European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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.

I went to Trieste and then right off to the Yugoslavian border.

I stayed there until September 8th, 1943,

shooting and being shot at and so on.

I have been all over Yugoslavia,

I was in the 151st regiment of infantry of the Brigata Sassari.

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.