European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

It was mostly for this reason that they decided to close down the island of Ponza.

Some were sent to Ventotene, others were transferred to Pisticci with us,

such as Bigi, the Member of Parliament, or Bonini.

By the time I left the colony, there were almost three thousand people confined in Pisticci:

not only political prisoners, but a bit of everything, including spies.

For three years I drove a tractor.

We arrived at the offices of the colony, where we were divided in three sheds,

since we were seventeen or eighteen.

As I walked in, others were already inside.

I started to explain to them how we were lucky that the number of socialist countries was growing,

thanks to the Soviet Union – they had just occupied Sweden, Norway and Lithuania at that time – and how great the Russians were.

Come morning, a tiny man called me over and asked me where I was from.

I told him I was from Reggio Emilia, so he told me:

“Are you really sure about the things you were saying last night?”.

I thought he was crazy.

He was a professor from Milan, whose name was Lonato. We were in great terms after that.

With us, there were also prisoners from Parma.

I’m not saying I liked it there, because it was always confinement.

However I was younger than the others, and I understood that this was an advantage.

I was with a man called Bonini, from Villa Seta, who was around forty-five years old