European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I picked up my bicycle and went back to San Bartolomeo, because I didn’t dare staying there, if somebody betrayed me.

So I left in the morning, I went to pick Zanti up and we went to Modena by bicycle.

She took me to Alfeo Corassoli,

where I met the famous lawyer Poppi,

and that’s when I started to be involved in the authentic partisan struggle.

I was like a sister to the partisans.

They all loved me and respected me.

It was amazing.

Staying with a family of peasants living in Saliceto San Giuliano, where I stayed 5 or 6 months, I felt like I was at home.

They didn’t even know where I was from.

They thought I was coming from the mountains near Bologna.

Only after the war did they find out that I came from Reggio.

Military actions

We had drawn together most of our forces in the lowlands around Reggio, around Limiti, Soliera, Carpi.

All the houses were with us.

There was actually a time when that area was called “free zone”, because nobody could get in.

However

the Nazi fascists had also been looking at that area, just like us.

At a certain point they decided to do a mop-up to free the area.

They were going to do it with such forces, machine guns and heavy ammunition.