European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

“Aurora, here we need someone who stays on duty the whole time”.

I was available night and day, unlike those who stayed at home

and did their household chores.

We needed someone who was always available.

I said alright, I’ll learn. I took typewriting classes, we got a typewriter and began my full daily life.

I was a dispatch rider, I was a secretary, I did everything that needed to be done.

In the beginning I went to Bologna twice a week,

picking up weapons and ammunitions if needed, but mostly new orders coming from the central headquarters,

which we depended on.

There were the central headquarters and then other headquarters all the way down to the brigades.

I worked without pause taking part in actions when it was needed,

shadowing and other actions of our brigade.

We had places we went to, we called them “recapiti” (addresses), where I brought things for everybody:

in Carpi, in Fossoli, in the lowlands where we had all our partisans.

I carried the stuff there and the dispatch riders then carried it to the “recapiti”.

There were various dispatch riders.

At the local headquarters I was a secretary but I also had two dispatch riders there.

One was Carmen (battle name) and the other Vera, who was from Yugoslavia.

They were assigned to the headquarters of the brigade.

That’s what the partisan struggle was about.