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Photo: AIUSA Group 133
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In February 1945, Ginetta Sagan was detained by the Italian fascist secret service for her active participation in the Italian Resistance. Her parents, already involved with the Resistance, were arrested in 1943. Her father was killed immediately, and her mother never returned from the death camp where she was imprisoned. Like many prisoners that Amnesty works to free today, she was tortured and kept prisoner in a cold, dark cell. Ginetta was interrogated and tortured - subjected to electric shocks, beaten, burned and sexually assaulted - for 45 days.
One night, during her captivity, a guard threw a small loaf of bread into her cell. Inside the loaf she discovered a matchbox containing a single slip of paper with the word "Coraggio," or courage. This message, which let her know that she was not forgotten, was an inspiration that came to symbolize her lifelong struggle to work for "forgotten prisoners" - ordinary people deprived of their human dignity and freedom by oppressive regimes. "I knew then that I would be all right," she said. "Someone knew what was happening to me. Someone cared."
In 1967, years after her dramatic escape with the help of the Resistance and two German (cq) officers, Ginetta Sagan joined one of only 18 Amnesty International groups in the country. She moved to California with her husband Leonard and set up the first AI group in the western United States. Within three years, she had helped to establish 75 new groups. Her work to start Amnesty International's Western Regional office catalyzed the organization's expansion across America. Amnesty International USA grew from a 700-member organization in 1971 to a 300,000-member organization today due, to a great extent Ginetta's inspiration and tireless activism.
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CALLING ALL
ACTIVISTS
In Nashville, Amnesty International will be marking its 40th Anniversary. As part of the celebration, we will highlight some of the many faces of our dedicated activists-- from local group members to country specialists, students to board members and membership coordinators across the country who have made Amnesty International the organization that it is today.
Send an electronic photo of you or another activist member with a brief (1-2 sentence) statement describing why it is important to work with AI to stop international human rights abuses. Submissions should be sent to:
aiusa-agm@aiusa.org
Please include your contact information (telephone and e-mail) with an agreement for AIUSA to use your photograph for promotion of the Annual General Meeting.
Thank you for your participation!
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