Stumbling Stone Corso Camillo Benso Cavour 52

Here in Ostuni one Stumbling Stones is laid on January 16, 2016 for:

ANTONIO AYROLDI, executed on March 24,1944 in Fosse Ardeatine.

Antonio Ayroldi was born on September 10, 1906 in Ostuni. In 1925 he joined the army as a non-commissioned officer of the 8° reggimento del Genio. He received his first doctorate after only a year and soon made a career for himself. In 1933 he became a lieutenant. At the beginning of the Second World War he was sent to Libya. From February 1941 to December 1942 he took part in the war in North Africa. He was awarded the Italian War Cross for bravery and the German Iron Cross. His increasingly anti-fascist beliefs crystallized in his letters to family, encouraged by his experiences during the African campaigns. He became a major and returned to Rome as a general. After the truce of Cassibile, he could no longer and would no longer bow to Mussolini's dictates. He hid in the Bianca Maria clinic for a few weeks. In November 1943, he joined the resistance - in a military formation commanded by Colonel Ezio De Michelis. He smuggled documents, weapons and ammunition, maintained contacts with resistance groups in southern Lazio and established a network of informers in the capital. Italian fascists and German Nazis were looking for him and on March 2, 1944, he was arrested along with other partisans. He was imprisoned in cell number 1 of Via Tasso prison and interrogated. On March 24, 1944, he was shot dead by the Germans during the massacres in the Ardeatine caves.
After the liberation of Italy, he was posthumously awarded the silver medal for bravery.

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