European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Well, did I kill somebody... We did shoot, but then knowing if we killed them for sure is another story.

That’s what the partisan struggle was about. Fourteen months more or less, constantly: these actions, these deaths.

When you were taken to an investigation, when you could not walk any more, you were brought to the cell.

I went to a lady that I saw once in my life. It was my contact spot. She said to me: you can save a child.

They did not want us in sabotage, we were too young. Our scout authorities made it clear not to get us into sabotage.

There was no real future for us. But that made you stronger to go into the resistance and help wherever you could.

You are young people. Don’t fight with each other. Be collegial. Be friends because you don’t know what the tomorrow will be like.

The Resistance for me was just like going to university. I learned to feel confident throughout my whole life.

I remember Strozzi saying: »War has never brought anything good for the poor.«

What did we know about politics? With fascism, you could only read what they gave to you, and you didn’t even have the right to make comments.

I started to run as fast as I could. I was skinny then and 23 years old. The soldier took out his gun and started shooting at me.

I will join the partisans from Carpineti because i wanted the war to end.

It was the Italian occupiers who gunned down every liberation movement. They shot so many innocent hostages.

Killing, even in the name of great ideals, will ultimately come back to you later in form of a trauma.

The Tchetniks attacked us from behind and they massacred the Partisans, all from behind our line. We lost 700 men in one night and one day.

I could not share the responsibility to work with the ones that wanted to eliminate us.

Why then, do we kill each other? Why? Because the ones that decide to wage war are not the ones who fight it.

I've always said that those two would have to die before me: Mussolini and Hitler.