European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

A boy called Francia wasn’t even fifteen.

Another one from Guastalla, who’s still alive, was seventeen,

the others were around 20-21 years old.

There was one of us who was 28, who was married and father of a one-year old child.

They arrested his wife, then they tortured her and raped her.

From this story one can understand what happened after the war.

Some felt they had to get vengeance for all the brutality of the fascists and the Germans.

I’ve never agreed with retaliation: once the war is over everything is over.

On the other hand, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those partisans, or even civilians, who had to bear these episodes:

It’s hard to caress your torturer’s cheek when you meet him after the war.

We must understand what happened during the war.

These brutalities affected us too.

These slaughters and the violence were something terrible for us.

Although I was a member of Azione Cattolica,

I believed in the values of forgiveness and of similar principles,

it was hard for me, too.

Training a group of sappers

The ones I was working with weren't trained.

Once, they were on guard duty and an accidental burst of fire occurred.

They fled, leaving me alone.