European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Vincent grows up in the Communist working class, his father soon takes him along to different demonstrations. As soon as he can, he joins the Communist Youth Movement. After the defeat (la débâcle) in June 1940 he returns to Nanterre. Upon his return to Nanterre he participates in political actions, as the reproduction and distribution of leaflets and posters. He is part of the « Forces unies de la jeunesse patriotique (FUJP) », the United Forces of the Patriotic Youth, a youth movement of political and religious orientation. In 1942 he goes underground, as he refuses to leave for forced labour in Germany. The character of his activities change, he becomes part of the Francs-Tireurs et Particants (FTP) (snipers and participants) and is responsible for the safety of the comrades that have public appearances. As an FTP-FFI he is responsible for the safety of the Communist mayor, Raymond Barbet, during the liberation of Nanterre on August 21st, 1944 and then assists during the fall of the fortress Mont Valérien. Vincent is demobilised in June 1945. After the war he returns to Nanterre and takes up his former profession as a mechanic in the Simca factory. But he is fired in 1947. From 1954 to 1966 he is head of the department childhood and physical education. In 1966 he begins to work in the office of the Sports and Gymnastics Labor Federation (FSGT) until his retirement in 1980. Throughout this time he keeps up his activities as a local representative in the municipality.Today he is the president of the ANACR section in the Hauts-Seine department. He visits schools together with former deportees to relate his experience as a former resistance fighter.

Carlo Porta was born in Gavasseto di Reggio Emilia on May 18, 1919, into a large family of farm workers who followed the socialist ideas of Camillo Prampolini. At the age of sixteen he was already an active member of the Socialist Party, taking part in the International Red Relief by collecting small amounts of money or goods for the Republican fighters in Spain. After being employed as a factory worker at Officine Meccaniche Reggiane, an engineering plant that manufactured armaments during Mussolini’s regime, in 1938 he is called up for military service. While in the Army, authorities find out about his antifascist militancy: he is arrested and imprisoned in Civitavecchia, Regina Coeli (Rome), Reggio Emilia and Castelfranco Emilia. Perfunctorily judged by the Special Tribunal for National Security, he is sentenced to three years’ confinement in the farming penal colony of Pisticci (Matera), in the region of Basilicata. While in confinement, he meets chief figures of the Italian Communist Party, whose teachings would contribute to mould his political beliefs. At the end of the three years of confinement he returns to Reggio Emilia, but a few months later he is called to the Army again and sent to Albania with the Italian occupation forces. He is in Albania on the 8th of September of 1943, the day of the Armistice: captured by the Germans, he is sent to internment camps in Germany in stock wagons. He reaches his first destination after sixteen days and is interned as a IMI (Italian Interned Soldier) in the marshalling camp of Neubrandenburg. His identification number was 108 481. He is freed only two years later, while in the Wickede camp, near Dortmund.

We protected the partisans so much when we were kids; they were our friends and the Germans were our enemies.

One said: »I´ll do some collecting.« We used the collected money for the ›Rote Hilfe‹ (political help organ).

You would deliberately throw a spanner in the works, as long as you could and as long as you could breathe.

Well, did I kill somebody... We did shoot, but then knowing if we killed them for sure is another story.

That’s what the partisan struggle was about. Fourteen months more or less, constantly: these actions, these deaths.

When you were taken to an investigation, when you could not walk any more, you were brought to the cell.

I went to a lady that I saw once in my life. It was my contact spot. She said to me: you can save a child.

They did not want us in sabotage, we were too young. Our scout authorities made it clear not to get us into sabotage.

There was no real future for us. But that made you stronger to go into the resistance and help wherever you could.

You are young people. Don’t fight with each other. Be collegial. Be friends because you don’t know what the tomorrow will be like.

The Resistance for me was just like going to university. I learned to feel confident throughout my whole life.

I remember Strozzi saying: »War has never brought anything good for the poor.«

What did we know about politics? With fascism, you could only read what they gave to you, and you didn’t even have the right to make comments.

I started to run as fast as I could. I was skinny then and 23 years old. The soldier took out his gun and started shooting at me.

I will join the partisans from Carpineti because i wanted the war to end.

It was the Italian occupiers who gunned down every liberation movement. They shot so many innocent hostages.

Killing, even in the name of great ideals, will ultimately come back to you later in form of a trauma.

The Tchetniks attacked us from behind and they massacred the Partisans, all from behind our line. We lost 700 men in one night and one day.