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 Monday's event, curated by historian and essayist Andrea Zannini, Professor of Modern History at the University of Udine. The event will unfold through a narrative narrated by Zannini himself, accompanied by Massimo Somaglino. The Friulian actor will intersperse the narration with excerpts from letters Guido wrote to his brother and family, as well as texts and poems by Pasolini. Images of the two brothers will be projected behind them.

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 June 10 and 20, 1945, along with those of the other victims of the massacre. After the solemn funeral held in Cividale on June 21, 1945, they were taken to the Casarsa cemetery, where Guido now lies, a few meters away from his brother Pier Paolo and his mother Susanna. The most beautiful passage Pier Paolo dedicated to Guidalberto is found in " Turcs tal Friul ," the play that Pier Paolo never wanted published.

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.

On February 7, 1945, a group of GAP (Italian partisans) arrived at some mountain huts in a town called Porzus, home to a local command of the Osoppo Brigades, where a young woman accused of collaborating with the Germans was being held prisoner. Communist partisans arrived in groups, and the commander of the local Osoppo Brigade—Francesco De Gregori, uncle of the anti-communist singer-songwriter, known by the nom de guerre "Bolla"—arrived from a nearby town. He was killed almost immediately, along with several others, including the suspected collaborator, Elda Turchetti. All the others, except three who enlisted in the GAP, were exterminated between February 10 and 18. Eighteen dead in total.

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