Via VII Luglio in Carrara commemorates a pivotal episode in the town’s history, the Carrara Women’s Uprising of July 7, 1944, a significant moment in the Italian resistance during World War II. On that day, a group of Carrara women rebelled against German troops and their fascist allies who were deporting men and young people for forced labor and other war activities.
On July 7, 1944, German officer Többens, commander of the Carrara square, ordered that by 8 p.m. on July 9 the town be completely evacuated: only the families of workers employed by the Todt Organization who were building the fortifications of what would later become the Gothic Line were exempt. Also in Lieutenant Többens’ proclamation, the population is ordered to gather in Rimembranze Park, where the stadium stands today, and then be directed to Sala Baganza, in the province of Parma, with what they can carry in a suitcase. The July 7 announcement created great consternation in the town, and the Apuan Resistance, at that time, was still in an embryonic state. For reasons dictated by an alleged inability to oppose it, Bishop Monsignor Cristoforo Arduino Terazi called on the population to follow Nazi orders, while the CLN and the “Women’s Defense Groups” began to mobilize in the opposite direction: leaflets were posted on the streets of Carrara calling on citizens to disobedience with a motto that stood out over all: “do not abandon the city.”
July 9, the day scheduled for displacement, passes without anything moving, and so the movement takes on body and courage. The women of Carrara prepare signs reading “We don’t want to evacuate” or “We are not moving from the city,” and on the morning ofJuly 11 these few women go out into the streets and homes to call out to the other women of Carrara. Around 9:30 a.m. they gather in the Piazza delle Erbe where the fruit and vegetable market is held and once there, they overturn the baskets and stalls, a strong gesture that serves to shake consciences with the goal of transforming a restricted plan into a popular demonstration. The overturning of the baskets does not only have the sense of a protest, but has the flavor of overturning social roles and achieves its intended purpose. The procession consisting of hundreds of women and young people makes its way to the German command headquarters, which is manned by Nazi soldiers and fascist republican militiamen. Immediately the soldiers encircle the demonstrators using heavy vehicles and blocking any possibility of escape, at which point the demonstrators, who are mingled with plainclothes partisans with weapons concealed under their jackets, shout, chant, lie down on the ground and hurl themselves at the enemy soldiers who point their weapons at them, exposing their bodies to the mouths of two machine guns ready to fire. Some women are arrested and taken to barracks, but this does not stop the protest until finally the evacuation order is suspended.
In the following months the German command would issue more evacuation notices, and in October Massa and Montignoso would actually be evacuated, and about twenty thousand refugees would arrive in Carrara, taken in every space the town could offer. Carrara, however, would never be displaced, allowing the partisan movement to take firm root and find support in the population, until it became one of the best organized forms of resistance in the area.
This act of civil resistance was significant not only for the immediate liberation of their loved ones, but also for the strong message of opposition to the occupation that it conveyed. The women demonstrated a remarkable spirit of unity and sacrifice, becoming a symbol of struggle and resistance for the entire community.
The mural in Carrara’s Piazza delle Erbe, created in 2013 by Orticanoodles, commemorates this important historical event with a portrait of one of the protagonists of that episode, Francesca Rolla, who was born in 1915 in Carrara and passed away in March 2010, a partisan relay girl and, after the war, longtime president of the Massa-Carrara provincial ANPI. Through vivid colors and powerful iconography, the work celebrates, with Francesca Rolla’s proud gaze, the courage and resilience of the women who participated in the July 7, 1944 uprising. The mural is not only a tribute to these heroines, but also a reminder of historical memory and the need to remember and honor the sacrifices made for freedom. It is a tangible sign of the city’s history of resistance and a reminder to future generations about the value of freedom and justice.