1943-1945. The Liberation in Tuscany: history, memory

Barberino di Mugello

In the Municipality of Barberino di Mugello antifascism had become deeply rooted; proof of this was the impressive demonstration that took place in 1936, on the occasion of the funeral of Cirillo, a young Communist shoemaker who died by suicide. Thus, immediately after the proclamation of the armistice, initiatives were undertaken to oppose the Nazi-Fascists. A few days after September 8, the National Liberation Committee (CLN) was formed, composed of the Communists Cera, Mengoni, Bicchi and Banchelli, the Christian Democrats Fava and Collini and the Socialists Borsotti and Dreoni.

From the beginning the Resistance could count on the support of the vast majority of the population; out of over 10,000 inhabitants, only 17 people went north with the Germans and the Republic of Salò. A notable contribution to the War of Liberation was made by the young clergy of Barberino, headed by the parish priest Don Giuseppe Focacci. Barberino, leveraging its countryside, transformed itself into a collection and supply center for the first partisan formations of Mugello. In the battle of Fonte dei Seppi, on the slopes of Monte Morello, between the Germans and the Fanciullacci Brigade, formed by many young people from the municipality, four people from Barberino lost their lives: Raffaello Biancalani, Corrado Frigidi, Alfredo Landi and Nello Braccesi.

The war left deep wounds in Barberino, from which the Gothic Line was barely ten kilometers away: all the most important public works were destroyed and the Liberation, which took place on September 11, 1944, found the town reduced to very serious conditions. The following day the CLN formed the first municipal administration, composed of Giuseppe Fava, mayor (a highly esteemed figure, still present in people's memory), Severino Gera, Renato Mengoni, Venturino Baldini, Vasco Biechi, Ferdinando Borsotti and Angelo Collini. The administrative elections of 1946 sanctioned the victory of the Social-Communists who expressed the mayor in the person of Vasco Biechi, a Communist (it should be noted that, from the elections for the Constituent Assembly, unlike all other Mugello centers, the PCI until 1990 always had the absolute majority of votes).

Even before the economic fabric, the social and political fabric was reconstituted in Barberino: the three major parties, PCI, DC and PSI immediately demonstrated very strong roots, clubs and associations were organized, volunteer activity resumed vigorously. On the economic front, to try to cope with the dramatic employment situation, various workers' cooperatives were created: thus were born the cooperatives of miners (near the town there are vast lignite deposits, now abandoned), masons, shoemakers. To the difficulties of the post-war period was soon added the phenomenon of rural exodus; Barberino went from over 10,000 inhabitants that it had in the 1920s to just over 7,000 at the end of the 1960s. These were years of severe impoverishment, rural centers became ghost towns; social and cultural life itself suffered. But subsequently, the municipality was able to benefit from the general economic recovery thanks also to the construction of the Autostrada del Sole.

Barberino, from a predominantly agricultural community, transformed in a few years into the main industrial hub of Mugello, together with Scarperia. This caused substantial immigration from the south, particularly from Basilicata, which occurred without particular traumas, testimony to the resources of solidarity and hospitality still well present in the population. The successive administrations managed to meet the increased needs of the population; new social services, new schools, nursery, gyms and other sports facilities were built. Finally the municipal theater Bartolomeo Corsini was rebuilt, the most modern structure of its kind in the entire Mugello territory.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of October 6, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 3747 (76.6%); DC votes 1145 (23.4%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC voti 1443 (22,2%): PCI voti 3337 (51,4%): PRI voti 37 (0,6%); PSIUP voti 1201 (18,5%); UDN voti 105 (1,6%); UQ voti 222 (3,4%); Altri voti 151 (2,3%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 5286 (83.9%); Monarchy votes 1014 (16.1%)

Borgo San Lorenzo

The population of Borgo San Lorenzo, especially the sharecroppers, who then represented the majority, experienced the tumultuous events following the coup d'état of July 25, 1943, as the opportunity to free themselves from centuries-old bonds of subjection, challenged by the struggles of 1920 for the revision of the sharecropping contract, but immediately reaffirmed by the Fascist regime. The relief and popular joy for the fall of the hated regime was expressed immediately the following day with a large demonstration, during which the symbols and Fascist inscriptions on public and private buildings were destroyed.

Per prevenire le vendette dei perseguitati e reprimere l’estendersi dei disordini i carabinieri reagirono con arresti e fermi di alcuni dimostranti; fu questa la prova più evidente che il governo Badoglio non rappresentava una vera rottura con il passato, anche se ai partiti antifascisti era stato concesso di uscire dalla clandestinità e di riprendere i contatti con la realtà sociale e produttiva della valle mugellana. Particolarmente attivi nella zona furono il Partito Comunista ed il Partito d’Azione che diffusero la parola d’ordine di resistere con ogni mezzo all’occupazione tedesca.

With the armistice of September 8, several partisan bands formed throughout Mugello; in Borgo San Lorenzo the Lavacchini Brigade was formed, under the command of Donatello Donatini (Dona), which immediately distinguished itself by an attack on the silos of the Agricultural Consortium, from which a large quantity of wheat from compulsory stockpiling was taken. In this way a close link was created between the struggle against German requisitions and the interests of the sharecroppers who were no longer defrauded of the fruits of their labor.

In Ronta a partisan group operated that reported to Giustizia e Libertà, led by Riccardo Gizdulich (Captain Bianchi). Throughout the winter of 1944 the partisans from Borgo were engaged in supply work and liaison with the other brigades operating in the area of Gattaia and Monte Giovi and in assistance to families evacuated in the San Cresci area, after the disastrous Allied bombing of December 30, 1943 (which caused about a hundred deaths among civilians) had forced the evacuation of the town. This logistical support activity did not cease even after the success of the partisan attack on the town of Vicchio on March 6, 1944, which provoked a harsh reaction from the Nazi-Fascists who forced the Brigades to withdraw toward Falterona and Pratomagno.

In the same month of March the local National Liberation Committee was formed, chaired by Donatello Donatini, of which Danilo Dreoni, Antonio Comucci, Luigi Niccolai, Attilio Fredducci and Ismaello Ismaelli were also members. The latter, a legendary peasant of the Ronta-Panicaglia-San Giovanni triangle, founder of the Mugello white leagues, actively collaborated during the War of Liberation with the Rosselli Brigade that operated in middle and upper Mugello. In the following weeks, while the Allied army slowly continued its advance, the repressive structure of the Republic of Salò progressively disintegrated. The partisans intensified their attacks both to save livestock from plundering and to remove the new wheat harvest from requisitions, resorting to this end also to the sabotage of mechanical threshers.

