European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Torelli was an old antifascist living in our house. He was persecuted and had been in jail.

One day he told me he wanted to talk to me.

“The things you’re doing are very important; we were quite surprised by you”.

He was referring to what I had been doing with Maria Montanari and my cousin.

We were in a strong and combative group of friends, who shared the same ideals, the same feelings towards life.

The Germans had already officially announced that those who helped soldiers

and dodgers to escape would be sentenced to confinement in concentration camps or executed.

What we were facing wasn’t a joke.

Torelli went on: “You must try to keep everything that a clandestine army might need,

because we want to get people to fight to send away the Germans and the fascists”.

We started to take things out.

Before I talk about this, I will tell an episode which was really crucial

for my decision to go on and take part in the Liberation struggle.

Three or four days after September 8th, the air-raid warning went off.

We fled on our bicycles.

After a while we went back home, since we didn’t hear anything and the warning had stopped.

As I arrived at the beginning of Dalmazia street, as we always fled towards Codemondo or the Canalina,

the SS were standing in front of the houses.

In front of my house there was a space we called the “palace”,

where we used to put tables and chairs in the summer.