Serra had to remain secretive. Printing presses were large and loud, and so the teams that ran them were constantly on the move to avoid detection. Serra briefly used the back of a pasta shop—the frequent comings and goings of women shoppers with heavy bags making it a perfect cover for her team of women to leave with stacks of newspapers, and the loud chopping sound of the pasta-cutting machine cover for the printer itself.

In the fall of 1943, Bianca Guidetti Serra, a young anti-fascist partisan, defied the Italian authorities to create her first giornalino—or two-sided mini newspaper—for her neighborhood in the city of Turin. At the time, printing was a dangerous act. It was a few months into the German occupation of Italy, and one of the Nazis’ first edicts, by a commandant in Florence on Oct. 3, 1943, declared, “Anyone who is discovered compiling, printing, distributing, and spreading anti-German propaganda will be punished with immediate execution by firing squad.”

In the fall of 1943, Bianca Guidetti Serra, a young anti-fascist partisan, defied the Italian authorities to create her first giornalino—or two-sided mini newspaper—for her neighborhood in the city of Turin. At the time, printing was a dangerous act. It was a few months into the German occupation of Italy, and one of the Nazis’ first edicts, by a commandant in Florence on Oct. 3, 1943, declared, “Anyone who is discovered compiling, printing, distributing, and spreading anti-German propaganda will be punished with immediate execution by firing squad.” The book cover of Women of War by Suzanne Cope

Serra had to remain secretive. Printing presses were large and loud, and so the teams that ran them were constantly on the move to avoid detection. Serra briefly used the back of a pasta shop—the frequent comings and goings of women shoppers with heavy bags making it a perfect cover for her team of women to leave with stacks