When on September 11, 1944 the Allied troops arrived in Mugello, Borgo San Lorenzo and the other towns of the valley were already under the full control of the partisan forces, which, just as they had tried to prevent the devastation of the retreating Germans, prevented indiscriminate reprisals against the remaining Fascists. The strong following that the Communist Party, one of the main protagonists of the Resistance in the area, has always won among the population is also testified by the results of the administrative elections.

In 1946 the mayor elected after the Liberation, Giuseppe Maggi, was reconfirmed, who was replaced in 1950 by Giuseppe Graziani. The latter presided over the municipal administration until 1973, when a partisan himself, Bruno Panchetti, became mayor, replaced in 1980 by Luciano Baggiani, currently in office.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of October 6, 1946:
  Democratic Bloc of Reconstruction votes 5442 (70.4%); DC votes 2283 (29.6%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC voti 2571 (26,8%); PCI voti 4182 (43,6%); PRI voti 39 (0,4%); PSIUP voti 2083 (21, 7%); UDN voti 113 (1,2%); UQ voti 405 (4,2%); Altri voti 193 (2,0%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 7223 (76.6%); Monarchy votes 2212 (23.4%)

Florence

Already in the phases immediately following the liberation of Rome, on June 4, 1944, the National Liberation Committee provided precise indications on the need to promote in Florence a military and political action by the Tuscan Committee for National Liberation (CTLN), concomitant with the arrival in the city of the first Allied vanguards. Nothing of this kind had ever occurred in Italy and it was a matter of demonstrating to the Allies and to the still-occupied north the right of the Italian people to self-government and to the civil administration of public affairs, founded on the democratic debate of ideas and programs. In the two months that separated the liberation of Rome from that of Florence the Allied armies found near the Chianti hills an unexpected resistance from the retreating German forces.

In Florence, while the population lived in a state of growing tension, the Resistance forces were organizing, even though the activity of the Fascist political police, the infamous banda Carità, and the Gestapo, created serious problems of interdiction for the patriots' actions. On June 7 the clandestine transmitter Radio Cora was discovered by the Nazi-Fascists and all operators were shot. Just five days later however this service, defined by the Allies as one of the best military intelligence services with which we have remained in contact on all fronts, was reactivated and remained operational until the liberation of the city. In July the CTLN issued the order to the partisan formations gathered around Florence to converge on the city. This involved a total of about 3000 men. On July 29 the German military commander of Florence ordered the evacuation by citizens of the districts overlooking the Arno and on the 31st of that month, German engineers began to mine the bridges over the river. Only the Ponte Vecchio was saved at the price however of the destruction of the medieval quarters of Por Santa Maria and via Guicciardini, whose ruins were also mined. On August 1 the Allies crossed the Pesa river and took up positions on the hills overlooking the city. On August 3 the German command declared a state of emergency in Florence. It was then that the Florentine members of the CTLN met in permanent session waiting to give the order for insurrection. On the night of August 3 the German engineers detonated the charges they had prepared, destroying all the bridges of the city. At dawn on August 4 the first South African vanguards of the British Eighth Army arrived at Porta Romana and penetrated into the oltrarno together with the CTLN fighters. The following day a secret telephone line was laid through the Vasari Corridor on the Ponte Vecchio: the liberation forces and the Resistance forces waiting in the occupied city made contact. In the days that followed, until August 10, the Allies and partisans fought the Nazis from the left bank of the Arno with a series of sniper duels, while German mortars, positioned at Fiesole and on Monte Morello, pounded the Oltrarno. On the night between August 10 and 11 the Wehrmacht troops withdrew from the historic center to take up positions on the line of the ring roads. At 7 in the morning of August 11 the CTLN issued the order for insurrection; the Martinella of Palazzo Vecchio an

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of October 10, 1946:
  DC voti 45.263 (23,7%); PCI voti 64.222 (33, 7%); PSIUP voti 41.91 1 (22,0%); PD’AZ voti 2501 (1,3%); PRI voti 4241 (2,2%); PLI voti 6553 (3,40/u); UQ voti 26.005 (13, 7%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC voti 66.029 (28,2%); PCI voti 60.649 (25,9%); PRI voti 6330 (2,7%); PSIUP voti 57.106 (24,4%); UDN voti 10.839 (4,6%); UQ voti 21.951 (9,4%); Altri voti 11.301 (4.8%)
• Referendum Istituzionale, 2 giugno 1946.
  Republic votes 148,763 (63.4%); Monarchy votes 85,753 (36.6%)

Firenzuola

After the armistice of September 8, 1943, in the territory of the Municipality of Firenzuola partisan formations operated composed of young antifascists from Mugello and the Imola area. The 2nd Carlo Rosselli Brigade of Giustizia e Libertà and the 36th Garibaldi Brigade carried out guerrilla and sabotage actions. The first, in the areas of Peglio, Firenzuola and Moscheta, while the second distinguished itself for numerous operations at Casetta di Tiara, Firenzuola, San Pellegrino, Rapezzo, Tirli, Coniale, Bordignano and Piancaldoli.

The Gothic Line, consisting of valid and effective natural as well as artificial defenses (fortifications, pillboxes, anti-tank ditches and minefields), represented for the Americans (V Army led by Gen. Clark) and for the British (VIII Army led by Gen. Leese), a hardly surmountable obstacle.

Clashes occurred throughout the municipal territory, which was the scene of numerous and serious acts of war between partisans and Germans. Firenzuola, geographically located in the center of a pleasant valley, on the Santerno river, was considered strategically vital by the Allied forces for the purposes of their advance; furthermore, it seems that the Allies had received news of enemy tanks and troop contingents hidden under the arcades of the town. Therefore, on September 12, B29 bombers carried out a heavy raid on the capital; the destructive work was then concluded by a violent shelling. The pleasant town was almost entirely wiped out; the documents of the prefecture of Florence indicated Firenzuola as the most damaged town of the province, due to war events. However there were no victims, as the Germans had arranged to evacuate the population which, according to their precise plan, was to be taken to Medicina (Bologna).

On September 17 (sicafter a bloody battle that caused very serious losses on both sides, the Allies broke through at Giogo Pass. A few days later, exactly on the 19th, at 4 PM, the first American infantry units set foot in Firenzuola. Entering it the soldiers moved with circumspection among gutted and mined buildings; the streets could barely be distinguished under the rubble that covered them. The desperate situation of the town was faced by the administrators with commitment and alacrity.

