European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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Introduction and family; 8th September 1943; escape from captivity
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My name is Pierino Beggi, battle name “Gigi”.
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I was born in Reggio Emilia.
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Until I was twenty years old, I lived where the Biasola Park is today.
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My father was a farmer and worked on the farm that was once there.
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We grew up working the land with him, until we were called into the army when we were around twenty.
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I spent three years in Turin with the Engineer Corps
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and then we were transferred to Bardonecchia where we stayed another three years.
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On the 8th of September 1943,
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General Vercellino ordered us to mine the Frejus tunnel,
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since the Germans were coming through with tanks and army crews loaded on freight trains.
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We carried 14 hundred kilograms of explosives inside the tunnel and blew it up.
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But the Germans kept coming along the road across the mountains and were shooting at us.
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We were ordered to withdraw towards Turin. We reached the city walking in the countryside for 100 km.
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In Turin, we were already surrounded by the Germans. They had followed the road on motor vehicles.
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Many of us were captured there.
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Then we were put on freight trains, around seventy of us in each box car.
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They had unloaded cattle before and the straw was still there.
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They were told us that we would be going to Germany.
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The train had to stop in Codoglio di Piacenza,
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