Eyewitness Testimony Balilla Bolognesi

1 Bolognesi Balilla born in Esanatoglia in 1921, rounded up on May 5, 1944, in Esanatoglia I returned from France and, after various adventures, to the Marche region, to Esanatoglia, and I did not present myself, I did not respond to the Germans' calls, to the summons to present myself; naturally, we had to stay hidden, we went to the mountains, but without joining the partisans, that is, I did not want to take up arms either with the Germans or with the partisans, so much so that there was not even an organized partisan company, they were also scattered, they were staying in a hermitage, in San Cataldo: we were hidden in the nearby mountains to avoid presenting ourselves, but then on May 5 they carried out roundups, because our area was considered..., for example at the intersection between Matelica and Esanatoglia there was a sign "achtung banditen." It was an area targeted by the Germans, in short. They always delayed, but finally on April 1, 1944, they came to Esanatoglia with orders to burn everything and shoot the available young men and men, because the partisans hidden in the mountains carried out sporadic actions, they killed two Germans and then buried them naked, somewhat like that, in short, a mess... The Germans hesitated a bit and then finally carried out the reprisal, they had to shoot at least about twenty people. Two came up... The next morning, cannon fire on the bell towers, on the walls, come on, everyone to the square, the women were made to stay inside the houses, and we, all the available men, all in the square, from six in the morning until two in the afternoon, they made you line up in threes, then pressed against the wall, then they would take you away, put others in your place. Meanwhile, couriers and commands arrived, they searched for weapons and did not find any, so, in front of us, for example, to give an example, they burned the houses of partisan sympathizers, they blew up three houses, including mine because it was attached... and then suddenly they shot two people who had nothing to do with it. They shot them just like that, and then left, to instill terror, on May 5 they returned. Since there was an order, they had agreed on April 25 with Mussolini at the Castle of Klessheim; Hitler, Mussolini, Graziani, and all the commanders had agreed that Italy had to provide 1,500,000 workers to Germany. Germany needed labor because all the youth were at the front. There had been disasters in Russia, the retreat, Libya had been lost, East Africa, in short, Germany no longer had young people and they thought of using foreign labor; since volunteers did not come, they carried out roundups throughout Europe and started in Italy here in the Marche. The Allies were almost past Cassino, they had landed at Anzio, and so they took people in Esanatoglia, in Matelica they took others: about forty or fifty in Esanatoglia, perhaps even more in Matelica, then they took us to Sforzacosta. In Sforzacosta there was a camp for Allied prisoners that had been evacuated after September 8. We were locked up for 15 days. Naturally, we immediately saw that it was not for work, there were sentries at the door, the food was just so-so. They told us "arrange yourselves to sleep," we slept on a shed, on the cement. After 15 days they called roll and started to send us off, we did not know where. They had told us they were taking us to Italy with the Todt organization - it was an organization for road and railway works - instead they took us to Florence. In Florence, three days locked up in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, in the Ursuline convent. There they immediately told us "look, they are taking you to Germany." After 3 days they loaded us onto trucks and took us to Suzzara, which is near Modena, around there (there was a kind of sorting), waiting to prepare the trains, the transports to take us to Germany... We stayed there about 3-4-5 days, quite well, but we did not know the disaster that was to come after, then after 7-8 days they loaded us onto freight trains and took us via Innsbruck to Germany, to Thuringia, which is almost on the border with Czechoslovakia, a region where there is also the famous Buchenwald camp. We arrived, after 2 days, I think, in Erfurt. The next morning they took us near Kahla. In Kahla they needed all these people - we also found Russian internees, Czechoslovaks, etc. - the German government, the army, the air force could no longer manufacture planes in normal factories because every day there were Allied bombings, so they thought that, to be able to manufacture planes, they had to produce them in underground areas. The Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel, gauleiter being a kind of prefect, who was a general in charge of work, was a Nazi by faith, he had...I spoke with Goering when he was head of the air force, "Let's make an underground factory in Kahla." In Kahla, because there was a small hill called Valpersberg where there were already tunnels that had been used by a famous porcelain factory, they extracted the earth from there, which was quartz sand used to make porcelain. So he thought, "We have these tunnels, we can set up the factory there." They asked, "But what about the labor?" "Don't worry about that, we'll do roundups." And indeed, they started rounding up people all over Europe. But most of us were Italians, we were the majority. We arrived and we had neither a camp nor anything, so for a month we stayed in a small village called Niedercross, and from there every morning, lined up, they took us... (can I stop for a moment?). This Sauckel, in agreement with Goering, thought of using these tunnels and there was a huge amount of work to be done because it was about 3 km from the nearest railway and 2 km from the