In fact, as early as February 24, 1945, Giuseppe Ceccherini assumed the function of prefectural commissioner. Urgent resolutions were adopted for the solution of problems and the most difficult situations, drawing for expenses from funds made available by the Allied Military Government, whose first allocation was 590,000 lire. With resolution of May 3, Alberto Ceccarelli was entrusted with the task of presiding over the propaganda office for reconstruction.

On the part of the central government, in December 1945, the Municipality of Firenzuola was included in the list of those municipalities that, damaged by the war, were obliged to equip themselves with urban planning instruments for reconstruction. The gravity of the situation and the enormity of the problems imposed on the administrators that some priorities be established.

The housing problem was "solved" through the provision of wooden and metal shacks that characterized the appearance of the town for a long time.

On January 23, 1946 Dr. Bernardo Galeotti was appointed prefectural commissioner; his first acts were extremely important for the reconstruction of the municipality: he entrusted to the Reclamation Consortium of the Upper Santerno Basin the task of designing and executing the reconstruction of public works not having a building character; subsequently he commissioned the architects Athos Albertoni and Primo Saccardi for the compilation of the reconstruction projects of the town of Firenzuola; finally he approved the purchase of the ruins of the castle called La Rocca, for the sum of 250,000 lire.

On April 17, 1946 the handover was carried out between commissioner Galeotti and mayor Amerigo Acconci. The reconstruction plan, also by virtue of state interventions fairly spread out over time, had a slow and laborious implementation, also because Firenzuola had to be rebuilt ab imis fundamentis.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of April 7, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 2734 (52.5%); DC votes 2475 (47.5%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 2586 (43.7%); PCI votes 1327 (22.4%); PRI votes 58 (1.0%); PSIUP votes 1484 (25.1%); UDN votes 93 (1.6%); UQ votes 146 (2.5%); Others votes 222 (3.8%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 3571 (66.3%); Monarchy votes 1815 (33.7%).

Greve in Chianti

July 25, 1943 was Sunday, a beautiful summer day. The A. Boito cinema in Greve was packed, when some villagers, timidly smiling, entered the hall announcing the fall of Mussolini. The program was interrupted, the lights came on and people poured outside to comment on the news: everyone had in their hearts the hope of a rapid end to the war. The next day the tricolor appeared at the windows and inscriptions also appeared on the walls praising the King, freedom, Badoglio as well as inscriptions of a political nature that were immediately ordered to be erased, at the invitation of the prefect, by the municipality. But the chiseling of the Fascist emblems existing on the municipal building, on the schools, on the casa del fascio, on the war memorial was not prevented. The fasces imprinted in the cast iron of the public fountains were also removed.

The regime having fallen – wrote Don Corrado Raspimi, parish priest of Cintola Alta, in his Chronicle of the emergency – the people gave themselves to ...despite the famine with a crescendo until September 8. On the evening of that day a great clamor was heard around the hill. I looked out – Father priest, ring the bells, there is peace! After half an hour the church was packed: I was asked to sing the Te Deum – (...) shortly after down there on the road, they were laughing, singing, shouting and jumping like madmen. A few days later, motorcycles, bicycles, mounted horses, horses without riders, men in uniform, soldiers without rifles, some with one, some even with two, were racing around everywhere. It was the tumble foreseen by everyone and the collapse of all the lies told from May 24, 1915 to today.

Meanwhile on the mountains around Greve partisan groups were forming. Particularly numerous was the one established in some shelters under Montemoggino on the Monte Scalari massif. Particularly hard for the Greve community was the summer of 1944 due to the passage of the front through the territory. On the part of the German troops there were three reprisals: at Pian d'Albero; at the Querceto farm in Dudda; at Villa Buonasera at La Panca. In the first there were 4 partisans fallen in combat and 18 hanged; in the second 7 shot and in the third 5.

For this last reprisal, only after the liberation of the municipality did the families learn of what had happened and mourned their loved ones: Corinto Burgassi, Fedele and Ferdinando Vettori, Natale Picaneti and Livio Contri. To these must be added another 12 fallen executed by firing squad between July 24 and 28. On the morning of July 24 the first Allied patrols entered Greve. Two days later, in the premises of the Italia Nuova cooperative among the workers of Greve, the National Liberation Committee (CLN) was established, composed of Carlo Baldini, Emilio Ciucchi, Forese Donati, Tertulliano Favalli, Gino Mori and Giovanni Mugnaini. All municipal employees promptly returned to service; the banks, post offices, the tax office and municipal treasury, the agricultural consortium and many shops reopened. The population, previously evacuated, returned en masse to the town, also because the day before the church bells had rung continuously for about half an hour, with five-minute intervals. The four bells were rung only by the provost Don Alessandro Ferretti and by Carlo Baldini, since very few people had remained in the town and moreover almost all disabled. The bells of the churches of the parishes that had been liberated responded to the sound of Greve's bells: the Germans heard this sound of liberation. At the pressing invitation of Captain of the Scots Guards R.W. Burkley, military governor of the area, on the morning of the 27th the CLN met to designate the mayor. The assembly decided to designate Dr. Cav. Italo Stecchi, the town's pharmacist and already mayor of the municipality several times before fascism. The name was presented, by delegation, to the governor by Gino Mori and Carlo Baldini. Thus began the new democratic life in the municipality: the front still passed through Testa Lepre, Testi, Spedaluzzo, Monte Scalari, that is, only about half of the municipal territory had been liberated; the capital itself was still subject to shelling that lasted until the 29th of the same month with daily frequency.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of March 17, 1946:
  Democratic Bloc of Reconstruction (Social-Communists and Actionists) votes 5544 (71.9%); OC votes 1939 (25.2%); PLI votes 220 (2.9%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 1865 (23.0%); PCI votes 2688 (33.2%); PRI votes 37 (0.5%); PSIUP votes 2786 (34.4%); UDN votes 210 (2.6%); UQ votes 298 (3.7%); Others votes 216 (2.7%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 5821 (74.2%); Monarchy votes 2026 (25.8%)

Palazzuolo sul Senio

The people of Palazzuolo also, like almost all Italians, celebrated September 8, 1943, with great warmth, deluding themselves that the war was over; unfortunately it was not so. In the winter months of 1943-44, on the mountains around the capital, the first partisan nuclei organized, particularly on Monte Faggiola. On May 29, 1944, a Monday morning at 4, the town found itself surrounded by German troops who checked all houses one by one, searching in the most hidden places. About 30 young people from Palazzuolo were arrested and sent to German concentration camps; some unfortunately never returned. Furthermore the stables and haylofts of three farms, Calcinelli, Nevale and Valdoniche, which were owned by Gen. Raul Chiariotti, a well-known antifascist, were burned, and all the livestock was also seized. About 30 young people from Palazzuolo were seized and sent to concentration camps in Germany; some unfortunately never returned. On June 13, at 5 PM, a company of partisans of the 36th Brigade, under the command of Lorenzini, occupied the town. The draft offices of the municipality were destroyed and about 200 quintals of wheat flour, stored in the stockpile warehouses, were distributed to the population. There were no armed clashes, nothing serious happened. In the evening the patriots withdrew from the town, returning to Monte Faggiola. The occupation by the partisans commanded by Guerrini was repeated on June 22, also this time without harm to anyone.

