European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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I was good, I was really good at drawing.
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And look at the irony of fate: I drew a very nice sheaf with a beautiful laurel wreath.
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To paint it, I mean, to color it with crayons if you don't have the hand for it... I mean, if you're not careful, it won't turn out well...
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but actually it turned out to be very beautiful
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and it was selected as the best drawing of our elementary school in Castelnovo di Sotto.
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We were called to the Ausoni theatre for the award ceremony.
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The podestà was supposed to come hand out the prizes.
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They were present, since the entire fascist heirarchy was present at every event, giving out awards to the children...
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i was the last one to be called since I had earned the top award in the entire school.
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They called me, I went up the stairs and was up on the stage...
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and there stood Doctor Ganassi. This I should state because he was a family friend and I, even all of us, would bring him milk from a cow that I'd practically raised,
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since he had a young son but couldn't manage to raise him... all of his children died as infants and so we would bring him this milk.
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And he said: “Oh, you don’t belong to the Piccole Italiane?” I answered: “No, my father didn’t sign me up”.
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"Well, then we won't give your your award" and he sent me back.
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A ten, eleven year-old girl... how can you explain to her that...
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how can she understand that there is more worth to a membership card than her ability to work, to study, to be good, etcetera?
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I went home crying. My mother was feeding the pigs. Poor thing.. she found herself...
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I said, "This is your fault. I didn't get an award because you didn't get me the membership."
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So she gave me a good slap and told me, "At least now you have something to cry about." Perhaps she found it difficult to respond to me in the moment
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since parents were really careful about talking to us kids.
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