European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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.

She could not take it anymore, just like me, and that’s the first time I cried.

I usually shed tears every time I tell this story, so today I’m lucky: this morning I managed not to cry.

And that’s the end of the story.

I got back in touch with my old contacts and began looking for a job.

I received many offers that I didn’t accept,

then I just went on with my new job, at Giglio,

Latterie Cooperative Riunite (the United Dairy Cooperative). I’ve worked there for thirty-six years.

Trying to stay alive

At that point I was determined to come back home,

I could not stand ending up like that anymore.

I ate just as bad as the others,

although my doctor tells me today that those two years in Germany

were good for my health and helped me to stay alive.