European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

It was one of those hats that the Balilla were using,

the avanguardists (fascist youth), they had a hat like the ones the Alpini used.

So I went down and got the hat, cleaned it a bit and put it on my head.

In this manner we reached Succiso.

In the outskirts of the village there were a few women

but in the centre there was nobody. Everyone had left!

I went into the tavern of Torri and asked if there were partisans here.

He said: "No, there are no partisan round here, nobody."

"But I saw a few women ... " "They went to buy food".

So we decided to stay for a while, waiting for someone to come, but no-one appeared.

It was like a desert even though it was a village.

So we sat down under a poplar and said

"Let's talk. We don't have any money, it's raining, we don't know where the partisans are,

they don't tell us anything here, what shall we do? Shall we go home?

But we can't go home any more ..."

He tried to calm me, he was older than me (he was born in 1924, I in 1926).

But eventually I took my ID-card out of my wallet, I looked at him and told him:

"Look, all our will to find the rebels is this".

And I tore the ID in pieces. He asked me why I had done so

and I told him: "What do you think we're going to do back home, show that we still have our ID?