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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 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 Alessandro Novellini
Alessandro Novellini (b. 1932) remembers the bombings of Turin and tells of 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 Umberto Veroli
Umberto Veroli (b. 1933) recollects wartime memories, such as when his father was an electrical engineer: living close to power substations; a kitten killed by an electric arc; Germans forcing workers to remove transformers and smash meters. He…
Interview with Renato Cardarelli
Renato Cardarelli (b. 1923) remembers his youth as an altar boy and then sexton at the church of San Paolo in Rome. He mentions his decision to enter the seminary at 18, where he spent two years, and explains how he was deemed temporarily unfit for…
Interview with Aldo Magnaghi
Aldo Magnaghi (b. 1927) remembers the bombings of Milan and explains how his house was not directly hit but rather heavily damaged by blast waves. He describes phosphorus loaded incendiaries, their effects on wooden structures, and how civilians…
Interview with Osvaldo Gramegna
Osvaldo Gramegna (b. 1937) remembers the bombings of Turin. He tells of civilians initially fleeing along the railway during alarms and explains how, in hindsight, it was foolish behaviour. He recalls his evacuee life at Casalgrasso: ineffective…
Interview with Romualdo Siccardi
Romualdo Siccardi (b. 1926) remembers the bombing of the Borgo San Paolo gas holder in Turin, November 1942, when he was 16. He mentions, briefly, makeshift shelters in basements deemed tantamount to death traps and gives a detailed account of the…
Interview with Paolo Ferroni
Paolo Ferroni (b. 1937) remembers the bombings of Rome, describing the ubiquitous noise of sirens wailing and the psychological distress associated with it. He contrasts night bombings, when civilians dashed to improvised dugouts nearby, and day…
Interview with Eraldo Bessone
Eraldo Bessone (b. 1925) remembers the bombing of Turin, 18 November 1942, the first intense attack after a series of operations which caused limited alarm and little damage. He gives a vivid and emotional account of the destruction of a nearby…
Interview with Vittorio Finauri
Vittorio Finauri (b. 1931) remembers the first bombing of Foligno on 22 November 1943, which was completely unexpected, and how people were caught unprepared, so, bombs aimed at nearby barracks, resulted in a heavy death toll. He describes how some…
Interview with Antonio Bozzetti
Antonio Bozzetti (b. 1924) remembers his efforts to dodge fascist paramilitary service and tells how he avoided being enlisted because he had a reserved occupation in a factory, working for the Germans. He describes how he witnessed all Milan…