European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

It was just what I was looking for. I wanted to do something, to help, but I didn’t know how.

They gave me a chance to do something for my family

and to support the antifascist ideals I was starting to believe in.

I started to collect the “soccorso rosso” (red aid).

The little amount of money antifascists could rely on to support those families

whose parents or brothers had to flee after being persecuted by the regime.

It was just natural to me.

After all I had suffered, joining the Communist party meant

doing something for the vision I had developed.

I would also be doing something for my brother and to grant people a chance to live better.

I became a communist day by day, taking in the atmosphere around me.

At fifteen, I can’t say I was aware of what was going on.

Given my life, however, joining the Communist party was the natural answer.

There was no other solution, no doubts of any sort.

Education: news in the cattle shed, books

In the winter we used the cattle shed as our meeting place.

Friends could finally spend some time together.

Social and political activities took place in the cattle shed,

as well as love affairs, since boys and girls met there.

I would sneak in and day by day my curiosity would grow.