European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I see a German walking down with a Tak-Poum (german mashine gun) on his shoulder.

I had my machine gun and I pointed it at him,

so after a couple of steps (the bush wasn’t really very big) he got there and raised his hands.

I took his rifle and he didn’t want to give me his shotgun:

I could have left it to him, keeping him in front of me, but it’s always better to be careful.

I took the gun and I brought him home.

I guess the Germans were really longing for some milk.

My father used to make cheese at home, that type of cheese which is sought-after today while we hated it then because

we had it all the time

and he drank a whole pot of milk.

The pot was on the table in order to make cheese, and he drank it all.

My father stared at him in an admiring way, he had been a prisoner too, but not one bad word against him…

He was my age, maybe a few years older.

After that I took him to Ligonchio,

and a comrade from Busana told me afterwards that he guided him and two other Germans who were already there

to Silano and through the front, to the Allies.

For the whole time we did not speak. We stopped at a well to have a drink,

we where just like two boys, he was than already like a lamb, disarmed.

Later, another partisan came with me, from Lingonchio on,

a former Carabinieri who now is dead, Nello Coli, also from my village.