town of Kahla; they had to create all the infrastructure, so he subcontracted it. It was a strange situation, the SS was as if they had bought it; they rented out the labor to companies, there were 95 companies: road, railway, logging, masonry. In the morning they took us all lined up to a large square, a big place, very big, and there a company would say "I need 24 people, I need 12, I need 10," and they took you until evening, 12 hours a day, always working outside naturally, and there we immediately understood it was something...! There were people who had never used pick and shovel, not even me naturally; there were barbers, students... in short, they gave you a pick and a shovel, so much so that the next day, funny thing, we competed to choose the most balanced pickaxe, in the best condition, to work less, and they made you start, they assigned a German guard to each group, each platoon. The German already had orders to direct: these are all bandits, so make them work. He spoke in German, we didn't understand a damn thing..., so beatings. As soon as they arrived, they looked for a stick... And there were beatings until you understood, and there was a crazy thing done starting from redoing all the roads, breaking up the fields, making the ballast; then there were teams that made the railways, loaded the tracks, all in 12-hour shifts, 12 hours day, 12 hours night; those who dug the tunnels. The tunnels had to be enlarged, they had made a plan to drill through the whole mountain, they made us do the most exhausting work, all manual labor, without earthmoving machines, because there was labor anyway, so we drilled the tunnels, there were groups that had to carry out the earth with narrow-gauge wagons, there were those who made the ballast, then we started building the barracks for us on this Valpersberg hill and there, after about a month and a half, we went up to live, each barrack 24 people on wooden frames, there was a fence like this, then on top a jute straw mattress, filled with paper, paper shavings, they gave us 2 field blankets, there was a table, there was a column stove that however could not be lit because they said it made signals, signaling to airplanes, so, as long as it was summer, it went. Note that they took us away in May, with the clothes we had: pants, shirt; some wore a sweater, then that was it, nothing. For winter we had nothing and there the work immediately started, after a month we had already worn out our shoes, then they gave us wooden clogs. On that hill of ours, on this field, it was all clay, it was clay soil, so when it rained you needed a stick to pull up the wooden clogs, a mess. Until October they gave us two meals, at noon soup, in the evening soup, then a piece of salami, margarine, a piece of jam, then they started asking us if we would join, joining Mussolini's Republican army, we had to either enlist there or with the German SS... Usually Mussolini asked and we always said no, most of us; I don't know if there was one from Esanatoglia, another from Matelica who said yes; but there was a lot of persuasion to be done, because those they took away from Esanatoglia, Matelica, were the class from 1914 to the class of 1927, which means those of '27 were 17 years old, used to eating at home (because it wasn't that there was still a lack of food). There, instead, the food was a disaster, but until October the deaths were few; from October on they started dying of hunger and cold. Why? Hunger, because they started reducing the rations: first, because the war was starting to go badly, so..., second because we Italians were classified at the bottom along with the Russians, because we were traitors, we had not joined despite their requests;Therefore, when you spoke, you said something, you made yourself understood, they said, "What do we care about you Italians? Many Germans are dying, you are worth nothing, even if the war is lost, you won't return home..." Around August, a big job began. The tunnels under the hill had to be excavated, we were making a large testing range, planes arrived there, the parts of the famous ME 262 jet plane started arriving; it was the first jet plane that was supposed to fly in the world, the secret weapon. Meanwhile, the runway had to be prepared, so on this hill that was full of very tall birch trees, the top was colorful, teams and teams of people sawed all these trees, with a handsaw, not a motor saw, all by hand; other teams removed the branches from these trunks, cut them lengthwise, meanwhile all the stumps were removed. Then, the earth that was there, on top had to be made into a long runway, so they put rails for suspended carts, then you went down, with this earth you removed on the carts and dumped it below (see page 126 of the Diary). In fact, I have photographs, there is this mountain that is leveled. In short, that November, women also worked there, Russian women, poor things, loading wood all day, you couldn't warm yourself, a lot of stories. Meanwhile, some had finished the barracks, some had prepared the roads, everything, in short, an organization. Then, at the tunnel exits, to assemble the parts of this plane, they made large bunkers, huge like walls and even more beautiful, thick, with all wooden reinforcements, bomb-resistant, because there they put the wings, everything. Then, with a funicular, from below, they brought these planes up to the runway and the plan was to manufacture 1,500 in a year, I don't know, but they assembled at most 10. And there was urgency because the war was going badly, this secret weapon was needed. Then, this Sauckel, who was hanged at Nuremberg, for the treatment he gave (among the 11 at Nuremberg, Sauckel was also hanged for crimes against humanity) said, "We don't care. You must work day and night with minimal expenditure