European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

War for me had started in 1935, with the campaign in Africa. I was ten then, and on April 25th 1945 I was twenty.

The first thing I did was to throw our windows open.

For the previous five years we had covered them with blue paper in order not to let any light into our houses.

After that we found a flag and we all lined up to go to Reggio for a triumphant parade.

Along the Via Emilia there were American soldiers on both sides.

It was surprising for me to see blacks, as well as Indians with a turban around their head.

The infantry had come behind the tanks.

Then they lined up along the Via Emilia, from Rubiera to Reggio.

When we got there, the partisans had already arrived from the mountains, too.

As we reached the hospice, the partisan parade was stopped, since it was still dangerous inside the city.

There were many sniper casualties in the following days.

We simply turned around and went back home, but you can’t count the parades we did afterwards.

Women’s support for the partisans

At Christmas 1944 we collected biscuits, sweets and cakes.

I stored some at my house, since I was the one in charge and I preferred to keep dangerous things at my place.

Participation in that case was really huge. From that moment Women support groups became a much larger organization,

compared to the three or four antifascist women we were before.

Women were sensational. I found myself with a pile of cases full of stuff.

Then Valenti, a guy from Arceto, came over with his cart. He was the father of the one they called “Valenti the bandit”.

He wanted to make amends for his son. He came to my house at dawn and we loaded everything.