The 36th Bianconcini Brigade that operated in the municipal territory was formed in the early months of 1944, locating its commands first on Monte Faggiola, then on Monte Carzolano in the locality of Ca' di Vestro and finally in the Sintria valley, in the locality of Presiola. On the evening of September 25 the German troops before leaving the town blew up the bridge over the Senio river as well as the powder magazine that was located in the premises of the public weighing station. The two explosions caused considerable damage to numerous buildings including the parish church that was near the powder magazine. Furthermore the bridge of Mantigno on the Alpe road, the bridge of Camaggiore on the Faggiola road, the bridge of Salecchio on the road to Marradi, the wall of Capannone and the bridge of Castagno on the Casolana Riolese road were destroyed. The destruction of these structures left the town completely isolated. The bridges were provisionally rebuilt by the liberation troops in the following days using iron structures. Further east, in the sector of the XIII Corps, with the occupation of Monte Carzolano, Gen. Redmayer had the possibility to spread into the Senio valley provided that the ancient road, partly reduced to a path, which descended vertiginously from Passo dei Ronchi to Palazzuolo was restored. The track called bulloch route, from aerial photographs seemed to be in good condition but in reality was highly ruined.

The 23rd Engineer Company worked four days and four nights to complete the seven-kilometer stretch to Palazzuolo, but when it was finished traveling on it was, according to the opinion of a British driver, an adventure to make your hair stand on end. The 66th Brigade, however, descended from Carzolano and advanced among the mountains surrounding Palazzuolo. The town was liberated on September 25, 1944 by the second Middlesex Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Chimay. The Battalion was part of the British XIII Army Corps under the command of Gen. Redmayer. Palazzuolo sul Senio suffered significant damage: civilians who died from war causes were 28, of which 13 were shot by German troops on July 17, 1944 in the tragic massacre of Crespino. The town remained a supply base for Allied troops. In fact, until April 22, 1945, the front remained blocked along the course of the Senio river on the east side and along the gypsum vein on the north side, only 22 kilometers from the capital. It should be noted that in the last months of the conflict, the Folgore and San Marco battalions, belonging to the Friuli Division of the reconstituted Italian Army, entered the line in the Palazzuolo area. The first mayor appointed after the Liberation by the Allied Military Government was Odoardo Strigelli, while the first citizen democratically elected following the 1946 elections was Francesco Pagliazzi.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of October 6, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 836 (54.6%); OC votes 695 (45.4%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 688 (39.7%); PCI votes 499 (28.8%); PRI votes 78 (4.5%); PSIUP votes 376 (21.7%); UDN votes 16 (0.9%); UQ votes 30 (1.7%); Others votes 48 (2.8%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 1255 (75.8%); Monarchy votes 400 (24.2%)

Pelago

Since the spring of 1943 in the municipal territory the exhausted veterans of AMIR circulated trying to slip through the net of Nazi-Fascist surveillance. The irregular presences on the territory of Pelago, a natural crossroads of the routes that connect Florence to Mugello and Romagna, to Casentino and Valdarno, became increasingly numerous after July 25 and, especially, after September 8. This coming and going of stragglers, combined with the fact that a good part of the territory faced the natural trench on which the Germans set up the defense line called Arno, meant that the entire area was considerably militarized by the Wehrmacht.

The massive and oppressive German presence had the consequence of considerably swelling the partisan formations that already operated in the district (Monte Giovi, Madonna ai Fossi, Monte Secchieta, Pratomagno). After the offensive against the patriots in the spring of 1944, which concluded with the attack on Monte Secchieta on Easter night, the local Resistance reorganized itself into smaller units having different deployments.

On the territory of Pelago the Tricolore Perseo formation was particularly active, commanded by Braccio Forte, alias Giuseppe Politi, an elementary school teacher from the hamlet of Ferrano who had served as an officer in the army and who had entered the Resistance early on with various assignments; he managed to gather in a fighting unit many of the able-bodied men of the area, some Poles who had left the Wehrmacht, other Italian military personnel and the survivors of the previous Badoglio formation of Secchieta. In the hamlet of Diacceto the figure of the parish priest Don Luigi Bucci is still remembered, who offered himself to the Germans in exchange for the lives of ten parishioners, thus managing to make them desist from their intention which was to avenge with a reprisal the killing, by unknown persons, of one of their sentries.

In their retreat the German troops were concerned with keeping open the road to the north, which crossed the municipality, systematically devastating the entire territory they left behind. Not even historical monuments such as the castle of Nipozzano or the medieval bridge of Pelago were spared. Unfortunately 18 defenseless civilians were also victims of this destructive fury; surprised in the Poderenuovo farm, near La Consuma, where they had taken refuge, they were mercilessly massacred. It was the night of July 25. The first liberators appeared on August 24 coming from the border with Reggello and from the Arno: they were the British of the 13th Corps. Some partisans, among the youngest, welcomed into the I Nucleus of the British Eighth Army, continued to fight the Nazi-Fascists. A few days after the Liberation, on indication of the population, the Allies appointed Aldo Monciatti mayor; at the same time the activity of the National Liberation Committee officially began. Giuseppe Politi assumed the position of municipal secretary, an activity he also carried out in subsequent legislatures. In October 1946, following the first administrative elections, Dario Peroni, leader of the left, was elected to the position of first citizen. He began the reconstruction starting with school buildings and health facilities. On the territory of Pelago a specialist polyclinic, the hospital, the middle school arose. The recovery of the economy was at first based, necessarily, on agriculture, which, however, would never be entirely supplanted either by industry or by tourist activity which over time have had increasing importance.
The willingness to welcome and to know the new and the different, which is typical of the inhabitants of Pelago, perhaps because they have always been accustomed to interacting with travelers of various types, has in recent years resulted in a true celebration of the values that can be brought by those who come from other places and other situations, those who live outside the most usual patterns and canons: the On the road festival. An occasion for celebration, this, which has always demonstrated how the spirit of solidarity and the culture of hospitality can overcome even apparently insurmountable obstacles such as diversity of language, traditions, religion, class, race. An experience rich in values that is placing Pelago in an extremely positive evolutionary phase.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of October 13, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 2175 (72.6%); DC votes 819 (27.4%).
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 1092 (26.5%); PCI votes 1615 (39.2%); PRI votes 23 (0.6%); PSIUP votes 1158 (28.1%); UDN votes 51 (1.2%); UQ votes 80 (1.9%); Others votes 97 (2.4%).
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 3065 (76.8%); Monarchy votes 925 (23.2%).