on our part and maximum output." Once finished, our life was calculated to last six months for a person. And there was always renewal because there were these roundups. If you were sick, you had to have at least 39 degrees fever to stay in the barracks, but you had half a ration of what was already scarce. There were no infirmaries. There was a barrack they called infirmary, there was also an Italian doctor who was from Perugia, he could only give advice, he told you what you had, he couldn't do anything, there were no medicines... there were bandages made of paper. There was no aspirin, if you felt bad at night, you had to die, there was nothing. When you were really bad, around October, then real diseases began, first of all, because you ate everything, out of hunger, right?! Cow dung, potato peels... I tried with these young people to say (and even today they thank me "if you weren't there we wouldn't have come home") "Rather than eating potato peels, it's better not to eat, because it gives you diarrhea." But there were those who were hungry and picked up everything. Then dysentery, enteritis, pneumonia, tuberculosis began to appear. They put you in a barrack, number 9, waiting for death. There was a little man who said, "Guys, let's pray that someone of us won't be here tomorrow" (in Venetian). You died, in the morning a cart passed by. In October, they made a special team, called Friedhofskommando, cemetery squad, composed of 25-26 Russians. They did that all day, dug a big pit, brought down the dead, a bit of lime, covered them. I wrote an article on purpose because... we all had the ausweis, the card, with name, surname, photo, the military also had... take a name! At least to know who died. Someone recorded it, so it appears in the Jena archive and the municipal one of Kahla, Italians dead, maximum 500-600, total dead about 900, but there is a monument, that one there (indicates the postcard he prepared among the photographic material) that commemorates 6,000 dead. So, we didn't do it, they did it, the Germans... That is, death is not recorded... those flowers I bring there to the dead of Kahla, I suppose my friends from Matelica and the friends from Esanatoglia are also there, but it is not known if they are in a common grave, because there are also common graves. In short, this runway was born. I worked everywhere, in the tunnel, also on this runway. In November it began to snow, that year it had been a particularly cold winter like this one here; it reached 24 degrees below zero and we had what we had on, feet wrapped with cement bags.because you had no socks, nothing, just broken clogs. You put on everything you had, covered yourself with paper. When it rained or snowed, we put the blanket we slept with at night over our shoulders, and you went back to sleep with the wet blanket, and in the morning you had to get up. You couldn’t light the stove, but when we returned to work, there was a pile of wood, it was a huge construction site, we put a small piece of wood under here (indicates armpit) to light a little fire, until the police arrived and shouted “put out everything,” but, well, we managed, but very little, your hands were always numb, cracked, like ice, you didn’t know what to do with them anymore. And then there was another problem, there was no cleanliness, we couldn’t bathe. Eventually, they built a shack with sinks; it was a wooden shack with taps in a row; then in winter everyone went there, you couldn’t even go there. You just washed your face a little, because it was freezing cold, you couldn’t bathe. The lice were endless; so, if you wanted to survive, otherwise there was petechial typhus, you had to boil them, so you put those few rags in there and then put them back on wet. In short, we suffered for many reasons, first because we were Italians, second, because we were in the Marche and the month after they took us away, the Allies arrived, so we were isolated, we couldn’t communicate through the Red Cross like those in Northern Italy. In Northern Italy they made packages, we got nothing. Mom, she took me and my brother away, for a year and a half, almost two years, she didn’t know anything anymore. It was a mess. In winter, they had to finish this runway to launch this first plane: there were those small concrete mixers, you made some bitumen, spread it on the ground, the cold made it freeze; so you had to hurry, then you made a little strip like this (indicates with hands), then the boards on top, with boilers with fire, and this day and night, to complete it. In the end, in February the first plane took off. They must have made two or three take off, no more. There was already confusion, everything. And what can I say! You can’t imagine the hunger, in the end they gave us a turnip soup in the evening, a loaf of bread divided into 8. It was a rectangular bread, as moldy as possible. It was later discovered—we ate everything—that 60% was poplar sawdust, then there was some rye. And the division of this bread! We were 24 in a shack, they gave us 3 loaves: on the table, with the hunger we had, cutting it into 8 pieces with a little knife; then we made a little scale, with two pieces of string, two little wooden wedges and we weighed: “this crumb goes here rather than there.” Then we counted, because some didn’t trust. This piece of bread, you ate a piece, then you had to save some for the morning, because you had to work 12 hours, until the evening after, without eating anything else; so people started to die of hunger. What’s terrible is that this kind of death is not known, because in extermination camps they gassed you, but dying of hunger and cold is very bad! You feel a hunger that never stops, always, you eat anything, people forced to steal from their friends to eat, you understand?! At night we