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- Tags: home front
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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…
Permit to circulate during alarms
The permit entitles Giovanni Granata to circulate freely in Trieste during alarms, at his own risk.
Tags: 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
Interview with Eraldo Bessone
Eraldo Bessone (b. 1925) describes the bombing of an industrial area close to the Lingotto district in Turin. Remarks that it was completely unexpected and stresses how the population was totally unprepared . Describes his attempt to reach a shelter,…
Tags: bombing; home front
Interview with Alberto Dini
Alberto Dini reminisces his wartime life in Trieste starting from the declaration of war until the end of the conflict. Describes life under the bombs, stressing disruption of utilities, devastated streets and chequered schooling history. Describes…
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. Recalls how she survived only because a priest told her to duck under the seats. Describes the appalling…
Tags: bombing; home front
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. Recalls a more severe bombing which destroyed many houses and killed twenty-eight people. Gives a short…
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. Describes wartime anecdotes: drinking wine from a demijohn found in the attic, an encounter with two…
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 Maria Malagni
Maria Malagni (b. 1921) recalls her difficult childhood and chequered schooling history. Mentions wartime anecdotes: the death of her fiancé, an airman shot down over Brindisi; fascists seizing supplies; the capture of two partisans that her father…
Tags: animal; bombing; fear; home front; love and romance; Pippo
Interview with Francesca Marchese
Francesca Marchese (b. 1933) recalls the bombing attacks on Casale Monferrato, mentioning a bridge that survived multiple attacks and was nicknamed ‘The devil’s bridge’. Recollects people used to congregate in a field to watch the bombing of…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; home front
Interview with Silvana Zerbini
Silvana Zerbini (b. 1924) remembers the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome and the concern for her husband’s fate. She recalls the attempt to move her grandparents to a safer place out of the capital and remembers American troops…
Interview with Maria Luisa Verniconi
Maria Luisa Verniconi (b. 1930) recalls her youth in wartime, stressing how difficult it was for her mother to look after the family. She recollects adults listening to Radio Londra while the youths were on lookout. She stresses the violent behaviour…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; evacuation; home front; round-up
Interview with Itala Coriddi
Itala Coriddi (b. 1928) recalls wartime hardships in the Rome countryside where she lived in a straw hut. Mentions a railway tunnel used as shelter, describes the Anzio landing and recalls looking for shell cases to be used for hiding food. Remembers…
Interview with Patrizia Riviera
Patrizia Riviera (b. 1930) gives a brief account of wartime life in Bergamo. Mentions food shortages, fear of bombings, basements used as shelters. Mentions disrupted schooling after the fall from power of the Fascist regime.
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; fear; home front; shelter
Interview with Elena Fornari
Elena Fornari (b. 1936) mentions the private shelter in her house in Rome and describes daily life under bombing. Recollects the frightening encounter with two German soldiers asking for information about her father.
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; fear; home front
Interview with Rita Patrignani
Rita Patrignani (b. 1921) mentions wartime food shortages and stresses how she picked up what she found on the ground at the market . Describes the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome. Contrasts her impulse to dash to the nearest shelter…
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. Recalls food shortages, rationing cards, and black market. Describes disrupted…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; fear; home front
Interview with Margherita Franco
Margherita Franco (b. 1934) remembers listening to declaration of war on the radio while her father kept working in the garden. Describes her mother preparing a bag with food and other basic necessities and hanging heavy curtains at the windows as…
Interview with Laura Perego
Laura Perego (b. 1919) narrates how her village in the outskirts of Milan went through the war almost unscathed, in spite of being close to an ammunition dump and other potential targets. Remembers a mysterious badly dressed man who lived in a nearby…
Tags: bombing; home front; incendiary device; Pippo
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. Reminisces over the sense of community and describes people reciting the rosary or just chatting. Describes how her father the…
Interview with Gerlinde Keller
Gerlinde Keller (b. 1939) was evacuated in 1942 from Munich to the Altmühltal, where she lived with her aunt in a purpose-built settlement. Explains how the intensifying bombings had made the city unsafe for children and how they managed to cope…
Interview with Gisela Schäfer
Gisela Schäfer (b. 1929) remembers her youth in Eberbach as schoolgirl. Stressed how unlucky she was, having experienced all major bombings in the area. Remembers spending her school holidays as farmhand and emphasises 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 of strong communist background. When his parents moved out because of his father’s job as aircraft…