The interviewee is Marcella Romagnoli Giacomelli, born in Pistoia in 1927. Also present is the domestic helper. After the first bombing, Marcella Romagnoli Giacomelli (Galardini) helped at the emergency department by giving brandy to casualties. Her mother was a Red Cross nurse. Until 23 December 1943, when they were evacuated, their quarters were above the hospital. Her father was in the central division. The morning after the bombing, she left from Lucca to visit her grandmother, and she saw plenty of debris in the city centre. Then they moved to Villa Simone, at Cadeglia: when the villa was commandeered by the Germans, they went back to Pistoia for approximately 10 days, where they witnessed the Germans’ retreat. After the end of the war, the South African troops arrived at the hospital, with Marcella acting as interpreter. South Africans forced some Italian prisoners of war to sweep the hospital square, under duress.