Mother of Plaza de Mayo Vera Jarach has passed away at age 97. Her passing was announced by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo on Friday morning shortly before 9 a.m. The Italian-born Jewish former journalist fought tirelessly for human rights in Argentina.

“Dearest Vera, intelligent, cultured companion, so often joyful and at times silent, because the question that should never have existed dynamized your soul: why?” wrote Mother of Plaza de Mayo Taty Almeida, announcing her passing.

Vera was born in Milan, Italy, on March 5, 1928. She came to Argentina with her family in 1939, escaping Mussolini’s racial laws targeting Jews. A year earlier, she had been expelled from school for being Jewish. Years later, her maternal grandfather would be murdered at Auschwitz.

In 1949, she married Jorge Jarach, an Italian like herself, whom she had met years before while working for a shipping company where she helped other exiles. They had just one daughter, Franca Jarach, who was kidnapped off the street by an ESMA task force on June 25, 1976, at the age of 18.

Vera worked as a journalist for the Italian news agency ANSA, where she worked for 40 years until her retirement. She has also written several books, including The Unspeakable Silence: The Drama of the Disappeared Italians in Argentina.

At the time of her kidnapping, Franca was a high school student at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires and an activist in the High School Students’ Union and the Peronist Working Youth.

Survivors’ testimonies revealed that Franca was held for about a month at the ESMA clandestine detention center. It is believed that she was murdered in one of the first “death flights.”

Vera joined the rounds of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in early 1977. Ever since then, she has searched for her daughter and fought for Memory, Truth, and Justice. While doing so, she became the architect and founder of the Parque de la Memoria (Memory Park) alongside Marcelo Brodsky.

Vera was an active member of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo – Founders’ Line her whole life.

“Vera, sister, you’re part of us and will be with us and those who follow us with every step we take,” wrote Almeida. “Franca’s smile will be the banner of countless young people. We love you.”

To read and listen to biographies of Vera Jarach and the other Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, visit the audio guide here, authored by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo – Founders’ Line and translated and recorded by the Herald.