European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

There was a family in Reggio who was often with my uncles in the house

where I used to go collect information, and one day the father said they had to leave.

They had a furniture store. I think they closed it and decided they had to go away.

At the time I didn’t know or understand why they fled like that.

We didn’t talk about it, especially in Marola, in the mountains,

although I would often come to Reggio, since my mother was born in Reggio, in via Emilia San Pietro.

Introduction, family, work

My father was a foundling, who was adopted by my grandfather, Carlo Zebenini, when he was just a baby.

My father’s name was Reino Quadreri.

My mother was born in Reggio, her name was Valentina Paterni.

Should I go on? Then, there was my brother Gastone, who was born in 1917, and Giulio, born in 1925.

My sister Laura was born in 1926, then it was my turn in 1928.

Finally, Aldo in 1931 and Renzo in 1933.

Luckily my mother was a dressmaker.

We had a house and some land, however, with such a large family, my father had to work as a labourer.

We didn’t have any­thing even before the war, then everything got even worse.

My brothers only attended school until the third grade, which was all that Marola offered.

I was the only one who went on to the fifth grade, but in order to do so I had to go to Carpineti.

We stayed at home; my brothers worked occasionally, often as farm-hands for other families.

My older brother worked as a bricklayer in the seminary for ten years, before he was drafted into the army when he was 20.