Frigo. In February 1944, he guided a mixed party of nine people (which included a heavily pregnant woman) through the Alps, a difficult journey during winter.

Waffen SS general Karl Wolff (1900-1984) had the duty of suppressing Italian partisans. In September 1944, he decided that acts of resistance and sabotage by partisans operating from Altopiano di Asiago were a nuisance, and should be stopped. He launched a punitive expedition. The two sides met on 6 September. The encounter between infantry supported by armour on the one side and partisans armed with handguns and grenades on the other was one-sided. 22 or 23 partisans, including Arnaldi, were killed.

His comrades recovered his body on 11 September, and gave him makeshift burial.

Posthumous recognition
The 3rd Battalion of Brigate «Mazzini» adopted the name Battaglione Rinaldo Arnaldi in his honour.

On 31 December 1947, he was awarded Italy's Gold Medal of Military Valour. The citation reads:"Per indomita volontà di fiero italiano, subito dopo l’8 settembre 1943 raccolse intorno a sé tra i monti della terra nativa, i giovani anelanti di redimere la Patria oppressa. Organizzatore instancabile e trascinatore entusiasta, fu l’anima ardente della sua brigata e seppe guidare i suoi uomini in aspri cimenti, rifulgendo per insigne coraggio e per sprezzo del pericolo. Molti perseguitati politici e militari alleati evasi dalla prigionia e braccati dal nemico devono la propria salvezza al suo altruismo ed alla sua abnegazione. Sugli spalti di Granezza, titano insuperabile, sosteneva per lunghe ore aspro combattimento e lanciava i suoi partigiani in temerari assalti. Colpito al cuore si accasciava sull’arma arroventata, leggendario eroe, uno contro mille, non vinto che dalla morte e dalla gloria. Zona Vicentina, 8 settembre 1943 - Bosco Nero di Granezza, 6 settembre 1944."

An English translation:"By his indomitable will, this proud Italian, immediately after 8 September 1943, gathered around him in the mountains of his native country young people who longed to redeem the oppressed Fatherland. A tireless organizer and an inspirational motivator, he was the ardent soul of his brigade, who knew how to lead his men in dire situations, shining out for his exceptional courage and his contempt for danger. Many persecuted political and military allies who had escaped captivity and who were hunted by the enemy owed their salvation to his altruism and his abnegation. On the wooded slopes of Granezza, an invincible Titan, he resisted long hours of bitter fighting, and threw his partisans into reckless attacks. Struck in the heart, he collapsed on his red-hot weapon, a legendary hero, one against a thousand, not conquered except by death and by glory. Vicenza, 8 September 1943 - The Black Wood at Granezza, 6 September 1944."

Streets and buildings have been named in his honour, including Via Rinaldo Arnaldi, Dueville, and Centro Rinaldo Arnaldi, Dueville.

Don Antonio wrote down his recollections. On 3 January 1983, Vad Yashem recognised Arnaldi as Righteous Among the Nations.

In 2006, filmmaker Dennis Dellai reconstructed the partisans' last stand at Granezza in the dramatised documentary Così eravamo ('Thus We Were') about the history of Thiene, Vicenza.