European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I managed to see out of the corner of my eye that he was about to hit me from behind,

so I protected myself: he ended up hitting the handcuffs, got angry and smacked me a couple of times.

We were all waiting in line. There were people

like the guy who told on me, a baker whose name was Montermini.

He was sentenced to fifteen years by the special court, and served quite a few of them.

We were the last ones, and our sentences were lighter: as for myself, I was sentenced to four years of confinement.

Nobody defended you, it was only up to you to stand up for yourself.

In any case, when you got into the movement you were aware that there would not be much you could do:

we all knew that if we got caught we would end up doing a couple of years.

It came to no surprise.

I spent two months in the San Tommaso prison, in Reggio Emilia,

before they were forced to transfer us to make room for new inmates.

We were 18 or 19, all fettered to the same chain.

Our families had been told we would be at the station,

so once we got there they had come to see us, and some of them were crying:

we had to pretend everything was ok and force a smile in order to make it easier for them.

When we arrived in Castelfranco, the warden came over and asked the sergeant, who was in charge of the guards,

where they were supposed to put us, since the prison was also full.

He asked where we came from, and when he was told we were from Reggio Emilia, he said:

“If it was for me, I would just dump them in a cesspit”.