European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

In Castelfranco, however, the ticket inspector kindly told us that we would have had to pay the ticket fare.

We replied that we had no money at all,

so he agreed not to make us get off, but once in Reggio

we would have had to go to the SARSA offices together.

When we got in he said:

“Boss, these men haven’t paid the bus fare because they claim they’re coming from Germany”.

The reply was: “You really are a moron, I told you they have every right to go back to their homes!”.

He really got scolded.

At that point we started walking with two others from Correggio.

We knew nothing at all, I had no news of my family, so we inquired with the director of SARSA.

We walked home, something that was still quite common back then.

When I reached the point where today you find the ACM, I was tired and stopped to rest for a while.

I told her I was, and she said: “You’re late!”.

“Well, I have just got here”.

She offered to go tell my parents to come greet me, but before she left I asked her what the situation was, since she knew my family.

“Everyone is alive”, she said,

“and your brother has just come back from Switzerland”.

Then she ran to my parents’ home to give them the good news.

I will never forget my mother running towards me in tears.