dared to escape from the camp, because we didn’t have electricity like in the extermination camps, there was a metal fence with the SS guarding who, if they saw you, shot you, but you tried to escape. You went to the farmers’ fields to dig up potatoes. When they took us to the fields to hoe to make the road, sometimes we found carrots, there you ate carrots with the dirt, everything; a freshly picked potato, chicory just sprouting in March ’45, eating chicory like that, terrible things. I know these people died, died; I had my brother who was a barber, he was much more nervous than me, younger, and he couldn’t resist. We met in the evening when they brought us all back to the shacks, because the jobs were different. One evening I went to the camp chief to say “Look, this is my brother, he can’t resist, what kind of humanity is this?” He can’t do it, he’ll kill himself, he can’t do pick and shovel all day, he can’t.” Uhhh… (they shout) “What’s wrong with him?” “Heart pain,” I answer. “Tomorrow morning I’ll examine him, if it’s not true, disciplinary company for both of you.” Oh! He was a barber inside a shack for two months, while I did pick and shovel. Then my cousin died, just after he returned, of tuberculosis. This poor cousin of mine was a delicate type, handsome, very thin, all day carrying rails for railway lines. One evening, we return to the shack, we don’t find him. Where is he? I go to the dying shack “My Madonna, take me away”; there were all those skeletons, those who wet themselves, drooling all over, all full of lice… dying. “If I stay here I’ll die,” Walter said. I go back up from...this boss and I say: "What kind of humanity is this?" Then my brother said, "One day or another they'll shoot you, you talk too much!" "That I talk too much, I cannot allow that!" Indeed, the next day I never saw this cousin of mine again. After about two months, I received a postcard; they had sent him to a peasant's house, basically for the winter! Then he managed to return to Italy, but he died of tuberculosis. This, to show what life was like! Life was like this: at 4 in the morning they arrived... Lost... lost... the police dogs, beatings for everyone, even those who were dead because you found them dead under this castle, dead of starvation... and out everyone went. In half an hour you had to get ready. Outside there were cauldrons of linden decoction, which you used to shave (it was spoiled stuff). Then assembly, roll call, by 6 you had to be ready to work, leave for the workplace, always 4-5 km march on foot, all lined up, then they took you to this place, they chose the various companies; there were 95, we were 15,000 among Russians, Italians, Germans, Dutch, French, etc... Of these 15,000, 6,000 died in 10 months of hunger and cold. Life was like this. In the evening you returned, you didn't know news from home, you didn't know if you would come home. We didn't have a priest. The officers' camps had a different treatment, they had the commander, they had their rights, they had the right not to work. We never had, neither a priest nor anything else... these people died. Even if one wanted to take communion, say a prayer, nothing, we were abandoned, no one helped us. Dead like dogs! I always wrote it, "without anyone." There was nothing, I had my brother the barber, I was lucky to be able to shave. There were those who had very long beards, they shaved with pieces of glass! The filth! There was no hope. [...] You couldn't communicate with the outside. They took us lined up, you passed through some village and everyone spat on you because they had been taught that Italians were bandits; even the kids "Scheisse" shit, spit! Now I go to Germany, I've been there three or four times already, I have a lot of friends, the children of those same people who then couldn't stand us, but now they love me. I have many friendships, I was even there this October. They say they didn't know then! When the last days arrived, towards the end of March '45, you could see that the situation... The Allies had arrived in France, they were coming towards central Germany. Hitler gave the order (I learned it then, by chance; now it is documented in all books) to kill us all... [...] The order to render all foreigners harmless, because the town where we were, Kahla, was a town of 8,000 inhabitants, like Matelica, but then there must have been another 2,500 people, old people and children and women. If these 10,000 people who remained rebelled, he would kill us all. So every town tried not to have them. This order arrived, I learned it later, towards the end of April; (Easter was April 1st in '45), on the 7th I had met a family because in Kahla there were so many workers that many worked in private companies. If you knew how to do something, you could get into town, always dressed in rags, with clogs, you didn't wear the striped uniform, everyone wore what they could. If you didn't run into police or people who wanted to harm you, you could do something. Indeed, I had met a family, a woman of 45 years who had her husband at the front, her son at the front, who helped me. And she didn't do it... because many took a little fish to make him their lover; instead this one, a poor woman, said "if I knew that someone could do good to my husband who is a prisoner in France, how can I not do it for you others!" So I happened once by chance to ask for something, but I didn't want to beg, I wanted to work. I tidied up her things and she gave me some pieces of bread that I also brought to my brother, who then always wanted to kill himself from hunger. She told me "I know they brought you to Germany because in Italy you were dying of hunger." "But who told you that?" I said. Then she began to understand. She was also a bit anti-Nazi... German law punished those who helped