The interviewee is Giuliana Menichini Pereira, born in Pistoia on 31 January 1928. Her father Pietro Menichini edges in, her husband Miguel Pereira is in the room. The interview was conducted by Claudio Rosati in Pistoia on 6 October 1983, in his house. During the first bombing, Giuliana Menichini Pereira was in Via Monte Sabotino – she saw the city lit up by flares and ran to the countryside with her family. This and the last bombing made a lasting impression on her; the last also because of the many aircraft waves. She remembers the death of the five Zanzotto brothers. Giuliana was evacuated near Torbecchia. Her father, Pietro Menichini, remembers the Officine San Giorgio in ruins and tells about the arrival of Germans near the place where they were evacuated. The partisans were alerted with shouts, he and some neighbours got ready to fight with rifles, guns and pitchforks. Giuliana Menichini Pereira, together with the village inhabitants, cheered the first British soldiers
]]>The interviewee is Ada Breschi, clerical worker, born in Pistoia on 22 September 1917. The interview was conducted by Claudio Rosati in Pistoia on 22 September 1983, in his house. After the 8 September 1943 armistice, Ada Breschi helped many servicemen who had deserted their barracks. She witnessed the Piazza San Lorenzo execution by firing squad. During the first bombing, she was at home with mother and sister, in the San Marco neighbourhood. When they didn’t make to Fortezza Santa Barbara shelter, they took refuge in the cellar of a nearby evangelical church. Then she spent eleven months at Cignano, as an evacuee. When the Manufacturers’ association - then headquartered in Piazza Garibaldi – moved to Capostrada she commuted there by tramway. Strafing was frequent in the Viale Adua district, probably aimed at German vehicles which tried to reach the Apennines. Bombings mostly took place between noon and one o’clock. Reminisces how her brother-in-law was almost arrested by the Germans, the strafing at Cignano, and the difficulties to source bread and flour.
]]>