European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

There were only a few people from Emilia and many Sardinians, many from Calabria,

poor guys with little schooling, mostly illiterates.

In fact I became a sergeant because I had gone to elementary school,

I had some knowledge, I was able to read.

I mean, I was a bit more than a poor silly guy like them..

They were having a hard time; they didn't know how to write.

I wrote home for them, to their girlfriends,

even though I didn't know what to say to a girlfriend, that's the truth.

Then, one day, I even took a school book from a friend of mine

and taught these guys how to write and count.

I taught them in the moments in which we had nothing to do, were just getting bored.

But in Yugoslavia we fought a lot and the partisans bombed us often, we had many casualties.

I was all over Yugoslavia, from Zagreb to Croatia to Slovenia.

These are difficult territories;

the people there were strong enemies to us just like we were strong

enemies to the fascists when I was a partisan later fighting them and the Germans.

That's all, it was a long time and we were freezing and starving.

We did have food, but when you're 20 or 22, you're always hungry.

There was no fruit, the land was a desert just like here,

there was nothing to eat,