European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We wanted to be home by September because then there would be grapes and figs,

there would be something to eat, whereas there was nothing at the place we were staying.

In Reggio I stayed at some poor peoples' house.

The villa in front of the house where the landlord was living was full of Germans.

I stayed there, hiding, with little to eat, nothing to smoke, it was hard.

stayed there two-three days. Then they sent me back home,

they paid me for those couple of days and then his grandfather didn't want me around anymore because I'd escaped.

It was terrible.

I spent some more time hiding in Reggio without money,

without anything, under the curfew, it was a terrible life.

I heard about the partisans and I simply went up to the mountains and joined them, that's all.

I went to my family living in the Gardenia quarter in Reggio Emilia.

It was a reaction, yes, i had two brothers in the army.

One was in Germany and we didn't know anything about him,

the other one took a different way but we didn't know anything about him, either.

It was just very, very sad.

They were happy that I'd come back but they kept thinking about the other two that were missing, too.

Army and war

I started military service on March 9th, 1940.