Pontassieve

Between July 25 and 28, 1943 Pontassieve welcomed the fall of fascism with demonstrations of jubilation. A local National Liberation Committee (CLN) was soon formed, in which Catholics, Communists and Socialists were represented. After September 8 a train abandoned at Pontassieve station by the disbanded troops was looted: the weapons found passed to the young men hidden in the mountains to escape German roundups, which nevertheless managed to deport 116 men to Germany, 6 of whom died in prison camps. Prisoners of war, predominantly British and American, but also Yugoslav officers and Brazilian, New Zealand, South African and Russian soldiers (about 200 men), escaped from a labor camp on Monte Giovi, north of the capital, were largely hosted and assisted by the population of the hamlet of Acone.

Monte Giovi thus became the center of partisan activities in the area: the Acone Group formation, the Potente, Garibaldi, Jugoslavia divisions, the Caiani Brigade operated there, a total of about sixty men who were able to operate thanks to the support of the peasant families of the area; 19 of them died in clashes with the Nazi-Fascists. In the spring of 1944 the partisans, partly with the complicity of the farmers themselves, carried out over 50 requisitions of foodstuffs to supply the fighters engaged in the liberation of Florence. On June 8, after a partisan raid against the garrison of the Republican National Guard of Pontassieve, a German soldier was killed in the countryside of Pievecchia, just upstream of Pontassieve. In reprisal the occupiers carried out a roundup and shot, on the spot, 14 unarmed men. Starting from the night of November 9, 1943 and until the first days of July 1944, Pontassieve, an important road and rail junction, suffered numerous Allied air raids, during which almost 1000 tons of explosives were dropped and 42 civilians perished. The inhabitants evacuated completely to the countryside; during the passage of the front another 49 civilians died and 97 were wounded. The Allied bombings and the German retreat caused very serious damage to productive structures and the interruption of the main communication routes. On August 21, 1944 Pontassieve was occupied by the Allies and on September 27 the local CLN appointed the new municipal council, chaired by Socialist mayor Alfonso Benvenuti. In May 1945 a new council was installed chaired by Socialist Aristide Bruscantini who, after a year, again gave way to Benvenuti. The CLN dissolved after the political elections of June 2, 1946, which saw the clear prevalence of Communists (50.4% of votes) over Socialists (23.5%) and Christian Democrats (21.4%). In the same year the local peasant movement reorganized and focused its struggle on the reform of the sharecropping pact. In 1946 began with Mario Mannini, an uninterrupted series of Communist-area mayors: Enzo Boscherini (from 1951); Pietro Selvi (from 1970); Giuseppe Maturi (from 1980); Mauro Perini (from 1992).

With the reconstruction completed during the 1950s, the following decade saw the crisis of sharecropping agriculture and the massive urbanization of the peasant population. While the inhabited centers of the valley floor, with the capital in the lead, grew in a hurried manner, the pre-war productive settlements underwent a slow decay and Pontassieve increasingly assumed the role of working-class residence and commercial center in close relation with Florence. In recent years local administrations have been committed to the construction of service structures (schools, sports facilities, etc.) and in the search for a new balance between economic development, urban settlements and quality of life. In 1963 the twinning with the city of Znojmo, in Moravia (Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia) dates back, and in 1968 Pontassieve will give hospitality to some of the exiles who fled the Soviet invasion. Instead in 1987 dates the twinning with Tifanti, a village of the Saharawi Republic, and support for the war of liberation against Morocco. Within the framework of pacifist and third-world commitment, Pontassieve adheres to the National Coordination of Local Authorities for Peace.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of October 13, 1946:
  Blocco Democratico della Ricostruzione (Socialcomunisti) voti 5642 (79,2%); DC voti 1434 (20,8%).
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 1825 (21.4%); PCI votes 4293 (50.5%); PRI votes 39 (0.5%); PSIUP votes 2002 (23.5%); UDN votes 87 (1.0%); UQ votes 99 (1.2%); Others votes 164 (1.9%).
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 7113 (85.5%); Monarchy votes 1209 (14.5%)

San Casciano in Val di Pesa

The fall of fascism, in San Casciano Val di Pesa, came unexpectedly for everyone. The small group of antifascists sensed that great events were maturing, but no one perceived precisely what was happening. When the news was learned the Fascists went down to the square threatening and domineering with pistols in hand; the antifascists were few and the attempt to give life to a demonstration failed. On the morning of the 27th, finally, a large procession formed that marched through the city streets hailing Italy and peace. Some Fascists also participated in the procession; there was no lack of movements of sincere emotion on the part of old patriots who embraced the soldiers present while the symbols of fascism were destroyed. These were days full of emotion; however, political leadership was still lacking, the antifascist parties were not able to take the direction of the popular movement, the situation was not clear, indeed it was worrying and threatening. In the municipal building, in place of the Fascist administration, a prefectural commissioner was installed, Gen. Achille Dell'Era, a Badoglian, who, with much caution and timidity, sought the collaboration of antifascists such as Primo Calamandrei, Christian Democrat (already mayor in 1922, when the Fascists violently seized control of the municipality), Corrado Ghiribelli, Socialist and Dante Tacci, Communist. The news of the signing of the armistice made the situation even more complicated: on one hand groups of young people organized aid for fleeing soldiers, on the other the Fascists formed the Republican Fascist unit. The struggle spread like wildfire; between Pisignano, Cerbaia and Montagnana the partisan brigade was formed, which took the name of 3rd Rosselli, in which many sharecroppers enlisted. Together, workers, peasants, artisans, helped the Resistance, with supplies of food, hiding those evading the call-up of the Salò Government in their homes, protecting and hiding Jews.