prisoners; but she didn't care and helped whoever she could. She helped me a lot and gave me quite a bit, so much that now I am friends with the whole family, with the children, because I recognize that she saved me. On April 7, '45 I go down to this woman, she hugs me and says: "Don't return to the barracks because I know they will kill you all, I know for sure." I answer: "But I have my brother! So let's do one thing, get me a map, somematches.” She gives me a loaf of bread, a pat of butter, some matches; I take everything, go out to this field and tell my companions: “We have to run away because I know for sure they will kill us.” They respond: “No, no, where would we go? I’m not moving.” There were 24 of us, only seven managed to escape; the others said: “I’m not moving, we’ll wait.” The SS had already all fled, but there was a machine gun in the middle of the field because they didn’t know if they had to kill us or not! It wasn’t certain. I said: “We have to be strong here… I’m heading toward the front, whoever wants to come with me, fine.” Here begins the famous escape. My brother told me, “I’m not doing it, better if you go home and tell them I’m dead.” “Are you crazy?” I said, slapping him. We didn’t know how far we had to walk. We had to go toward Weimar; we knew the Allies had arrived in those areas, about 35 km away, but all through the forest, because in the last month they had created a Volkssturm, a people's army, meaning when things got tough the Germans armed old men and children saying: “Shoot everyone because this is about your life.” So every foreigner was an enemy. Therefore, we had to walk through these woods; at night, with the seven we had gathered, we went to steal potatoes, took all these backpacks full of potatoes, a big pot like this, and we had this line of bread with butter and jam. I had become the leader even though there were people older than me, for example, there were two Tuscans whom I still visit and who thank me for that. We had decided: if we find water, we cook two potatoes each, otherwise we cook them under the embers, always two, because we didn’t know how long the march would last or where we would end up. We had to go toward the front: to orient ourselves, the sun, the map up to a certain point, because you couldn’t enter the villages. So we marched: the first evening, we found, under a slope like this (indicates the slope with his hand), a road, then under another terrain, we saw a long shed. I said: “Let’s stay here now; cook two little potatoes, then a slice of bread.” Good God! We hear shouting, we come out: there were 7-8 armed young men who wanted to hand us over to the police. It happened that every village you crossed tried to send you away because they were afraid of reprisals. We started running and they fired; one of us got his ear pierced and he had a wooden military box, and that too... We started running away and they didn’t follow us because they were more afraid of us; in fact, the fear was this: since they were young, we thought: “These guys seem to be shooting for real!” We went into the pine forests, it was the night of April 8, there were airplanes, noises... it seemed like a fair, all planes bombing... and then the next day we walked again, we stopped; always eating twice a day; on the third day we crossed a stretch of open land, along a ditch, an American Spitfire arrived, bombing everything there, cats, dogs, setting forests on fire and they also strafed us thinking we were, who knows, retreating Germans. We reached an embankment, the woods ended, a high embankment, below we saw a large plain with some trees, there was a hut, all like this, made of branches, with straw, we stopped. There was a man, but he was a Pole working with a German master, he was a prisoner too, but he worked there with his family... We told him “we escaped from a concentration camp.” “Don’t move,” because the front was right there! You could hear cannon fire, tanks. Every day there was some village where Italians or prisoners went toward the Allies, then the Germans retook the ground and killed them all. “Don’t move, I’ll warn you when you can move,” because there are retreating Germans who can kill you.” And after a few hours he brought us a pot of pea soup, a cigarette for each of us... my goodness! The next day, this one was nowhere to be seen... “Why? Did he abandon us?” We had finished the potatoes, we went to steal some turnips; instead on the third day, me and a Tuscan, an older man, went down to the house of this farmer, there was a nice farm, the barn on one side, there were stables. The Pole told us “the master locked himself inside the house with a hunting rifle”... we don’t know... We went down, we went down with the mess tins etc... the Pole’s wife came out, gave us soup, we were bringing up the soup from the others, then 2 or 3 cannon shots arrived, shortly after we saw all the friends coming down from the hill shouting “Holy Mary, they’re killing us, they bombed us.” They were the Americans who had seen people at a distance, they fired high, I don’t know. Almost...then they kill us! We went inside this barn, the Americans arrived, the Americans arrive, a jeep comes (I had never seen Americans before), one with a thing like this (then I saw he was a lieutenant): "Who are you?" he made us raise our hands. "Stay calm, we are doing sweeps now, the troops will arrive soon, we will give you food." Indeed, we go to the main road, big tanks start passing by... big... "Paisà, paisà," we shouted... Then they started throwing us cookies, candies, salami, we ate everything, the chocolate... Meanwhile, my brother and another guy who had leg pain had set a hook to catch some chickens, but instead of a chicken, he caught a cat. We went scouting while these tanks chased the Germans, we found