Interview with a survivor of the Cordenons bombings (informant A)

Interview with a survivor of the Cordenons bombings (informant A)

The interviewee recalls her wartime years at Cordenons, from the day the outbreak of the war was announced on the radio. She describes how she anticipated the air raid siren with a mixture of elation and fear, being somewhat eager to skip school. She also recounts how aircraft dropped fuel tanks, followed by explosions and fires and reminisces over "Pippo" and its menacing droning sound, with her grandmother yelling 'that pig!' at it. She describes how she learned to differentiate between aircraft at varying altitudes and to tell the difference between flyovers and bombings. She also describes improvised shelters, consisting of shallow holes dug in cornfields and covered with reeds and recalls how women used to recite the Hail Mary and the Lord's Prayer, exclaiming 'Oh Lord, help us'. She mentions evacuees from Pordenone billeted in town, German rounding-up of civilians and her husband being deported to Dachau. She also recounts wartime hardships, such as the cold, fear and hunger and remembers the sight of black American troops, as well as post war acts of revenge.

2016-11-26

00:14:23 audio recording

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AAn00807-161126