Aldo Finzi

Aldo Finzi began his career in local politics before World War I but was also active in aeronautic sports during this period. He partnered with Celestino Usuelli in the 1912 Gordon Bennett Cup balloon race as the pair finished in second place.

Finzi saw service in World War I as a pilot, and then in 1921 was one of just a handful of Jewish deputies elected to the Parliament of the Kingdom for Benito Mussolini’s Fasci Italiani di Combattimento party. He served as Under-Secretary of the Interior and, from 1923 to 1925, as President of the Italian Olympic Committee.

Finzi left politics in 1928 and became an opponent of the racial laws enacted in 1938. This eventually led to him being expelled from the Fascist Party. After the deposition of Mussolini in July 1943, Finzi was engaged in the resistance against the German occupying forces but, by February 1944, he had been captured. After a resistance bombing claimed the lives of 33 German soldiers, Finzi was one of 300 members of the resistance executed in reprisal.