a hedgehog, a hare missing all its belly underneath. In short, we made the first stew, hare, cat, and hedgehog. Then these Americans arrived, I told them my brother was sick along with the other guy; a doctor examined them, "Meanwhile stay in the barn." They came and told us, "We are setting up a camp here, are you happy?" "Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!" They set up a nice camp, many non-commissioned officers, field kitchens arrived. In the morning we wanted to go to the woods... "paisà, paisà no, no..." There was milk, condensed milk, coffee, butter, hazelnut butter, omelet, salami, bread, we stuffed ourselves, then at noon it was time to eat again. We stayed there 15 days. Meanwhile, it had happened that on April 1st, the head of the SS of our camps, Pflomm, had gone to the pharmacist in Khala to ask for rat poison, he wanted to mix it with our food. The order had arrived to render us harmless. The pharmacist refused to give it to him, he testified later, his name was Caster (the pharmacy still exists). Then they thought of mining the tunnels. They said: "We sound the alarm, they go inside the tunnels and stay inside." Instead, they didn't have time. They had given this order to an air force major, named Georg Potzler, who testified later. Despite the superior order (they had sent him specifically to Kahla to kill us), he said no: "It's useless to kill 10,000 prisoners when we have lost the war." He disobeyed and we are saved thanks to him, that is, I escaped, but the other guys were freed on the 11th, that is, on the 10th in that camp it was still not known if they would die or not. They started them on a march and took them towards... so much so that they ended up in Czechoslovakia, those who lagged behind were killed on the march like that, because everyone tried to send them with the Volkssturm guards, with the SS. They made you march, those who could no longer go were killed and more died later almost, because they continued to die until May-June. Instead, I had this other fate, wanted by us let's say, we arranged well, despite the hardships. After 15 days of stay in this camp where we were wonderfully, we had whiskey, chocolates; my brother was sick, these Americans went there with the record player to let him hear music, in short, we were very well. In the end, they told us: "Look, we are going south, towards Nuremberg, you, if you want, can become American soldiers, it's like being part of the American army, as auxiliaries, we take you, you have the same rights, then you can come to America to work." I immediately said yes, but 2 or 3 elders said no... "We take you first to Italy, home, to visit relatives etc... and then if you want to come to America, in any case, we give you a certificate that you were with us on the front line." It was something to do, but... the elders wanted to go home, it was not known when you would return, we didn't know where we would end up, so for esprit de corps, we did not accept. We said: "Take us somewhere, to some former prisoner camp." This took us to this city of Weimar, an American sergeant, an Italian-American, one of those! "Paisà" He made us cross this whole city and then took us up to the mountains: "Here is a camp," it was the Buchenwald camp, all burned down. "This is not a camp, take us to the city," we said. He took us to the city at curfew time. While passing through this city, leaning on a lamppost I see a boy, a nice raincoat, because he had dressed everyone, the Americans, brought a bunch of uniforms there with the jeep, I don't know if they were from dead Americans, anyway it was nice stuff, we were all ragged, beige pants, socks, shoes, jackets, I recognized him immediately, he was from Esanatoglia, from the first months of internment we had not seen him anymore, we shouted to recognize each other... but he kept going. One evening, when he...brought back to the city of Weimar, left us in the middle of the square, there was a curfew; we went to a school to sleep, there we found Russians with children all piled up on the floor. We asked: "Italians?" "Italianski Polizeikaserme." Anyway, the next morning we went to look for this police barracks, so we occupied it, it was a Gestapo barracks, very large, there must have been 100 offices, on two floors, there was a horse riding arena, the prisons, there was everything, all offices above, in the attics we found glasses, identity cards, children's shoes, but at that time we didn't think to take anything, not even to photograph it, because, who would think of that! ... later all this extermination became known, otherwise it would have been a testimony. We stayed there until June 29, the Americans liberated us on April 11! I, by choice, imposed on my other friends "Let's not go to collection camps." The Americans had made them, but there were still epidemics there, you had to eat what they said... "No, don't join." Not even 4 or 5 days later, we occupied an office, half an office, there was only the desk, the chairs. The next day we went to the adjacent buildings, a slaughterhouse, we found a couple of sofas, we gave them to my brother and the others who were ill; then the Americans arrived. "Paisà, come with us?" They took us to dismantle the German barracks and told us "Take what you need, the rest we throw away." We took a bed each, the bedside lamp, blankets, everything needed to set up these rooms with all comforts. For food, we still had a lot of stuff that the Americans had given us and then we also found in this place a shoe sole, leather, plus a calfskin. So, with this friend of mine who was a shoemaker, Amerigo, we said: "Let's start making sandals." We made some with our friends, we marked with a pencil, cut the sole, sold them and meanwhile made money. I (I liked to understand German, even if I