European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

“You’re a scoundrel, I went to pick up a gun?

When I got there you asked me for my ID card, you took note of my name,

and as you saw I lived in Reggio, you said you knew my brother…”

I had to say this, since my brother had already gone to the mountains, it could have saved me.

“You told me I had to bring a gun to him, but how could I say no to you?

You had a gun, I only had a basket of eggs in my hand”. I was very mean.

So he said I was right, and took back what he had stated.

They asked me to sign the minutes. I couldn’t tell what they wrote on it.

My cousin and I signed.

Then they told us we could go home, but they wanted to speak to us again the following morning.

So I said: “Listen, I’m afraid to stay at home.

Every night I go to San Bartolomeo to my cousin’s, she’s the local fascist secretary. Can I go there?”

My cousin said the same: “I usually go with her, or to my mother’s, would you let us go there?”

They told us we could.

I got home and Mafaldo Chiessi, who was also an antifascist

and in charge of communications between Reggio and Milan, told me:

“Are you joking? You can’t stay here. Tomorrow they’ll torture you.

Today was only the beginning. Things will be different tomorrow, trust me. Don’t think that they won’t come to get you.

After what happened you must run away”.

My poor father at some point said: