Camillo Marmiroli was born into a family of socialist day labourers and was called Camillo in honour of Camillo Prampolini. At the age of 19, he was tortured because of his decision not to take part in fascist activities. In March, 1940, he was sent to Yugoslavia with the Italian army and stayed there for almost three years, becoming a witness of the atrocities carried out by his fellow nationals. After September 8th, 1943, he managed to get back to Italy after a long journey together with some 600 brothers in arms. When he reached Reggio Emilia he had to hide, being a deserter, and after a few months joined the partisans adopting the nickname Mirko, in honour of a Slavic resistance fighter he knew. He was immediately deployed in the area between Villa Minozzo and the province of Modena and took part in a number of military actions in the Apennines like the attack to the fascist outpost in Busana and the Sparavalle battle on June 10th, 1944. During his time in the resistance movement he took advantage of his military experience in the Yugoslav war, teaching a lot of young fighters the tactics of warfare. At the end of the liberation war he was appointed vice-commander of the 144th Garibaldi brigade.