European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Confinement; Surrender of Italy

At one point, I experienced some sort of metamorphosis, like in Trieste

when the fascist spat in my face and I identified everyone who spoke Italian as a fascist.

The civilian population brought me to recognize that it is unjust to condemn

or declare an entire population merely for what is expressed through their political, military or other representatives.

I began to understand that Italians, no less than us, are quite disparate.

There are those to whom I’m close and there are those whom I find adverse, they are my enemy as I am theirs.

Upon our return from Italian confinement, we all went together in groups.

I remember that the day I returned from half a year of confinement, I washed, changed my clothes and headed off to join the Partisans.

My family wanted me to stay at least a full day. No. I couldn’t wait.

For me, joining the Partisans felt like discovering America.

I wanted to become an active fighter and not just a sympathizer.

The mood after the fall of fascism – formally on July 25th and later September 8th -

when Italy acceded to the unconditional truce,

and which was when we arrived after a few days of travel from the Abruzzi to the Karst,

the atmosphere was already in full swing.

People were gathering and cheering about liberation, convinced that the war was over.

So my comrades and I, we were anxious and eager to seize the day that we, too, would become fighters, before the war ended.

It was a total illusion that with the capitulation of Italy, Germany would fall as well.

Partisan „hero“ Janko Premrl (Vojko)