There were also clashes between partisans and Nazi-Fascists, with dead and wounded, and there was no lack of barbaric reprisals. At Fabbrica, near the local farm, Carlo Lotti, Giuliano Lotti, Brunetto Bartalesi, Giuseppe Vermigli and Carlo Viviani (who survived the shooting) were shot. The same fate befell, in the locality of Le Corti, Guido and Pasquale Taddei (father and son), Donato Vermigli and Fra' Ruffino da Castel del Piano (born Angelo Sani), a precious and audacious partisan courier. Furthermore Armando Aglietti, Giulio Mazzei, Camillo Sieni, Gino Bini, Angelo Bucciardini and Guido Lapini lost their lives. Many were the parish priests who actively participated in the Resistance: suffice it to recall Don Ivo Biondi, Don Nello Anichini, Don Tebaldo Pellizzari, Don Lido Cappelli, Don Nello Poggi. In the capital a Wehrmacht command had been installed; the prefectural commissioner Dell'Era was replaced by the Fascist Romboli. In that period the arrest of a group of Jews who had taken refuge in San Casciano occurred; they were deported and none of them returned. The population was defended by the National Liberation Committees (CLN) of the capital and of Mercatale, also through the distribution of foodstuffs. The last days before the liberation, which occurred on July 27, 1944, the capital was partly destroyed by German mines and partly by Allied bombing. The first mayor, installed by the Allied Military Government with the consent of the CLN, was Col. Angelo Chiesa, who had left the army on September 8. When the colonel resumed military service he was replaced by Aldo Giacometti. The tasks that these first mayors faced were enormous: 60-70% of the population of the capital was homeless, over 60% of dwellings had been destroyed. Following the administrative elections of spring 1946, Aldo Giacometti, Communist, was confirmed mayor. In 1955, Remo Ciapetti succeeded him; from 1970 to 1980 Giancarlo Viccaro was mayor and since 1985 Fabrizio Bandinelli has held this position. In 1944, year of the Liberation, the municipality had about 12,000 inhabitants, today it exceeds 16,000; the growth occurred in the capital and in small centers, while the countryside became depopulated. Only recently have they come back to life, thanks above all to the arrival of foreigners who have settled there, between nostalgia for land ownership and agritourism.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of April 7, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 5827 (68.7%); DC votes 2659 (31.3%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 2390 (27.6%); PCI votes 3621 (41.9%); PRI votes 36 (0.4%); PSIUP votes 1875 (21.7%); UDN votes 168 (1.9%); UQ votes 290 (3.4%); Others votes 270 (3.1%).
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Repubblica voti 6249 (74,3%); Monarchia voti 2156 (25, 7%)

San Piero a Sieve

I am alive – wrote Don Antonio Boschi, parish priest of San Piero a Sieve, to the Florentine curia on September 16, 1944 – despite terrible days and nights. On the night between September 8 and 9, many cannon shots were fired at the town; the church and the rectory suffered no damage. However, the Germans, by blowing up the bridge over the stream (attached to the church) caused very serious damage both to the church and to the rectory. For twenty days I have been sleeping in the cellar where I also keep the image of the Madonna. I was able to make contact with the German authorities and prevented roundups and deportations of men from being carried out in my municipality.

Already at the beginning of summer of that year, with the approaching of the front, the population had abandoned the inhabited centers pouring into the countryside to shelter from the harassment of the occupation troops and from Allied air attacks which, to hinder the German retreat, bombed the communication routes daily.
During that period numerous civilian victims occurred. They are listed, inviting everyone and especially the young to remember them and to keep for them the gratitude that the new Italy owes them, in a single issue publication titled Liberation of San Piero a Sieve, dated September 16, 1945: Bruna Orsini, Emilia Poggi, Francesco Giani, Emilio Luchi, Vasco Chirsi, Bruna and Marisa Chiesi and Anna Maria Margheri, deceased following bombing; Emilio Villani, Angiolo Cavaciocchi, Giovanna Taiuti, Rosa Baldini, Giocondo Nutini, Luigi Degl'Innocenti, Quinto Tagliaferri and Giovanni Berti, killed by the explosion of mines and grenades. The publication also emphasized that the Liberation celebration which was to be held on September 10 was postponed to the 16th while waiting for a certain marchesa to be able to gather the grapes from her fields. Apart from the fact of the little trust that offends us, we ask the noblewoman why she did not also try to postpone the German occupation, since it occurred during the grape harvest period. A phrase that beyond the specific fact, constitutes a significant testimony of the desire for change that the war and the sufferings endured had generated in the population.

In fact San Piero a Sieve was liberated on September 10, 1944 by American troops, to which a group of partisans of the Potente Division had provided the necessary logistical information for the advance. The same issue recalls the presence in the San Piero area of the 303rd Squad of the Action Party and its organizer and animator, Aldo Fedi; captured on June 10, 1944 by the Germans, after being interrogated by the SS, he was sent to the Fossoli concentration camp and from there deported to Mauthausen, from which he did not return. For a few months, before being delivered to relatives, the San Piero cemetery received the body of a young partisan, Domenico Trefilò; a special mention also deserves the San Piero native Silvano Stefanacci who continued the fight against the Nazi-Fascists and died fighting for the liberation of Milan. The war and the passage of the front caused in the municipality, as throughout Mugello, very serious destruction: railway lines, bridges, aqueducts, grain silos, power lines, electrical substations and public works were severely hit. Agriculture also suffered serious damage.

This was the situation on the day after liberation; the National Liberation Committee set to work on reconstruction, appointing the municipal council composed as follows: ing. Vieri Bencini, mayor; Piero Bini, Raffaello Bini, Luigi Romei, Luigi Lorenzi, Dr. Neri Corsini, Don Antonio Boschi, councilors. The formation of the council was then ratified by Capt. Twilly, representative of the Allied Military Government. In December 1944 Fernando Frandi was appointed mayor, replaced in November 1945 by Gino Parigi.

In March 1946 the first administrative elections were also held in San Piero, following which Gino Dreoni was elected, at the head of a Social-Communist council. This majority never changed again and has expressed over these years various municipal councils led by Franco Ottanelli, Luigi Baggiani, Enrico Ricci and Mauro Dugherì.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of March 24, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 1431 (78.5%); DC votes 391 (21.5%).
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 309 (15.0%); PCI votes 688 (33.5%); PRI votes 38 (1.8%); PSIUP votes 818 (39.8%); UDN votes 25 (1.2%); UQ votes 94 (4.6%); Others votes 83 (4.0%).
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 1598 (81.7%); Monarchy votes 357 (18.3%).

