European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

He and his wife had been ordered not to expose themselves too much.

For example, I was known as Toni, but he had my full name, my address.

If the Germans took control of this, it would have been a disaster.

They had found a cave with many hollows. We hid our names there. Nobody found them.

“What battle name would you like?” - “Any name is alright for me” - “Is Toni ok?” - “Yes, Toni is good”.

Many comrades opted for battle names like Lupo (wolf),

Polvere (dust), others used their girlfriends’ names.

A friend of mine had a girlfriend called Leda, so he chose Ledo for himself.

Joining partisans: Who is the enemy?

It’s quite normal that after these episodes I decided to become involved in the Resistance.

I lied a little bit to my comrades,

since I told them I couldn’t stay at home anymore and wanted to go to the mountains.

I insisted heavily. I finally left.

It was the beginning of March.

We knew that there was a partisan unit in the mountains.

My friend Cocchi and I were the ones in charge, Ugo Veronesi.

We gathered a few more, leaving in a group of seven.

Fascism was responsible for this.

Fascism had set up an alliance with the Germans and had wanted war by all means:

the war in Spain, the war in Ethiopia, the occupation of Albania, the last war.