European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The command was to remain quiet and calm and to wait until the commander yelled charge (‘juris’).

We were to wait for the enemy to approach within 20 meters and then each man was to pick his own target enemy.

We would all charge together. Then something unexpected happened.

Of the 300 men on our side the enemy was expecting at least 100 to die.

But when the Germans approached, not 20 meters away but rather 40 meters,

the guy behind the machine-gun started firing the machine-gun too soon.

We all charged at that moment, all frantic, all in a rush.

We were suddenly inside the German lines, which were well organized according to the logic of a military attack.

The 300 young men charged among them and provoked such havoc

that the Germans were so surprised they didn’t even shoot.

Had they shot at us they would have also been shooting at their own people, because we were among them.

We broke through their lines without a fight.

Instead of 100 of our men dying, only two fell, two were wounded and one was taken captive.

Confinement; Surrender of Italy

At one point, I experienced some sort of metamorphosis, like in Trieste

when the fascist spat in my face and I identified everyone who spoke Italian as a fascist.

The civilian population brought me to recognize that it is unjust to condemn

or declare an entire population merely for what is expressed through their political, military or other representatives.

I began to understand that Italians, no less than us, are quite disparate.

There are those to whom I’m close and there are those whom I find adverse, they are my enemy as I am theirs.