Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Pertini was born in Stella (SV) on September 25, 1896, to Alberto Gianandrea, a landowner, and Maria Giovanna Adelaide Muzio.

During high school, the teachings of his philosophy teacher, Adelchi Baratono, first brought him closer to socialist ideas.

Called to arms, during World War I he had to serve by attending the officers’ course. As a second lieutenant, he was sent to the front, where he distinguished himself for a number of wartime actions that earned him the silver medal, which, however, he refused as he was never pro-war.

Once discharged, he earned a degree first in Law, from the University of Modena, and then in Political Science from the “Cesare Alfieri” Institute in Florence.

In August 1924 he officially joined the United Socialist Party, in the wake of the outrage provoked by the Matteotti murder.

He soon became the target of Fascist harassment and violence, was also arrested for eight months and sent to police confinement for five years.

To escape conviction, he traveled to France together with Filippo Turati.

He returned to Italy three years later, in 1929, with the aim of rejoining the ranks of the Socialist Party toward fighting Fascism and the person of Mussolini. But, again, he was arrested and sentenced to eleven years in prison: after seven years in prison, he was sent to confinement, refusing his mother’s request for a pardon.

He returned free on August 13, 1943 and immediately worked to reconstitute the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP), of which he became deputy secretary.

On September 10, 1943, he participated along with many other political figures in the liberation of Rome from the Germans.

However, together with Saragat he was arrested a few days later, on October 15, and both were sentenced to death.

The sentence did not take place, and the two managed to escape thanks to an uprising by partisan brigades. Action that saved his life, as his name was already on the list of those condemned to be shot in the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine (March 24, 1944).

For his activities during the Resistance and the role he played in the defense of Rome he will be awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor.

After the war conflict ended, he devoted the rest of his life to politics and journalism.

In 1945, he was elected secretary of the PSIUP and deputy to the Constituent Assembly. In 1948, he became a senator of the Republic. He was parliamentary deputy (1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1976), vice-president (1963) and president of the Chamber of Deputies (1968, 1972).

In 1946-1947 and then again from 1949 to 1951 he was editor of theForward.

On July 8, 1978 he was elected President of the Italian Republic, later resigning on June 29, 1985.

Sandro Pertini died in Rome on February 24, 1990.

You can look up thebirth certificate on the Ancestor Portal: Savona State Archives > Italian Civil Status > Stella > 1896

The original is kept at theState Archives in Savona

For more on the figure of Sandro Pertini, see the entry of the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani edited by Umberto Gentiloni Silveri.