Farewell to Commander Checo: the partisan Giancarlo Franceschinis died at the age of 94

Even the commander "Checo", another important witness of the Resistance, is gone. Giancarlo Franceschinis, born in 1925, lived in Milan for many years, in the Maciachini area, and during the Second World War one of the partisans with the most important political role in Friuli. During the Resistance "Checo" had been political commissar of the Leone Battaglione of the Garibaldi Carnia Brigade and played a very important role in Friuli in many crucial episodes of the struggle against Nazi fascism.After the Liberation he settled in Milan and opened a law firm, practicing the profession for decades, until retirement. But Giancarlo Franceschinis was a native of San Daniele del Friuli and had developed his anti-fascist convictions during his attendance at the Liceo Classico Stellini in Udine. At the age of 19 he came into contact with an old Carnian communist, Italo Cristofoli, who had just been freed from fascist prisons on 25 July 1943. After 8 September 1943 Franceschinis took part in the armed struggle against the Nazi fascists. In the initial phase, Giancarlo set up a small network for gathering information that turned out to be very useful because it allowed many people to escape from the Nazi-fascists. In mid-April 1944 Giancarlo was arrested by the Germans in Udine and, only after being questioned for a long time, he was released. Thus he understood that he was "burned" in the city and moved to Carnia to fight in the detachment of the Garibaldi Carnia Brigade. He risked his life several times and was one of the protagonists of the furious battle that took place in Sappada on 26 July 1944 against the barracks of the Nazi Feldgerdarmerie. On that occasion he lost his teacher and friend Italo Cristofoli.
The news was given by Roberto Cenati, president of Anpi in Milan: "Franceschinis often remembered the birth of the Democratic Republic of Ampezzo, in the Carnia occupied by the Nazi-fascists. It was a miracle that lasted a few weeks, but which were enough to leave the precedents from which, the future Italian Constitution, could not ignore: the abolition of the death penalty, the recognition of equal opportunities for women who, also considered heads of families, had the right to vote I got to know Franceschinis on several occasions and in those talks Giancarlo has always underlined the very serious situation lived by the partisan formations in Friuli for the fierce and ruthless Nazi-fascist repression ". Franceschinis obtained the diploma and the medal from the Ministry of Defense on the 70th anniversary of the Liberation. "Freedom was not given to us, but was won for all of us by women and by men who, like Franceschinis, did not remain indifferent, but who made a very precise choice: to fight against the atrocities of Nazi fascism", concludes Roberto Cenati.