Maddalena Cerasuolo

Maddalena's parents belonged to the working class; she was the daughter of Annunziata Capuozzo and Carlo Cerasuolo, who lived in the Stella neighborhood in Naples together with her other five sisters Titina, Maria, Anna, Dora, Rosaria and two brothers Giovanni and Vincenzo.

[3] During the war, Maddalena stood out when she participated in the gunfights that happened in the Materdei neighborhood, to avoid the German troops plundering the shoe factory near to vico delle Trone, in exchange for the weapons delivery.

[5] She volunteered to go alone on the prowl to calculate the size of the German troops and later to speak with Nazi officials, with the risk of not having enshrined Geneva Convention rights as ambassador.

Cerasuolo used a motor torpedo boat directed to Corsica, to get to the coast of Liguria from Bastia, to sabotage military sites by using weapons and explosives, as planned by the British strategy.

[8] Still working with the SOE, Maddalena parachuted beyond the enemy lines when in Italy they were marked from Rome to Montecassino, to collect information by pretending to be the maid of the artist Anna d'Andria, who was collaborating by giving high society parties to understand the strategy of the German army.

[12]The collaboration with the SOE was recognized, besides with economic reimbursement, also with the following acknowledgement:[11]For her proud behavior and for the contribution to the cause of liberty, in the name of this Command, I tribute her a praise and I thank her.Once the war ended, she received a certificate of merit signed by officer H.S.

[8] The year after her death, on 3 March 2000, the mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino inaugurated a commemorative plaque for Maddalena Cerasuolo, placed by Comune di Napoli and Istituto Campano per la Storia della Resistenza.

Sometimes her story is brought up also in support of the thesis that Neapolitan resistance was not led by spontaneous riots, as is largely believed, but as the result of activity organized locally, within an internationally agreed strategy.