European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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,

just the meals they gave us when something arrived, and only a few things.

A sad thing I remember took place when we were in Slovenia,

just outside the capital, in a place called “the Sawmill”, in the woods.

The partisans attacked us and we reacted.

The fascists and the snipers came

and emptied out the village, they killed more than 400 people, shot dead like dogs.

That's the truth, and we were around the hills checking if the others were coming.

After this desaster the fascists went away.

They had carried away women and children, they brought them to Fiume,