European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

No, thank God! Not my father!

He was already a partisan

when he would go to meet the others in the drying-rooms in a forest called “trenta pere” (thirty pears).

These drying-rooms in the mountains were empty in the winter, so they would hold meetings there.

Before the fascist regime began, was it 1922? No, maybe in 1928 or 1930 then.

I was born in 1928 and even when I was very young I was already instructed,

for example, to go see a family in Buco del Signore and then come back.

I don’t know how to explain this, but even if we were very young, we already knew how to move around,

since in the mountains all these small trails easily led you to a house.

There was also the Miliari family, who lived close to us.

The father was truly an antifascist, he didn’t even have his children baptized.

I think he had worked in America, so he was very close to my father.

Then there was the father of Nello Nusoli, who later became a member of Parliament, although you probably don’t know him.

He would also join my father in these drying-rooms where they would all meet.

I don’t know what they talked about, but even as a little child I had to go around

and tell people that a meeting was scheduled, that my father would be there, so they’d know where they had to meet.

There were quite a few Jews in Marola.

There was a very good man who would often come to our house, and there was also a younger boy.

They were a very nice family who had built a beautiful house there, but we didn’t have much to do with anybody.

Later, when I was away for ten years, I did meet many Jews.