didn't know it) saw a notice that said a census of the entire population was being done, to know how much food was needed, there were ration cards. We went there, some with the ausweis, some with a document and they gave us a ration card each. The next day we thought of going there without documents and we took another ration card each, we went there 7 times, we had 8 ration cards each, every day with a different name, they didn't know us anyway. There were thousands of people who didn't go, we went shopping, took potatoes by the sack, detergents, half a kilo, butter blocks, there was one of us who always cooked, roast stuff, roast potatoes, some salami. In early May, all dressed so well, I wanted to let that family know I was still alive, but there were no means. I learned that a train was running and decided to go. My brother: "Where are you going? They'll kill you on the street, there are still all the Germans moving." "I'm going, you know I always come back," and I left. But the train, after about 15 km, could not continue, I went on foot, crossed villages, afraid they would shoot even from the windows... Anyway, I showed up at this shop. He didn't recognize me, all dressed up... They were very scared because they had done propaganda that the Russians raped women, crucified priests, killed children. All the Germans were fleeing west. Anyway, the son, grown up, after thirty years wrote to me again, we invited each other, they came in '74 to Esanatoglia, then every year, either we go or they come, to show how great the friendship is. We left at the end of June, they took us west, towards Eisenach where there was a large tank barracks that handled about 10,000 prisoners a day. Then the Americans controlled all these big barracks and said "all those from the Marche," "where were you?" Even those who had been collaborators with the Germans mixed in. So you sometimes saw a group of people beating someone, some wanted to kill him, another preaching "we must return to Italy purified from these disgusting ones who betrayed us." The priests instead "forgive everyone!" ... I know that there they disinfected us, lined us all up, the first DDT, and there for another 4-5 days: good treatment, biscuits, milk, coffee, meals twice a day. Then shortly after the Russians arrived and occupied the area, everything halved. Then, at a certain point, the order came "let's start walking towards" ... Amerigo was a guy who didn't care about anything, he said "walking? Someone will take us away." Indeed, after a few minutes of starting, a truck arrived to take those who couldn't walk, we pretended to be sick, it took usup to the station, there was the freight car, the train that was starting to leave. We left Eisenach, which must have been on July 4th. We arrived on the 26th at Matelica. A full train! For these valleys, the train moved slowly, all the people who saw the train climbed on, we were supposed to be 20, we became 50, on the roofs, on the buffers. Then when we arrived in Frankfurt in the countryside, the train stopped for 2 days, because the Russian zone had ended, so the Russians said: "if the Americans send us back 40 empty wagons, we will let the train continue, otherwise nothing." They had to bring empty wagons from Frankfurt and let us continue, otherwise we would have stayed there. Then we arrived at Mittenwald in the Austrian Alps. There another day, another sorting, in short, up to the border the Americans assisted us, arrived in Italy, a soup in Bolzano. But it was nice that from Brenner onwards the train went slowly, all these people along the railway, with postcards, with photos: "Did you see my husband, did you see my son? Where were you?..." Arrived in Bolzano, they gave us a soup and then at Pescantina, where there was a sorting. Those who stayed in the north left for Milan; we continued to the south, we took the train to the south, they wanted to continue the train via Florence - Rome - Naples ... "And we from the Marche?" - we asked -. They answered: "We don't know anything, there is the American command." And we: "How do you not know!"... We made a half revolution, they decided to arrive in Rome via Ancona and we passed via Falconara – Ancona. We arrived at Albacina which is about 15 km from Esanatoglia. We arrived around midnight. We got off, left the stuff in a house, then on foot towards Matelica. Arrived at Cerreto d’Esi, it must have been shortly after midnight, there was an open place, we did not know that the "Italian Communist Party" existed, they greeted us, wine, hams. We arrived in Matelica around two thirty at night. Immediately they ran to my house: "Balilla has arrived" "and Peppino?" - my mother asks. She immediately thought of him, the youngest, but instead we were both. How and when was he rounded up? On May 5, ’44 by German troops: they arrived, surrounded the town and ordered all the men inside to go, and then there was no possibility to hide because it was known that they took you to Italy at most to build roads, well, rather than get killed! Especially since they had the names of all the young men from the municipality and they took it out on the families if you did not show up; so in the worst case! Because those who were in the countryside did not return! But we were there, they took us, took us away, gave us an hour, the town was surrounded, though! We took those 4 things, they lined us up and took us on foot to Matelica and we slept right in these rooms (those of the interview) which were all horse stables right under these arcades. What kind of work was he assigned to and how did his day usually go? All manual work, all by hand, there were no tools either to make roads, to move the earth, to mix the cement; there were no machines but all human labor, because there was plenty of it for them. Twelve hours