European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Cleaned the guns, some helped fixing the meals, another one went to get water.

Then at night we also talked, about the few things we knew.

We had political commissioners we listened to, but after the war I realized that they didn’t know much as well.

I have to say that their knowledge, their political culture was quite limited.

I couldn’t live my life anywhere else, I would really have a hard time.

That’s how I felt during the war too.

We even slept in beech-trees, I could say it was a beautiful experience.

Looking at today’s consumerism, I also understood that men need only a few things to live.

Today you have stores full of stuff, you don’t know where to put things at home;

at the time if you had a bottle of water, some bread and cheese,

you were just as strong as today, maybe even more since you didn’t need to go see the doctor after you ate too much.

I learned so much from the resistance, and from the war too.

Real antifascism developed even after the war.

Along with awareness, as you understood that fascism wasn’t only people with guns.

We found ourselves with the parties of Movimento Sociale and L’Uomo Qualunque in 1945-46 reorganizing fascist principles.

That’s when this feeling arises... Why am I still here at ANPI in Reggio?

I’m here to resist.

We must create a social fabric that won’t allow fascism again.

That’s why I say that antifascism matured after the war more than during the war itself.

Why Giacomo entered the comunist party