European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We went on walking towards our areas and we arrived around 10-11 am.

It was a bad day, it was raining and we kept discussing

about the fact that we were still there at the starting piont.

We reached a point where people were throwing garbage in a hole,

and we guessed that there must be a village nearby.

I looked into the hole and saw a sort of Alpino-hat in the garbage.

It was one of those hats that the Balilla were using,

the avanguardists (fascist youth), they had a hat like the ones the Alpini used.

So I went down and got the hat, cleaned it a bit and put it on my head.

In this manner we reached Succiso.

In the outskirts of the village there were a few women

but in the centre there was nobody. Everyone had left!

I went into the tavern of Torri and asked if there were partisans here.

He said: "No, there are no partisan round here, nobody."

"But I saw a few women ... " "They went to buy food".

So we decided to stay for a while, waiting for someone to come, but no-one appeared.

It was like a desert even though it was a village.

So we sat down under a poplar and said

"Let's talk. We don't have any money, it's raining, we don't know where the partisans are,

they don't tell us anything here, what shall we do? Shall we go home?