Born in Rome in 1907, he was the son of lithuanian intellectual Eva Kuhn and Giovanni Amendola, a liberal anti-fascist who died in 1926 in Cannes after having been attacked by killers hired by Benito Mussolini. As a result, Amendola secretly joined the Italian Communist Party in 1929 and, after graduating in law, started to propagandize opposition to the Mussolini regime.
After World War II, Amendola served as deputy for the Italian Communist Party from 1948 until his death in 1980. He became known (especially in the 1970s) as one of the leaders of the party's right wing, which espoused gradual removal of marxist ideals and supported alliances with the more moderate parties, especially the Italian Socialist Party. One of his main allies was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies called Giorgio Napolitano.
From 1967, Amendola also started to work as a writer; his most notable books include Comunismo, antifascismo e Resistenza ("Communism, anti-fascism and resistance", 1967), Lettere a Milano ("Letters to Milan", 1973), Intervista sull'antifascismo[1] ("Interview on anti-fascism", 1976, with Piero Melograni), Una scelta di vita[2] ("A choice of life", 1978), and Un'isola ("An island", 1980), considered his best work.
Amendola died in Rome, aged 73, after a long illness. His wife Germaine Lecocq, who he met during his French exile in Paris and who helped him to write his last work, died a few hours after Amendola.
