[2] Born in Rome in 1907, Amendola was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva Kühn [it] and Giovanni Amendola, a liberal anti-fascist who died in 1926 in Cannes after having been attacked by killers hired by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

After World War II, he served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament for the PCI from 1948 until his death in 1980.

One of his main allies was Giorgio Napolitano, a member of the Chamber of Deputies who became President of Italy (2006–2015) and remained an avowed disciple and follower of Amendola.

From 1967 onwards, Amendola started to work as a writer; his most notable books include Comunismo, antifascismo e Resistenza ("Communism, Anti-Fascism and Resistance", 1967), Lettere a Milano ("Letters to Milan", 1973), Intervista sull'antifascismo[3] ("Interview on Anti-Fascism", 1976, with Piero Melograni), Una scelta di vita[4] ("A Choice of Life", 1978), and Un'isola ("An Island", 1980), which is considered to be his best work.

His wife Germaine Lecocq, whom he met during his French exile in Paris and who helped him to write his last work, died a few hours after Amendola.