European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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We were all excited for the gymnastics display we were working on.
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It would take place in the main square, in front of our parents and all the others.
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However, Mussolini wanted children to wear a uniform from our earliest childhood:
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the “Figli della Lupa”, the “Balilla”, the “Piccole Italiane”, the “Avant-gardists”.
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Mothers were enrolled in the “Massaie rurali” (rural housewives),
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and were given pamphlets for them to learn how to breed chickens and work the garden: the “war garden”.
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The whole family was
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organized.
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The Duce had also decided that large families were to be awarded with a certificate.
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Even more so for our family since there were six boys and two girls.
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This certificate had to be displayed at home, so that everybody could see
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that Mussolini had acknowledged these families
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who had generated manpower for the nation to prepare for war.
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When I was seven I suffered my first humiliation.
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My mother didn’t have enough money to buy me the uniform of the “Piccole Italiane”.
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So I couldn’t take part in the gymnastics event, as I had dreamed about.
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I never found out if we really didn’t have any money
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or rather my mother didn’t want me to wear that uniform.
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After the display they handed out an Easter egg to all the participants.
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I had never seen one before. It was amazing, with its shiny coloured paper.
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