Liana Millu

Liana Millu ( born December 21, 1914 in Pisa, Tuscany, † 6 February 2005 in Genoa) was an Italian writer and Holocaust survivor.

Biography

The daughter of a Jewish couple lost their mother early and grew up with her grandparents on mother's side. My father, a station master lived far away from his family. Very early on, she began to be interested in journalism and has written articles for the livornese daily Il Telegrafo, they signed with the name Millu, a modified form of its original name Millul.

From 1937 Millu taught at a school in Montolivo near Volterra. In addition, she continued working as a journalist. Due to the introduced in Fascist Italy racist legislation Millu was terminated. She then worked as a private tutor for a Jewish family in Florence, before she moved in 1940 to Genoa, where they indeed held various professions, but continued to be active as a writer: Under the pseudonym Naila - anagram of her first name Liana - she published in the journal Settimo Giorno two narratives, Il collega and Monte Pio.

In resistance

After the armistice on September 8, 1943 Millu was active in the Italian resistance works: You joined the underground organization Otto ( derived from the name of the founder, Ottorino Balduzzi ) in which had among its tasks, the contact between English, Americans and British prisoners of establish liberated the camp.

During a mission for their organization Millu was arrested after a denunciation in Venice. After the interned in the transit camp Fossoli she was deported to Auschwitz -Birkenau. From there, she was finally transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and after Malkow near Stettin, where it was used for forced labor in a war plant.

In May 1945 Millu was after almost a year freed captive and returns in August back to Italy. Later, she grabbed her function as a teacher again and dedicated himself from their homecoming stories about their deportation.

Works

Her book The Smoke over Birkenau, describes the experiences of six female inmates during their imprisonment in Birkenau, was published in 1947, the same year the first edition of This Is a Man? by Primo Levi, with whom she was good friends. How Millu himself said it began in the first days after the liberation of the work on this.

Her second book, the novel The Bridge of Schwerin, was published in 1978 and tells of her homecoming and the time after the captivity.

In the early 1980s she worked together with Rosario ai campi di Fucile Dalla Liguria sterminio ( From Liguria to the extermination camps ), which was published by the Liguria region, together with the organization ANED, the association of former Italian deportees. Millu even worked for many years in the ANED and held important positions.

Bibliography

• Il fumo di Birkenau, Florence: La Giuntina, new edition 2008, ISBN 9788885943285
• I ponti di Schwerin, Poggibonsi: Lalli 1978, ISBN 9788880121121
• Dalla Liguria ai campi di sterminio
• La camica di Josepha, Genoa: ecig, 1988, ISBN 9788875452506
• Dopo il fumo. Sono il n A- 5384 di Auschwitz -Birkenau, Brescia: Morcelliana 1990, ISBN 9788837217457
• Diary: Il diario del ritorno dal lager, Florence: La Giuntina 2006, ISBN 9788880572459 ( published posthumously )
• Campo di betulle: Shoah, l' ultima di testimonianza Millu Liana, Florence: La Giuntina 2006, ISBN 9788880572503 ( published posthumously )

In German published:

• The Smoke over Birkenau, Munich: Antje Kunstmann 1998, ISBN 9,783,888,971,792th
• The Bridge of Schwerin, Munich: Antje Kunstmann 2000, ISBN 9,783,888,972,003th