Scarperia

Scarperia did not have a prominent place in the Mugello Resistance movement. During the Ventennio in the municipality there was a lack of a solid antifascist presence and even in the period of armed struggle important autonomous initiatives did not occur. In the months of April and May 1944 some local antifascists, in connection with the National Liberation Committee (CLN) of Borgo San Lorenzo, began to organize to create a partisan group. The most significant partisan action dates to June 6; that day on viale Dante, at the limits of the historic center of Scarperia, was killed ing. Emilio Paoletti area manager for the Todt. During the action an SS officer also lost his life and partisan Romolo Marelli was seriously wounded. He managed to drag himself to the Serenai farmhouse, where he was aided and transported to the hospital of Luco di Mugello; he died three days later. A few kilometers from the town was the Gothic Line.

In the Panna area, confused and camouflaged among other fortifications, there was also a V2 missile launch base; this was identified by Allied informers and destroyed by bombing. After alternating events, also due to contrasts within the antifascist forces, in August 1944 the membership of the CLN of Scarperia was defined; it was formed by Pietro Biancalani, Andrea Pasinetti, Salvatore Cordiano; Mario Ignesti was appointed military commander; propaganda, administration and liaisons were entrusted to Niccola Buffi. In early September 1944 the inhabitants of Sant'Agata were made to evacuate, at gunpoint; they were to move to Bologna, but in fact many dispersed beyond the Giogo and Futa passes; others hid in the surroundings waiting for the right moment to return to their homes. Fortunately it was granted that in nearby Fagna the civilian hospital be established for the sick of the municipality.

The town of Scarperia, like the other centers of Mugello, was liberated on September 11. The event was described in a report on the activity of the Scarperia partisan group: On September 11, 1944 divided into two squads the partisans flank the San Piero-Scarperia road, capture German soldiers holed up.

Having encountered advancing American patrols, our men served as guides and the town was occupied, after having the Allied artillery strike the enemy positions prepared in front of the town. The patriots also had an important role in the liberation of the rest of the municipal territory, guiding the Allied troops toward the German positions firmly entrenched on the Gothic Line and fighting on the front line alongside the 338th Regiment of the American V Army. This was engaged from September 13 in hard and bloody clashes that lasted until the 18th, when important strategic positions of Monte Altuzzo were conquered, breaking through the Gothic Line and opening the Apennine pass of Giogo Pass.

It should be remembered that the offensive cost the lives of 290 Allied soldiers. After the war, sums were drawn and it was realized that in Scarperia the horrors that so many other nearby towns had had to suffer had not been experienced and lived. The town, though plundered and looted of everything, was standing and life resumed more easily than elsewhere.

Dopo la liberazione il C.L.N. nominò sindaco il dott. Giovan Battista Diani, socialista. A lui successe il prof. Luigi Noferini (PCI), e successivamente Fausto Fiori della (DC); alle prime elezioni amministrative del 7 aprile 1946 il PSIUP e il PCI uniti ebbero la maggioranza ed espressero il sindaco nella persona di Francesco Pini, socialista. Scarperia, famosa per il suo tipico artigianato dei ferri taglienti, ha voluto stringere un patto di gemellaggio con la cittadina francese di Laguiole, anch’essa produttrice di coltelli di grande fama, iniziativa che ha portato il Comune direttamente a contatto e a confronto con la realtà europea.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of April 7, 1946:
  Social-Communists votes 2237 (56.7%); DC votes 1705 (43.3%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 1485 (35.7%); PCI votes 912 (21.9%); PRI votes 24 (0.6%); PSIUP votes 1418 (34.1%); UDN votes 39 (0.9%); UQ votes 190 (4.6%); Others votes 96 (2.3%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Repubblica voti 2729 (69,1%); Monarchia voti 1222 (30,9%).

Vaglia

Dopo l’8 settembre 1943 e con l’apertura dei campi di concentramento dei prigionieri di guerra alleati, la zona di Monte Morello, al confine tra Vaglia e Sesto Fiorentino, divenne il ritrovo degli antifascisti e degli ex-internati, ai quali le popolazioni locali fornivano alloggio, cibo e cambio di abiti. Nel territorio di Vaglia le due famiglie Biancalani e Sarti, le cui abitazioni si trovavano a Morlione, in prossimità di Paterno, erano in contatto con un centro di aiuti: a circa 3 chilometri da Morlione, alle pendici del Monte Morello, era stato organizzato un accampamento formato da tende militari, in cui gli ex-prigionieri potevano trovare rifugio. Per scaldarsi, poiché accendere fuochi era rischioso, al mattino andavano a piccoli gruppi a casa del Sarti.

Lunch and dinner were brought to the camp by the Biancalani and Sarti families, in turns; while the gamekeeper Gabriello Mannini supplied them with fresh meat. When everything was quiet, the refugees reciprocated by performing small jobs. The situation deteriorated in the spring of 1944. On April 4 a group of partisans descended from the slopes of Monte Morello to the Montorsoli station, on the Faentina line; it had been learned that train 2328 was carrying 3 cars of Republican militiamen and Germans. The partisans occupied the station and took up positions: when the train arrived a violent and disorderly shootout followed. The Nazi-Fascists retook the station and the train managed to depart again, then stopping at Fontebuona, where the dead were collected and the wounded aided.

A week later, on April 10, Easter Monday, the Germans swept the northeastern slope of Monte Morello: at Cerreto Maggio they entered the church and took some people hostage including the parish priest Don Mario Martinuzzi. Meanwhile at Cerreto a group of German soldiers killed the gamekeeper Gabriello Mannini in front of his family members and burned his house. A passage from a letter from Don Martinuzzi to the archbishop of Florence can help us understand the dramatic situation in which so many innocent people lived: For now there has been no pause, no rest, no respite, every moment that passes is a mouthful of poison. Cerreto seems like a cursed land, such is the desolation, the weeping and the terror in every family, because it is unfortunately true that, in proportion, nowhere, as in this area have there been so many massacres and damages... Nazi barbarism seemed to have no end: at Morlione, Fortunato and Aurelio Sarti, Savino and Giovanni Biancalani were killed and their houses were set on fire. The following day, the Germans killed Cesare Paoli, while the woodsman Silvio Rossi was found dead in a hut in Cercina. Neither the town of Paterno, nor the other houses in the surroundings suffered violence: Nazi ferocity was directed only toward those who had hidden and helped the former internees. As the front approached the German sappers mined the railway between Fondi di Cercina and Fontebuona and also much of the capital to block the road to the Allies.

