Also hindered by the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher for anti-Zionist ideas. Years remain as a symbol of the Resistance, the title of “Member of the British Empire” and a great officer of merit of the Italian Republic
At the age of 15, in 1943, he accompanied the partisan Gianfranco Mattei around Rome. At the liberation of the city he led the Allies to via Tasso. He was a student infiltrated at San Giuseppe De Merode and, in secret, he translated the plans sketched by the Resistance for an insurrection in Rome against the Anglo-Americans against fascists and Nazis. Dennis Walters, of an Italian mother and an English father, has divided his life between England, where he lived and died last October 1 at the age of 92, and Italy, living there in his teenage years and carving out an important role among the hours of anti-fascism. By linking the men of the Italian resistance to the intelligence of the United Kingdom, still not even of age.
After the war and repatriated in 1944, Walters studied and began working in advertising and public relations. Then the journey into politics as an assistant to British Tory president Quintin Hailsham, who defines him as the “smartest man in the party” at the age of 29, before becoming a conservative deputy, recognized in British politics as the party’s rising star. Hindered only by his political views in defense of the Palestinians, with his continuing attacks on the Israeli treatment of Arabs – especially after the 1967 war – which do not allow Walters to have a brilliant ministerial career. Premier Heath and, after him, the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher could not share his controversial positions on Israel and the Palestinian question, in many cases blatantly anti-Zionist. He himself had admitted in his autobiography in 1989: “There are those who have advised” Forget the Palestinian question “if I wanted a successful career”. In 1992, after having chaired it for 12 years, he became president of the Conservative Middle East Council, which for years espoused the cause of Palestine: recognized by his colleagues in politics as a man of great passion and capable of great battles, his biography traces important chapters of the history of the twentieth century. Where Walters has always decided which side to take.
In future memory of Walters, the anti-fascist “boy”, Queen Elizabeth’s honor of “Member of the British Empire” in 1960 remains, which made him Sir, years of politics in defense of what he believed in – of which 28 in a row as the representative of the English seat in Westbury in Westminster – and also an award presented by President Napolitano in 2010. Dennis Walters was awarded the honorary rank of Grand Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic at the Quirinale. He had given him a copy of that message from the partisan Gianfranco Mattei, the son of a manager of a telephone company who had objected to Benito Mussolini and ended up tortured for days before taking his own life in order not to reveal the names of anti-fascists to the Gestapo. After writing this message in a checkbook: “Dear parents, for a most unfortunate circumstance which can only be blamed on the adverse fate, I fear these will be my last words. You know what bonds of ardent affection bind me to you, to my brothers and to everyone. Be strong knowing that I have been too. I embrace you, Gianfranco ». A gift for Napolitano before being honored as a great officer, a last trip to Italy where he has always kept a villa in Lucca. Three wives, five children, a story full of controversies and heroic acts. A monument of a thousand political and social battles and a symbol of the Resistance to which England and Italy have said goodbye.
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