Ferdinando Valletti

Ferdinando Valletti's panel, together with Árpád Weisz's, pays tribute to Milan, the city hosting the exhibition. Together, they tell the stories of two Righteous athletes, whose careers were partly spent playing for the city's football teams: Milan and Inter.

In the spring of 1944, Italy faced one of the darkest moments in its history. After the 1943 armistice, German troops occupied the country, and the puppet Italian Social Republic, led by Mussolini, was established in the north. Workers, students, and ordinary citizens joined strikes and acts of civil resistance that were met with brutal repression.

Among them was Ferdinando Valletti, a young AC Milan footballer who joined the general strike organized by Alfa Romeo workers against Nazi-Fascist occupation. Deported to Mauthausen, he found himself in a universe of violence and annihilation—where football became not just a memory, but a tool for survival.

Valletti sought to help weaker prisoners, sharing what little he had and protecting those at risk whenever possible. Among those he aided was painter Aldo Carpi, who, thanks to Valletti’s support, survived and later bore witness to the camp’s horror.

His story reminds us that the concentration camps were populated not only by victims of antisemitism but also by political prisoners and resisters.
Rendered with meticulous colored-pencil work, the calm, smiling face of Valletti immediately stands out, surrounded by teammates—a testament to a life lived “as part of a team.”

In the artist's layering technique, the negative image of the Gusen concentration camp created by painter Aldo Carpi emerges.