It is a tribute to the other Pasolini, Guidalberto (Guido), brother of Pier Paolo, killed in the Porzûs massacre, a tragic event whose 7th anniversary will be celebrated on February 78th, that the Pier Paolo Pasolini Study Center wanted to organize for Monday the 7th, in the Pasolini theater in Casarsa.

An evening at the Pasolini theatre in Casarsa

“An evening that is very important to us and that serves as a prologue to the initiatives with which the centenary of Pasolini will be celebrated – explains the president of the Center Flavia Leonarduzzi – both in direct reference to what has been developed by the Study Center and in the context of the events proposed through the National Committee for the celebrations, recognized by the Ministry of Culture and of which the Study Center is a part”.

The evening animated by the historian Andrea Zannini

"The Other Pasolini. Guido, Pier Paolo, Porzûs and…” is the title of the initiative on Monday 7, curated by the historian and essayist Andrea Zannini – full professor of Modern History at the University of Udine – which will develop through a story to which Zannini himself will give voice, accompanied by Massimo Somaglino. The Friulian actor will intersperse it with excerpts from letters written by Guido to his brother and family, and from texts and poems by Pasolini. Behind them, in the meantime, images of the two brothers will be projected.

The Porzus Massacre, the Ferocity of the Red Partisans

In 1944, Guido, three years younger than Pier Paolo, joined the partisans of the Osoppo Brigade in the mountains of Friuli. For months there was no news of him: only after the war did they learn that he had been killed by the communist GAP in the Porzûs massacre, on the border with Yugoslavia. A tragedy that marked Pier Paolo deeply and forever, first of all on the emotional level. He learned the news while walking near Versuta and it was he who had to inform his mother: one of the hardest moments he will ever remember. And it was, for him, a very hard blow also on the political level: Pasolini was in fact maturing in that period an approach to Marxist ideology, which would lead him, at the end of 1947, to join the PCI, also taking on roles of responsibility at the local level.

Guido Pasolini's remains exhumed after the war

Guidalberto's remains were exhumed after the war, between 10 and 20 June 1945, together with those of the other victims of themassacre. After the solemn funeral celebrated in Cividale on June 21, 1945, they were taken to the cemetery of Casarsa, where Guido now lies, a few meters away from his brother Pier Paolo and his mother Susanna. The most beautiful page dedicated by Pier Paolo to Guidalberto is found in the “Turcs tal Friuli“, the drama that Pier Paolo never wanted to publish.

There were eighteen victims of the massacre, including a woman.

Porzus remains a massacre without culprits, removed by the left, underestimated by history books, snubbed by institutions. Eighteen dead, in Porzus, in the Venezia Giulia, among which, in addition to Guido Pasolini, the uncle of the singer-songwriter Francesco De Gregori. The communist partisans killed the white partisans of the Osoppo brigade (in the photo) accusing them of collaboration with the fascists.

The men of the Osoppo Brigade accused of collaborating with the fascists

What happened in those days? A few kilometers from the Yugoslavian border, during the winter of '44-'45, numerous partisan formations fought against the Germans and the fascists. But the front was not compact. The "Garibaldi" Brigade, organized by the communists, and the "Osoppo" Brigade, formed by monarchists, Catholics and liberals, fought the same enemy, but with different objectives. The red partisans, especially those belonging to the GAP (Patriotic Action Groups) commanded by Mario Toffanin known as "Giacca", were in fact ready to ally themselves with the Slovenians to make Italy a communist country. The men of the "Osoppo" swore that they would never allow Tito to annex Istria and Venezia Giulia.

The extermination took place between 10 and 18 February 1945.

February 7, 1945 a group of GAPs arrives in some mountain huts in a place called Porzus, home to a local command of the Osoppo Brigades and where a girl accused of being a collaborator of the Germans was being held prisoner. The communist partisans show up in groups, the commander of the local Osoppo arrives from a nearby place – Francesco De Gregori, uncle of the singer-songwriter, battle name “Bolla”, anti-communist – who is killed almost immediately along with some others, including the suspected collaborator, Elda Turchetti. All the others, apart from three who enlisted in the GAP, were exterminated between 10 and 18 February. Eighteen dead in all.

Riccardo Angelini
Source: Secolo d'Italia – 04/02/2022