European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The first thing the sergeant did was take the letter I held in my hands.

In the letter, my mother had written the following words:

“You’re lucky to be in the Army, since in the past few days Pattaccini, Boiardi and others were arrested”.

They were all people I used to be implicated with in our activities,

and my poor mother was telling me this openly. But that’s exactly why I was arrested.

I never managed to get that letter back. Wherever I was taken, the letter seemed to follow me.

You see, we all used to deny knowing someone, but I couldn’t, since the names were written on the letter.

Then, one morning, we left from the train station.

I had already been reduced to the ranks:

they had taken everything from me and that day I was slightly shabby and hadn’t shaved.

As we set off, those who were on the railcar with us were curious.

On other occasions, such as the day I was interned,

when there were eighteen of us, we had a whole railcar for ourselves, so there was no one else.

This time, however, the railcar was full, so people began to ask me what I had done,

and I did what I could to have them do so.

I became the star of the railcar, everybody handed me something,

cigarettes and so on, and the Carabinieri didn’t know what to say.

Their problem was that they didn’t have a place to hide me in,

so they couldn’t do anything if someone offered me a cigarette.

Once we arrived in Florence, however, the Carabinieri decided to get off and change train.