Giancarlo Pajetta; Italian Resistance Leader
Giancarlo Pajetta, a leader of the anti-Fascist Resistance in World World II and longtime Communist Party official, has died at the age of 79.
The party said Pajetta died at his home Wednesday of cardiac arrest.
The Turin-born Pajetta’s political leanings became known early. At the age of 14, he was arrested and sent to reform school for distributing anti-Fascist literature.
Pajetta was imprisoned for 10 years, most of that time during the war, and upon release in 1943 took up the fight against occupying German troops.
He served as a Communist Party deputy in Parliament from 1946 until his death and was one of the party’s foreign affairs specialists.
Friends said Pajetta was particularly troubled by the recent split in the party over proposals to drop the word Communist from the name.
“This is the worst moment in my political life,” he said in an interview shortly before his death.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
