European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

My father told me that morning of the 1st of March:

“Lidia, you’re doing the right thing because it’s important,

but you must remember that your life is going to change after this”.

I wasn’t thinking about this at 7 in the morning,

about my life being different at noon,

but my life did change, I felt more responsible… I felt like this even before,

I had been responsible in all the things I had done.

But after this it was different, responsibilities were different, and everything changed.

I was still Lidia, but let’s say I had a very positive experience

and I also felt proud for doing this.

A bus was coming down from San Polo and we stopped it, telling them there was a strike, that they had to go back.

Some soldiers were on the bus, we got them off and disarmed them:

they gave us their weapons without resisting and didn’t get back on the bus.

They began to walk, maybe they were heading home.

This didn’t cause any trouble.

Then a fascist who had been evacuated to Montecavolo came out of a house

(we were in the main road, by the square, with the strike, our posters, etc.)

He started shooting with a machine-gun, into the air at first.

I think he also had a gun.

Many of us ran after him. We finally caught him and disarmed him.