Browse Items (35559 total)
Sort by:
Interview with Itala Coriddi
Itala Coriddi (b. 1928) recalls wartime hardships in the Rome countryside where she lived in a straw hut. She tells of a railway tunnel used as shelter, describes the Anzio landing and recalls looking for shell cases to be used for hiding food. Itala…
Interview with Patrizia Riviera
Patrizia Riviera (b. 1930) gives a brief account of wartime life in Bergamo. She mentions food shortages, fear of bombings and basements used as shelters. She recalls disrupted schooling after the fall from power of the Fascist regime.
Interview with Elena Fornari
Elena Fornari (b. 1936) tells of the private shelter in her house in Rome and describes daily life under bombing. She recollects the frightening encounter with two German soldiers asking for information about her father.
Interview with Rita Patrignani
Rita Patrignani (b. 1921) mentions wartime food shortages and tells how she picked up what she found on the ground at the market. She describes the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome. She compares her impulse to dash to the nearest…
Interview with Corrado Marenco
Corrado Marenco (b. 1940) describes various wartime anecdotes: a makeshift shelter dug in his garden where he and other children had fun despite the danger of 'Pippo'; how his father had to hide inside the bell tower of a church to escape from German…
Interview with Rosanna Capretta
Rosanna Capretta (b. 1935) reminisces about the frightening sound of the sirens and describes how she and her family tried to cope by hugging each other in a corridor. She recalls food shortages, rationing cards, and black market and describes…
Interview with Margherita Franco
Margherita Franco (b. 1934) remembers listening to the declaration of war on the radio while her father kept working in the garden. She describes her mother preparing a bag with food and other necessities and hanging heavy curtains at the windows as…
Interview with Laura Perego
Laura Perego (b. 1919) tells how her village, on the outskirts of Milan, went through the war almost unscathed, despite being close to an ammunition dump and other potential targets. She remembers a mysterious, badly dressed man who lived in a nearby…
Interview with Marta Papotti
Marta Papotti (b. 1937) remembers the bombings of Turin and how she and her family dashed to the shelter in the basement. She recalls the sense of community and describes people reciting the rosary or just chatting. She describes how her father, the…
Interview with Gerlinde Keller
Gerlinde Keller (b. 1939) was evacuated in 1942 from Munich to the Altmühltal, in a purpose-built settlement where she lived with her aunt. She explains how the growing intensity of the bombings had made the city unsafe for children and how they…
Interview with Gisela Schäfer
Gisela Schäfer (b. 1929) remembers her youth as a schoolgirl in Eberbach. She recalls how unlucky she was, having experienced all major bombings in the area. She remembers spending her school holidays as a farmhand and tells how it was physically…
Interview with Günter Lucks
Günter Lucks (b. 1925) describes how he was forced to join the Hitler Youth in 1939, an event that caused a great deal of disturbance in a family with a strong communist background. When his parents moved out, because of his father’s job as…
Interview with Irmgard Schulz
Irmgard Schulz (b. 1935) describes how the harbour of Hamburg was a recurring target during the war and mentions the use of target indicators and radar countermeasures. She explains how she was told not to pick up anything, for fear it could be…
Interview with Alessandro Novellini
Alessandro Novellini (b. 1932) remembers the bombings of Turin and mentions different shelters in the city: the one in the basement of his house and the much bigger one at Piazza Risorgimento, built in 1943 when the tide of war was turning in favour…
Interview with Renato Maldarelli
Renato Maldarelli (b. 1937) describes the 1943 bombing of Naples. He remembers being woken up by the alarm, his mother wrapping him in a blanket and going down to a cold shelter. He does not recall the fear of being buried alive under his collapsed…
Interview with Adriano Acquistucci
Adriano Acquistucci (b. 1927) remembers the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome. Upon the arrival of the Allies on 4 June 1944, he describes how some felt liberated and others occupied. He mentions one of his friends as having “a…
Interview with Gianfranco Maffucci
Gianfranco Maffucci (b. 1930) recalls episodes of everyday life in wartime: bartering for food; going into the shelter when the alarm sounded; men working in the factories while women went to market. He gives a detailed description of his…
Interview with Angelo Cassia
Angelo Cassia (b. 1926) gives an account of the bombing of Turin in the summer of 1943. He mentions the use of a shelter in the basement until it became clear that it would not withstand a blast wave and could trap the occupants inside. He recalls…
Interview with Mario Cocco
Mario Cocco (b. 1938) remembers the Tirso dam being torpedoed, emphasising its beauty and meaning as an engineering marvel. He describes how a torpedo net prevented three torpedoes from reaching their target. He gives a detailed account of the…
Interview with Anna Maria Sarno
Anna Maria Sarno (b. 1945) recalls wartime hardships in the surroundings of Avellino. She mentions how her family took shelter in a railway tunnel and describes disrupted transport.
Interview with Gianfranco Nardi
Gianfranco Nardi (b. 1933) recalls the first bombing of Cesenatico in 1944, a night action carried out by 'Pippo'. He explains how the aircraft missed the train station and hit the nearby town centre; he maintains that the pilot was drunk. He…
Interview with Albino Ristorto
Albino Ristorto (b. 1938) remembers the bombing of Dronero in 1944 when he saw a formation of aircraft approaching from the north, coming from Turin (Torino) airport. He describes how one of them made a swooping manoeuvre and mentions how the pilot…
Interview with Albino Ristorto
Albino Ristorto (b. 1938) remembers the day he challenged the president of the local partisans’ association, who was reluctant to admit their involvement in the bombing of Dronero. He reports the widely held belief that the partisans asked the…
Interview with a survivor of the Villanova Marchesana bombings
The interviewee recalls how he moved from Libya to Italy and lived for some years in various camps in Napoli, Marina di Massa, Trento, San Remo and Massa Lombarda. He describes a three-day bombing raid in Napoli where he managed to hide in a church…
Interview with Livio Ponte
Livio Ponte remembers his wartime life in Monfalcone. He describes the frightening moments when the alarm sounded, usually at night, and people rushed to the shelters for safety. He mentions different attitudes: his parents going to a shelter whereas…