Cervi Brothers

The Cervi Brothers (in Italian: Fratelli Cervi) were the seven sons of Alcide Cervi (1875-1970) and Genoeffa Cocconi (1876-1944). They belonged to a family of Italian anti-fascists and they were born in Campegine, Emilia-Romagna.

Upright men with deep democratic convictions, they took an active part in the resistance by paying with their lives for their faith to the ideals of freedom and social justice that had been handed down to them from childhood by their father.

When the Italian government signed an armistice with the allied on September 8th 1943, the Cervi brothers, like many others, became more active members of the resistance.

In November of that same year, their house was surrounded by the fascist authorities and they were taken to prison in the nearby city of Reggio Emilia along with their father. In December a fascist secretary was killed by a single gunman in Modena. As a reprisal, all seven Cervi brothers, along with a deserter, Quarto Camurri, were taken to the shooting range in Reggio Emilia and shot.

Father Cervi, who was suffering from bad health, was able to escape some time later after the Allies bombed the prison. Their story was told, among others, by him.

The seven brothers were named Gelindo, born in 1901; Antenore, born in 1906; Aldo, born in 1909; Ferdinando, born in 1911; Agostino, born in 1916; Ovidio, born in 1918; Ettore, born in 1921. They had two sisters, Diomira and Rina.



Tributes
For their actions of resistance, the brothers were posthumously awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor, and their surname, Cervi, can be found in street names around Italy. A school in Collegno, near Turin, is named in their honour.

As well as these tributes, multiple songs have been written on the brothers:


 * Compagni Fratelli Cervi (anonimo)
 * Sette fratelli Mercanti di liquore and Marco Paolini
 *  La pianura dei sette fratelli Gang (also by Modena City Ramblers in Appunti partigiani )
 *  Campi Rossi Casa del Vento
 * Papà Cervi raggiunge i sette figli Eugenio Bargagli

There is also the 1968 film The Seven Cervi Brothers (I sette fratelli Cervi), directed by Gianni Puccini.