Towards the end of World War II, a large number of people in Italy rose up against the German occupation and the fascist regime. They faced the question: Should they make themselves available to Mussolini's troops or stand up against war and oppression? Faced with this choice, in May 1944, 17-year-old Giacomo Notari from a mountain village in the northern Apennines joined the Resistenza under the alias "Willi." As a partisan in a Garibaldi brigade, he contributed to the liberation of Italy. During the anti-fascist resistance, ideas for the post-war period were also developed. Notari's memoirs, published for the first time in German, therefore do not end in 1945. After liberation, it was time for him and many others to engage in political, cultural, and practical reconstruction work. 70 years after the end of the Second World War.