june august italian born american human rights activist best known work behalf prisoners conscience born milan italy lost parents teenage years like parents active italian resistance movement gathering intelligence supplying jews hiding captured tortured escaped eve execution help nazi studying paris attended graduate school child development married physician couple california founded chapter western later toured region helping establish chapters organized events raise money political prisoners elected honorary chair president bill_clinton awarded presidential medal freedom italy later awarded rank founded annual activists honor childhood world war born milan italy catholic father jewish mother parents doctors facing rising europe parents arranged false papers identifying christian hide jewish roots world war began parents active italian resistance movement opposing fascist rule arrested father later shot staged attempted escape mother sent died seventeen years old active resistance movement delivering food clothing jews hiding following parents disappearance resistance forces helping print distribute pamphlets occasion dressed cleaning lady steal government offices forge letters safe passage switzerland energy small size grew feet tall received nickname late february betrayed informer movement like parents arrested days imprisonment beaten raped tortured leading scheduled april execution point tossed bread contained word courage written inside moment later work behalf prisoners day scheduled execution beaten guards villa italy pair german officers forced italian captors release custody later recalled watching stars window car thinking dawn germans revealed nazi collaborating resistance comrades delivered safely catholic hospital annually celebrated date april rest life post war life lived paris time godfather attending emigrated study child development met young medical student couple married following year remain death following marriage pair moved washington work worked time teaching cooking classes wives couple later lived boston japan settling california lived death cancer august survived duncan stuart involvement growing reputation time organization largely unknown eighteen chapters formed eastern totaling thousand members involved organization washington arrived founded 19th chapter holding meetings living room chapter later grew west_coast regional office organized concert singer neighbors order raise money greek political prisoners concert drew people memoirs described period having gifts active mind love life beauty spirit faith people like years followed traveled american west founding chapters membership increased times decade spokesman later attributed establish adding think probably organized people human rights movement globally founded organization newsletter figure controversy right later left 1970s shifted focus protesting abuses american forces vietnam war protesting abuses north vietnamese camps following war colleague remembers fellow anti war activists furious criticize new vietnamese communist regime terms criticized later recalled accusations fascist undercover cia operative decade advocated behalf prisoners chile ussr poland greece served elected organization board addition work founded investigates incidents human rights abuses awards won jefferson award public service category president bill_clinton awarded highest civilian honor citation stated synonymous fight human rights world represents triumph human spirit year awarded grand italy highest honor created honor fund grants annual award woman women working protect liberty lives women children areas human rights violations widespread previous winners award include following egypt colombia mexico serbia montenegro turkey peru pakistan afghanistan el_salvador
Ginetta Sagan