European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I got home and Mafaldo Chiessi, who was also an antifascist

and in charge of communications between Reggio and Milan, told me:

“Are you joking? You can’t stay here. Tomorrow they’ll torture you.

Today was only the beginning. Things will be different tomorrow, trust me. Don’t think that they won’t come to get you.

After what happened you must run away”.

My poor father at some point said:

“I have four children, but I have to admit I don’t know them.

I never thought that you were…”

That’s because we had been working in absolute secrecy.

Even my boyfriend didn’t know what I was doing and his mother or his brother-in-law never told him.

Secrecy was vital in order to survive; there was no other value but this.

My father went on: “So now you’ll leave, too.

I have a son who’s been away for a year now, and I don’t know where he is and if he’s alive.

As for the other one, I have had no news for the last three months. He came home for a while but I don’t know where he is now”.

There was no communication with the families from the mountains to the valley.

“Now you’re going away, too, and I’ll stay home with your sister, a ten year old girl.

But I think that you made the right choice.

At least you’ll have a chance to save and defend yourself, unlike us who will end up like mice trapped at home.

Just remember that your father thinks a lot of you”.

That was what my father told me.