European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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.

I didn’t do much, but I was never scared of not being able to make it home one day.

Only during the last three months did I let go:

I could not remember my family anymore,

it was as if that notion had vanished,

and it’s something I could not understand back then.

I was exhausted,

the food was terrible for all of us, but I did my best to survive even in those conditions.

Regarding my weight, you hear people say they were thirty-eight or forty kilos, but I never did weigh myself.