Ginetta Sagan (June 1, 1925 – August 25, 2000) was an Italian-born American human rights activist best known for her work with Amnesty International on behalf of prisoners of conscience.

[2] Facing rising antisemitism in Europe, her parents arranged false papers identifying her as Christian to hide her Jewish roots.

[2] When World War II began, both of her parents became active in the Italian resistance movement opposing fascist rule, only to be arrested in 1943 by Mussolini's Black Brigades.

On one occasion, she dressed as a cleaning lady to steal letterhead from government offices so that it could be used to forge letters of safe passage to Switzerland.

At one point, a jailer tossed her a loaf of bread that contained a matchbox with the word coraggio ("courage") written inside, a moment which would motivate much of her later work on behalf of prisoners.

[5] On the day of her scheduled execution, she was being beaten by guards in a villa in Sondrio, Italy, when a pair of German officers forced her Italian captors to release her into their custody.

[1] Sagan had been involved in the organization in Washington, D.C., and when she arrived in Atherton, she founded the US's 19th chapter, holding its meetings in her living room.

[1] In her memoirs, Baez described Sagan during the period as having "the gifts of an active mind, a love of life and beauty, an unquashable spirit, and a faith in people very much like that of Anne Frank.

An AI spokesman later attributed Sagan with doing more than anyone to establish Amnesty International in the US, adding that "I think she has probably organized more people than anyone else in the human rights movement globally".

[8] In addition to her work with Amnesty International, Sagan founded the Aurora Foundation, which investigates and publicizes incidents of human rights abuses.

"[10] The same year, she was awarded the Grand Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, Italy's highest honor.