Monserrato says goodbye to Claudio Perra, partisan who saw Mussolini's arrest

Monserrato prepares for the last farewell to one of his last ex-combatants: Claudio Perra, monserratino, born in 1923, former royal carabiniere, but - above all - ex fighter and partisan who personally witnessed the arrest of Benito Mussolini.

He surrendered this morning to the ailments of age. Very well known in the circles of former combatants for his great commitment in passing on the stories of the resistance because, as he often said, "young people must not forget".

He held the presidency of the association of ex-combatants for many years, leaving his role only a month ago, on the threshold of the century of age, to assume the honorary presidency.

His was an important and charismatic figure and for this reason he had often participated in initiatives in schools especially to remember the resistance, the last one a few months ago when he was involved by the students of the San Gavino Monreale high school on the occasion of the Liberation Day.

To remember Claudio Perra one of his friends, as well as successor to the presidency of the veterans' association, Gianfranco Vacca: "Today his friend Claudio Perra returned to the Father's House, with whom I had established a very special friendship very similar to the relationship that unites a father to a son. In 2010, the year in which I began to collect the stories of the ex-monserratini fighters in the Second World War, Claudio was the first ex-soldier I interviewed and it was he who introduced me to other ex-combatants, friends of his, giving me thus the opportunity to start a path of war memories that allowed me to collect 25 stories of ex-combatants ".

Even the former mayor of Monserrato and historian Marco Sini recalled the figure of Perra: “He had widely deserved recognition of Memory in books and articles. The latest satisfactions of Claudio Perra, at least in the last two years, have been the video interview for the historical archive of the national ANPI edited by the group of Gad Lerner and the video interview with the historian Dr. Filippo Petrucci for the Memorial Shoah and European Resistance archive in the USA. In addition, the long phone call that the historian Professor Anna Foa made to him about Colonel Frignani, his commander killed by the Nazis in the Fosse Ardeatine. A few days ago when I brought home Salvatore Meloni's book on the Carabinieri Resistance in Rome where Claudio was mentioned among other things ”. Claudio Perra, widower of his wife Milla Putzu a few years ago, thus leaves his children Ines and Francesco but not only that, because at the funeral that will be celebrated tomorrow afternoon at 3 pm in the Redentore church in Monserrato, many friends will be present to give him the last farewell.