Browse Items (635 total)
- Tags: home front
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Interview with Maria Malagni
Maria Malagni (b. 1921) remembers her difficult childhood and chequered schooling history. She recalls wartime episodes: the death of her fiancé, an airman shot down over Brindisi; fascists seizing supplies; the capture of two partisans that her…
Tags: animal; bombing; fear; home front; love and romance; Pippo
Interview with Ivonne Cerasoli
Ivonne Cerasoli (b. 1925) describes Milan shelters, consisting largely of basements reinforced with wooden props, and tells how people cut down trees for firewood.
Tags: bombing; civil defence; home front
Interview with Anna Maria Guglielmi
Anna Maria Guglielmi (b. 1940) recalls one of the first memories of her childhood when the siren sounded and she found herself in crowded shelter. She describes wartime anecdotes: drinking wine from a demijohn found in the attic; an encounter with…
Interview with Rosetta Gobetti
Rosetta Gobetti (b. 1930) describes the bombing of a marsh near Isola della Scala, describing it as, probably, target mis-identification. She recalls a more severe bombing which destroyed many houses and killed 28 people. She gives a short…
Interview with Matilde Pontecorvi
Matilde Pontecorvi (b. 1910) gives an account of the bombing of Ciampino when she was travelling by tram and bombs started to explode around it. She recalls how she survived only because a priest told her to duck under the seats. She describes the…
Tags: bombing; home front
Interview with Alberto Dini
Alberto Dini recalls his wartime life in Trieste starting from the declaration of war until the end of the conflict. He describes life under the bombs, highlightin disruption of utilities, devastated streets and chequered schooling history. He…
Interview with Eraldo Bessone
Eraldo Bessone (b.1925) describes the bombing of an industrial area close to the Lingotto district in Turin. He tells how it was completely unexpected and stresses how the population was totally unprepared. Eraldo describes his attempt to reach a…
Tags: bombing; home front
Toy soldiers
Six figures in various poses (marching, standing, playing the bugle) depicting foot soldiers from different periods.
These toys were originally part of a larger set used by Alberto Dini to pass the time while inside a shelter in Trieste. …
These toys were originally part of a larger set used by Alberto Dini to pass the time while inside a shelter in Trieste. …
Tags: coping mechanism; home front; shelter
Permit to circulate during alarms
The permit entitles Giovanni Granata to circulate freely in Trieste during alarms, at his own risk.
Tags: home front
Il gioco della protezione antiaerea
The board game has 78 spaces, numbered from one to 78, and arranged in spiral fashion. Players’ pieces are moved according to throws of one or two dice. Each square contains simple figures and a brief text about anti-aircraft precautions. Players…
Report on a domestic shelter
Report on the condition of a domestic shelter, with notes on the condition of items of clothing that have been stored inside.
Tags: home front; shelter
Come proteggersi della nuova offesa nemica: “la piastrina incendiaria”
Instructions how to deal with a new type of small incendiary the Royal Air Force started to use. Advice includes: do not use water; put all the incendiaries in a hole dug in the ground; ask the assistance of the Unione Nazionale Protezione Antiaerea…
Chiesa della B.V. delle Grazie mutilata nel bombardamento anglo-americano del 10-06-44
Following the destruction of a church in Trieste, the leaflet contrasts the horrors of unrestricted bombing warfare with the hypocrisy of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They describe themselves as devoutly religious despite ordering the…
Bombing of Trieste
Account of the 6 July 1944 bombing of Trieste written by a typist of the Servola ironworks. The first part of the document details the effects of the explosions and mentions some of the impact points: the ammunition dump and the oil refinery. The…
Tags: bombing; civil defence; home front; love and romance; shelter
Interview with Ferdi Righi
Ferdinando Righi recalls his early life in Monfalcone, brought up by his mother while his father served as a submariner. He describes daily life in wartime: how he used to sleep fully clothed, waiting for the air raid siren. His mother would put some…
Interview with Erika Gautsch
Erika Gautsch (b. 1928) describes her wartime experience of being inside a shelter and the people she met there: an old sick man with his wife, who was incessantly reciting the rosary, and children clinging to their mothers. She describes tension and…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; faith; fear; home front; shelter
Interview with Carla Griva
Carla Griva (b. 1935) describes different attitudes and various coping strategies of people inside a shelter in Turin: reciting the rosary, putting their hands over their ears to avoid listening, storytelling, and asking children to practice…
Interview with Mafalda De Luca
Mafalda De Luca (b. 1939) recalls how her father moved to Fiume during the D’Annunzio occupation, and there he met her mother. She remembers the blackout curtains at the windows and mentions underground shelters. She gives a brief account of a…
Interview with Angela Squicciarini
Angela Squicciarini (b. 1925) gives an account of her life during wartime when she attended school. She mentions relatives, one of whom spent many years in Russia; she describes how the living conditions improved over the years; and provides details…
Tags: bombing; home front
Interview with Luigia Colussi
Luigia Colussi (b. 1925) gives a short account of her wartime life and describes how she persuaded German troops to release her father. She talks about the contrast between the attitude of adults (who prayed and were generally worried by the…
Tags: bombing; civil defence; home front; incendiary device
Interview with Ada Dellaferrera
Ada Dellaferrera (b. 1928) recalls aircraft strafing the railway station and how she tried to hide next to a wall. She remembers when her mother sent her out in the blackout and the fear of the dark she has had ever since.
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; fear; home front; strafing
Interview with Teresa Messali
Teresa Messali gives a brief account of pre-war life with her large family in a farmhouse near Bergamo. She mentions Pippo; describes the pressing need to find shelter during the bombings and tells how she frequently resorted to ditches. Teresa…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; fear; home front; Pippo
Interview with Fausta Maggioni
Fausta Maggioni recalls memories of her wartime life in Milan. She describes a sizeable shelter reinforced with wooden props; a little bag with the few valuables she had always to bring along; as well as the many duties of her father, as warden, who…
Interview with Lucia Muratori
Lucia Muratori recalls her early life in Bologna in the family of a well-off foundry owner. She stresses that she had less traumatic war experiences compared to many other people at that time, the only disturbing episode being witnessing the killing…
Interview with Paolo Bottani
Paolo Bottani recalls wartime memories as part of a working-class family in Milan. He describes the widespread enthusiasm for the declaration of war, followed by a relatively calm period. He remembers the alarms being greeted, initially, with joy…