During her clandestine efforts for the Italian Resistance, Anita Malavasi used these forged papers to travel under the identity of Marta de Robertis. European Resistance ArchiveAnita Malavasis first delivery was salt. In the fall of 1943, she brought a packet of it into the mountains outside the city of Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy, to supply a growing group of soldiers lacking food staples. These fighters were the anti-fascist Resistancemen whod deserted the armies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and were preparing to fight for freedom.Though Mussolini had been voted out of power that July, Italy was still firmly under German control, and Nazis were killing or deporting any dissident they came upon. Once 22-year-old Malavasi was comfortable sneaking salt past German checkpoints on her bicycle, she started ferrying illicit publications to the mountains, as well as clothes and food. She wore low-cut, fitted dresses and flirted to disarm Axis officers. She smuggled guns by strapping them to her body, beneath her clothes. One day, she biked through a checkpoint with two heavy bags hanging from her handlebarseach containing concealed bombs.Malavasis earlier involvement in the Italian Resistancehelping Axis soldiers desert their postshad been motivated only by humanitarian principles, she said: As a woman, you saved another womans son. But as a clandestine courier, Malavasi came to see her efforts as something conscious, part of a loftier goalan Italy free of fascism. Anita Malavasi in the downtown of Reggio Emilia, right after the Nazis began their occupation of the city in the autumn of 1943. European Resistance ArchiveMalavasi, whose story is little known outside Reggio Emilia, is one of four brave heroines featured in historian Suzanne Copes new book, Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis. Cope zooms in on the lives of Malavasi and three other Italian women who contributed significantly to Italys resistance against fascism. Theres Bianca Guidetti Serra, who dodged bullets while delivering newspapers to anti-fascists in the Alps. Carla Capponi, who bombed German vehicles outside Romes opera house and got away with shooting a German colonel on a busy street. And Teresa Mattei, who delivered secret messages for the Resistance and later wrote Italys Constitution.While these women were essential to the Italian Resistance, they also found new frontiers of personal freedom, as their responsibilities exposed them to possibilities of gender equality theyd never known. As Malavasi said after the war, I didnt want to listen to my brothers or father telling me what to do. The Italian people had thrown off fascism, and she had broken free of convention: I did not intend to rebuild it. Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis The gripping, true, and untold history of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during World War II, told through the stories of four spectacularly courageous women fightersSubscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the April/May 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazineGet the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.A Note to our Readers Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission.Filed Under: Books, Fascism, Italy, Movement Leaders, Nazis, Protest, World War II