Dal 7 giugno l’amministrazione di Vaglia cessò il suo regolare funzionamento; il transito militare e la sosta dei soldati, che si accamparono perfino nell’archivio comunale, resero sempre più difficile la vita del paese. Il 24 luglio la prefettura autorizzò la sospensione dell’attività del Comune. Vaglia venne liberata il 6 settembre; l’8 settembre il Comune riprese la propria attività con la nomina, da parte delle autorità militari, di Mario Ancillotti, quale sindaco provvisorio. Successivamente il 5 novembre 1944 divenne sindaco, per incarico del Governo Militare Alleato ed in attesa delle elezioni il dott. Giorgio Pozzolini. Il 10 marzo 1946 si tennero in Vaglia le prime elezioni del dopoguerra; risultò eletto primo cittadino il dott. Antonio Nardi.

At the beginning of 1947 the position passed to Ferruccio Innocenti. The reconstruction work began, also with the help of American soldiers, who intervened with transport vehicles. In 1947 the reconstruction work on the Bolognese road was completed, so much so that the XIV Mille Miglia could transit, with great success. In the position of mayor succeeded Ghino Giorgerini (1951-1965), Livio Campani (1965-1980) and Mario Lastrucci.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of March 10, 1946:
  Democratic Bloc of Reconstruction (Social-Communists) votes 1570 (80.1%); DC votes 389 (19.9%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 402 (19.4%); PCI votes 868 (41.8%); PRI votes 24 (1.2%); PSIUP votes 621 (29.9%); UDN votes 33 (1.6%); UQ votes 72 (3.5%); Others votes 56 (2.7%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 1542 (77.4%); Monarchy votes 450 (22.6%)

Vicchio

The news of Mussolini's fall spread in Vicchio already on the evening of July 25 and was welcomed by spontaneous explosions of popular joy. The commuter workers returning from Florence, gave life to an improvised procession along the station avenue to the town center. Some antifascists hoisted the tricolor flag on the balcony of the municipality. The brief hope of peace was followed by fear of German occupation. The population was lavish in an extraordinary movement of solidarity toward the young soldiers who had abandoned their uniforms and the former prisoners who had escaped from prison camps. Since the armistice, the necessity of immediate military responses to the German invasion was immediately clear and small partisan units also multiplied in Vicchio. A group formed in Villore, under the leadership of Orlando Recati, who was subsequently arrested and deported to Germany. Another was organized in Malnome, above Gattaia, by Bruno Gasparrini; in January it joined with the partisan group stationed on Monte Morello, giving life to the Checcucci formation.

In the early months of 1944 a National Liberation Committee (CLN) already existed of which a representative of the sharecroppers, Ottavio Grifoni, was also part, testimony to the close link between the partisan struggle and the peasant world that characterized the Mugello and Vicchio resistance.
Il 25 febbraio del ’44 si riunirono sotto il palazzo comunale di Vicchio oltre 250 contadini che protestavano contro le angherie dei fascisti. La manifestazione trovò immediato riscontro in numerose azioni di sabotaggio degli ammassi di grano e nell’attività delle bande partigiane. Il 6 marzo, infine, ebbe luogo l’attacco e l’occupazione del centro abitato di Vicchio ad opera dei partigiani della Checcucci e della Faliero Pucci; un episodio importante della Resistenza che consentì di allentare la pressione fascista sulla città di Firenze.

La reazione non si fece attendere. Centinaia di militi della Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana affluiti da Firenze invasero il paese. Molti furono gli arresti. Alcuni giovani furono processati a Firenze; sette furono condannati a morte e cinque di questi fucilati il 22 marzo al Campo di Marte a Firenze. Ma l’attività partigiana era ormai incontenibile; godeva dell’appoggio dei contadini. Nel luglio i partigiani decisero di sabotare la raccolta del grano per impedire ai nazifascisti di approvvigionarsi. La repressione fu, ancora una volta, durissima: a Padulivo, fra il 10 e l’11 luglio, le SS della Goering catturarono e fucilarono 15 ostaggi. La Liberazione di Vicchio, come quella degli altri paesi del Mugello, avvenne sotto il comando dei C.L.N. e coincise con l’offensiva alleata contro la Linea Gotica durante la prima decade di settembre. Gravissimi furono a Vicchio i danni causati dalla guerra alle infrastrutture civili, alle abitazioni e alle maggiori testimonianze architettoniche. Le due antiche torri medievali agli ingressi del centro abitato furono rase al suolo. Nel settembre il C.L.N. nominò la Giunta comunale che fu presieduta dal sindaco Guido Boccaletti. In seguito alle elezioni amministrative del ’46 si formò una solida maggioranza di sinistra, che espresse la Giunta, alla cui guida fu eletto Attilio Daspri. In seguito a dimissioni fu sostituito da Manlio Poggiali che guidò il Comune fino al luglio ’57, sostituito poi da Mario Becchi. A questi successe Giglio Cadas e poi Muzio Cesari, Roberto Berti, Ubaldo Salimbeni e Alessandro Bolognesi. Gli anni del dopoguerra furono caratterizzati da grandi sconvolgimenti economici e sociali. La popolazione quasi si dimezzò rispetto al cinquantennio precedente a causa dell’esodo dalle campagne.

A leading figure in the history of Vicchio in the post-war period is certainly that of Don Lorenzo Milani, who worked from 1954 to 1967 in the small hamlet of Barbiana, exercising a great influence on the Church and on pedagogy.
In 1981 dates the twinning with the town of Tolmin in Slovenia. The tragedy of the war in the former Yugoslavia strengthened the bonds of solidarity with those populations, originating initiatives aimed at bringing concrete help to those people, in which all citizens of Vicchio participated.

• Administrative elections (majoritarian system), round of March 24, 1946:
  Democratic Bloc of Reconstruction (Social-Communists) votes 4612 (77.8%); DC votes 1312 (22.2%)
• Election for the Constituent Assembly, June 2, 1946:
  DC votes 1236 (20.4%); PCI votes 1972 (31.8%); PRI votes 38 (0.6%); PSIUP votes 2537 (40.9%); UDN votes 93 (1.5%); UQ votes 132 (2.1%); Others votes 165 (2.7%)
• Institutional Referendum, June 2, 1946:
  Republic votes 4817 (80.9%); Monarchy votes 1136 (19.1%)