Interview with Lidia Vendramin

Title

Interview with Lidia Vendramin

Description

Lidia Vendramin reminisces her childhood in Sacile including details on her primary schooling, family, and town life. Contrasts the public manifestations of joy the day the war was declared, with the shock and dismay of her parents, whose lives had been profoundly affected by the First World War. Describes the first bombings aimed at the railway lines and the subsequent, more severe attacks which targeted the whole town. Reminisces about her life as an evacuee at Nave and provides an account of night bombings on Aviano and Treviso, describing target indicators, flares, and the muffled noise of distant explosions. Stresses her sense of hopelessness, and the difficulty to make sense of meaningless violence and wanton destruction. Claims that parents tried everything to keep their children out of the horrors of war, and stressed how she had to piece together different bits of information to understand the events she had eye-witnessed. Mentions widespread solidarity among co-workers, who rushed to patch up a plant. Describes convoys packed with Jews and Italian prisoners of war en route to Germany and mentions various acts of kindness: women trying to pass food to the prisoners or collecting the notes they dropped on the railway tracks hoping to send news home; railwaymen sabotaging trains. Mentions some anecdotes connected about Pippo and the Resistance. Stressed how the droning sound of aircraft haunted her for years after the end of the war. Having been at the receiving end of the bombing war, it justifies her keen interest in the history of the second world war and human destructivity. Expresses sympathy for the victim of present day conflicts and elaborates on the present state of global politics and society.

Date

2018-07-17

Coverage

Language

Type

Format

01:01:27 audio recording

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Identifier

AVendraminL180717

Collection

Citation

Alessandro Pesaro, “Interview with Lidia Vendramin,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/7792.

Item Relations

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