Leda Bevilacqua

(Ronchi dei Legionari (Vermegliano), 10 September 1922 – Ravensbrück, 28 February 1945)

Address:

Viale G. Garibaldi 52 - Ronchi dei Legionari

Laying date:

24 May 2021

Engraving:

HERE LIVED
LEDI BEVILACQUA
BORN 1922
ARRESTED 24.5.1944
DEPORTED
AUSCHWITZ
MURDERED 28.2.1945

Viale G. Garibaldi 52 - Ronchi dei Legionari

24 May 2021

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Leda Bevilacqua was born on 10 September 1922 in Vermegliano (a hamlet of Ronchi dei Legionari) and lived at Via Garibaldi 52.
She attended the Ursuline Schools in Gorizia, joined Catholic Action, and became secretary of the Young Women’s branch; she worked as a clerk at the Monfalcone shipyard. After 8 September 1943 she provided assistance to deportees and soldiers passing through Ronchi and played an active role in the relief effort promoted by Father Giovanni Battista Falzari. She was arrested following a denunciation together with her uncle Antonio Bevilacqua (a partisan of the Montes Intendance) during the roundup of 24 May 1944 and taken to the Coroneo prison in Trieste. After interrogation, she was put on transport no. 49, which departed on 31 May 1944 and arrived in Auschwitz on 4 June 1944; she was later transferred to Ravensbrück and subsequently, on 4 September 1944, sent to work in a labor camp. On 21 January 1945 she returned to Ravensbrück and was admitted to the infirmary, where she died on 28 February 1945.

In a note thrown from the train that was deporting her to the Reich, she wrote to her friend Jole Zanolla, president of the Young Women’s group:

«Before leaving I send you these few lines. I hope they reach you. I am leaving for Germany. I am suffering greatly. But this is God’s will. ‘Fiat.’ My body is exhausted, but through prayer I manage to bear my pain. My greatest torment is leaving my grandmother and not being able to receive Jesus, my only strength. O my God, help me. Pray for me, Jole, and convey my greetings to all the members.»