Eyewitness Testimony Anonymous Deportee from Matelica (Born 1927)

Anonymous born in Matelica in 1927, rounded up in Matelica May 1944 In May, a few days had already passed here, the next morning, around nine, we were having breakfast, from the door you could see a street, I said “the Germans are coming up again this morning, they’re coming there, you from ’27, ‘come with us’ – he says – to the command,” and it was fine. We left from there, we took the whole road from... the hills, those he found, with them, like that all the way, then we arrived at a certain point, the road of the hills, there was one who was from ’25, may he never have been found, they wanted to shoot him because he had escaped, he was supposed to be under the house. They gathered that one, from there they lined us all up in threes, took us down to the bivouac of Santa Teresola, near Merloni, in the evening, it was still night, then they took us again with the trucks, took us with the trucks, brought us to Cerreto. In Cerreto they put us inside the barracks, in the cells below, cramped like that. “If we stay here tonight, we’ll all die,” but instead in the evening, after night, they took us again with the trucks, brought us to Sforzacosta, we stayed in Sforzacosta 3-4 days, I don’t remember, then, I was sick, I was in the infirmary. But it happened that they had called us to leave, but I was sick, a beating! “Out!” We left from there in the evening with the truck, it was the 27th-28th, the first, right?! We walked all night “where are these taking us now? To hell that takes them,” we arrived again at Argenta, well, what place it was I don’t know, and we arrived in the morning just at dawn, they stopped with this truck, I was sick, I didn’t take anything, the others, there was a café, some took coffee, some took something else, then they took us, took us up to a wood, I don’t know what it was, there were castles, then it was almost evening, no...! Wait, from there we left again in the morning, with the little train they took us to Suzzara. In Suzzara, we arrived after lunch and they took us to a house where there were castles and gave us the ticket for the castle, each his own, the ticket to sleep, there was a German there, “now we have to accompany them to the Italian carabinieri,” he started there, you couldn’t understand what he was saying, “all partisans!” Quiet, he took all our ID cards, took them, took us away, took us near the station, there was a big barracks, I don’t know what it was, there was the train of the Piedmontese, there were big ones, small ones, but they had taken those up to the woods, instead they took us home, put us with those, we stayed there 3 days. One fine morning, we leave, well? Where are we going? We were there, near the station, from the station onto cattle cars, loaded, all full, closed, sealed and we leave; now where are we going? Walking, walking... Then I, along the way, there were little lakes, there were ducks, there were geese (......) we heard a bit... we heard shooting pum, pum. May they never have shot! Those who were escorting us! These ducks...! The Germans stopped the train, they thought: “These are revolting, what are they doing.” Then they started counting the rifles of all those who had fired, how they passed them, I don’t know. Leaving Suzzara, all these wagons came out, then we passed Austria, we were at the borders, then they opened the wagons, but anyway, I escaped, where to? Come on, we’re outside the border, they opened it! Then we arrived at the destination, we stayed there for a year, 12 months, we did shifts: day, night 10 hours, one hour of road to work, one hour to come back, we did 12 hours. We stayed too long, we stayed, because we were all in Kahla, it was a theater, there were castles, there were; after a couple of months they took us to lager 1 and then took us to Kahla again, many were moved. The water to work, it always rained, half barefoot, because the shoes were broken, they gave us clogs, you know what clogs are, wooden... Working half barefoot, half naked... the lice, those, when I tightened the belt of the socks, always 2 at a time, what could I do, there was nothing to do. Then we worked, he told me, on the team, we were 9 or 10, we did the (...) to fill the tunnels, I was the youngest because I was from ’27, but on my team there were two or three Bergamaschi, those had gone to work voluntarily, just like those who now go to work in Germany, go to Switzerland; we were not the first, when we arrived, they had made 3-4 pieces of tunnels as long as this room, it was 2 and a half meters long, 2 meters high, it made an apartment, then we made it, because in a year, you know how much was dug, under that mountain, 22 km of tunnel, then at the entrance, as soon as... all the arches that the factory made for the devices, the devices, all the wires, I don’t know, we were always busy making... in the end it was finished. After a year, we left, the war was over, because every day the bombings, the planes passed, bombed, where we worked they didn’t bomb, then we walked, when we finished working, 4 days and 4 nights, we left; home, we went home? Then in fact we arrived right on the borders of Germany and Czechoslovakia. We were there for about twenty days, a month wandering, alone. Those other comrades of mine, there is no one left, we are 4 from Matelica, I stayed, the others all died. We stayed there, looking for food, looking for something, preparing, eating, then the Americans came back, they had rounded us up, took us away, took us to Italy.After this report he gave us, we wanted to ask some questions. How and when were you rounded up? I said it before, in the morning they came up towards the road that goes to San Vicino, we were having breakfast, they came up, looked at our ages, “you come with us, to Cerreto,” yes, then they took us to Cerreto, put us in prison there in the evening, then took us to Sforzacosta, from Sforzacosta we returned, as I said, right?! What work were you assigned to and how did your day go? When we got there, the first days we made railways for the carts, to bring out the stuff used to make mines… to bring out the material there were small carts, after doing that, we continued doing the same, making railways, the…… I was the smallest, I was always walking because they told me, outside there is the workshop at the entrance, they were building the sidewalks for the levels, they sent me to fix those, sent me to look for pieces of wood to prop them up because they were collapsing. What episode affected you the most? And what do you remember more than any other? We were here and there a lot, we were very badly off, I once had a nervous breakdown that I still feel in my back, but so as not to hurt the others, eh?! Because when we were sleeping, when there was an alarm at night, no alarm, then these ones went away…, we had to get up; they had made a ditch, there was a sports field more than 2 meters deep, there were steps to go down, when there was an alarm and bombings, we didn’t want to get up, but what did we care if there was an alarm, bombing, whatever was happening; but we had to get up anyway, because otherwise, on the bunks, they would hit us, lost, lost; going down the steps, those in front didn’t walk, what do you do, either you kick them on the head! Those behind started hitting, I had a nervous breakdown. I said “enough,” if they hit me again, enough! How were you freed? Then, from there, when it ended and they felt surrounded, they took us away from where we were because, they said, “if we leave these here, they will rebel with the whole population” …… So they took us away, we walked 4 days and 4 nights. The worst memory? When I came home; I came home, my mother was dead, because, from the pain, what can I say…. The best memory? There was nothing good.