his nom de guerre "Giacca" (English “Jacket”) (Padua, 9 November 1912 – Sežana (Slovenia), 22 January 1999) was an Italian Communist partisan and responsible for the Porzûs massacre.
Born in Padua into a Venetian working-class family, he moved to Trieste at the age of seven, where his father was employed at the dockyards “Cantieri San Marco” whom Italy had just acquired after the Victorious war with Austria-Hungary.
Nevertheless, he managed to escape after four months of detention in the Zemun concentration Camp near Belgrade, along with a group of 28 partisans, just few days before being transfer to Germany.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Italian security forces and Fascist militia, were actively engaged in suppressing the Slavic nationalist movements, and special laws were passed to deal with the problem.
On 7 February 1945 he received orders from the local cell of Italian Communist Party of Udine (PCI) and the 9th Corps of Yugoslav Liberation Army, to head a group of communist partisans (some sources says up to 100), to the HQ of the Brigade of the Partisan Division Osoppo, a non-communist unit, located near the “malghe” of Porzûs, in the municipality of Faedis in eastern Friuli.
The group was directed by Toffanin and by Fortunato Pagnutti, name de guerre "Dinamite" (dynamite), climbed the mount Toplj-Uork, and approached the Osoppo partisan disguised as disbanded soldiers.
During the subsequent reconstruction of the events, it appears that Toffanin personally interviewed Osoppo partisan Leader “BOLLA”, Francesco De Gregori (the paternal uncle of the famous Italian singer Francesco De Gregori, and a former Captain of the Alpini Corps of the Royal Italian Army) to know the whereabouts of the Brigade weapon cache, that was subsequently seized.
As the news of the massacre surfaced, the federation of the PCI of Udine at first attempted to put the blame on the Germans and the Republican Fascists, but few days later the Toffanin group was disbanded.
Mario Lizzero, political commissar of the brigades Garibaldi - Friuli, as soon as he heard of the massacre proposed the death penalty for Toffanin and his men.
Andrea (Mortegliano, 28 June 1913 – Udine, 11 December 1994) stated: "A hundred Garibaldini members, without uniforms (...) convince themselves, without having real evidence, that twenty or so Osovari partisans were somewhat connected with the enemy… as soon as they arrived, the commander "Bolla", the Political Commissioner "Enea", a woman, and a fourth man, were arrested, and subsequently executed.
The Yugoslav leadership considered them as potential internal enemies, a sort of fifth column, since they were almost all loyal to the concept of the “Great Soviet Family”, and a process of repression started.
On 23 June 1945 Mario Toffanin was officially indicted by Public Prosecutor office of Udine for the massacre of Porzus of the Osoppo Division Command.
In 1946 when Trieste, was still under the Allied Military Government rule, he fled to Yugoslavia, where he received the "Partizanska Spomenica 1941", a Yugoslav medal of honor for veterans of the partisan war.
With the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991 he returned to Slovenia, and settled down first in Capodistra-Koper and then in Albaro Vescovà/ Skofie, a small village half a mile away from the Italian border.
When in 1996 he was interviewed by the Roberto Morelli of the Corriere della Sera, he showed no sign of regret for his actions during the war, confirming his communist faith and repeating the accusations to the Osoppo partisans of collaboration with the enemy.