a day of work; each team was watched by a boss who were almost all criminals; at first he had put all life-sentenced prisoners or convicts who he put to make our rooms. In the end I also found some humane people because they brought German citizens from the Rhineland, which was now occupied, they brought them to become .... That is, they commanded us, and then there was someone you could trust, someone informed me how the war was going "Soon you will be home, got it?" There were some humane people, but at first no. At first, even if someone wanted to be humane, they had been given this order "You must treat Italians as bandits, this is labor to exploit as long as you can," not only Italians anyway, all in short but Italians in particular; 12 hours a day plus the road on foot back and forth. You slept 2 or 3 hours per night in these conditions: in summer with the sun burning you, in winter I was even making bunkers... It was the month of January, this huge construction that we had to fill, enormous volumes of cement; the little trains arrived, one with sand, one with cement always continuously; there was a big grid, they poured inside, it mixed with water, it came up on this already liquid cement, it mixed with water. We were up on top, they arrived, there were wooden guides, we with the shovel, you had to do like this always, every day,You had to pass the cement that came from the other side and you couldn’t stop, because there was a German behind you shooting! All day like that, this cement always moving! What was your typical day like? What time did you wake up? We only had Christmas Day off. We worked 12 hours during the day and 12 at night. To save my life a little, and I told the others who weren’t careful, I tried to work as little as possible. First of all, I complained, “I can’t do more than this,” but those guys were maybe afraid, they gave 2000 pick strikes per minute, so they always wanted more from them. I gave one, they yelled at me, came over, kicked me in the butt, I didn’t care. When the boss turned around, I stopped, but the others maybe pretended not to work, the boss had to beat you for sure, because if they didn’t make you work, the Germans would be punished by their superiors too, so that was the trick. There was one from Esanatoglia who worked in the tunnel — either you were digging or pushing the carts (makes the gesture) — then there was a team that spread this earth. When the weather was good, he wanted to stay outside, when it was bad, he wanted to stay inside; he started complaining in Esanatoglia dialect, “I want to go inside, I want to go inside,” so the boss started kicking him in the stomach! I told him: “Leave him alone, he’s crazy.” “Crazy or not, when it rains he wants to stay inside…” How were you liberated? When the Americans arrived: the first two carried submachine guns like this (makes the gesture), they made us raise our hands, saw we were Italians, told us “Go, there are American vanguards that will feed you.” The Americans started crying when they saw us so ragged, we weighed 40 kilos. We returned home because we were with the Americans. You understand, months and months of suffering, well, those who couldn’t make it, died of hunger and were taken away. The best moments I remember are linked to the Kahla family who helped me, the son of this lady was 13 years old, he was in the Hitler Youth, went to parades like they were fascists, but he told me “If you want to listen to Radio London, go to my room, I don’t go there, I can’t follow it.” These are serious things! How were you freed? The roundups arrived: we were inside this forest, at that moment the Americans came with submachine guns, first they made us raise our hands, then they saw we were Italians, told us “Go, put on some badges” — because there were still Germans fleeing — “near here there are American troops who will feed you.” Then they put us in this camp and we stayed there. It’s written in my book that the brightest day was the day of liberation, because it happened without trauma, there was a beautiful sun! The worst memory? Seeing friends die, waking up in the morning, going to see them and seeing they were dead. You couldn’t help them, if they fell at work, you couldn’t do anything, you had to work and that’s it. That’s the worst memory, because hunger and the rest, you overcome everything. You can’t imagine how the human body resists! The last months were the worst... But you eat a bit of turnip soup and then the next day the same! You have the hunger from the day before, the day after, yet you resist! The body resists because you have the will to resist, some put their feet between the little trains to hurt themselves... The younger ones said “I can’t make it...” “How can you not make it? I can...” the hope of home and many things. I have this obsession, so much so that I even wrote an article here in Matelica, but they didn’t publish it! Is it possible that these families, the grandchildren of these dead, no one takes the trouble to go find these dead, now that you can go, before with the GDR you needed visas, many things! But now it’s like going to Senigallia! Only, the trip is longer, you go wherever you want, there are beautiful places! To bring a flower, this is the third time I go, I really feel it, in October I went to celebrate the birthday there, I went once in ’79 and I can’t understand this! Returning, many with pneumonia, tuberculosis, other diseases and no one did anything, anyway, they were happy to be back home!!! Many got the partisan badge, some without doing anything, others really fought. Ours, you have to understand, was the first referendum, because first the interned soldiers in many, then the civilians, us, we all always said no, as if we had agreed for months. These German criminals, outside the camp, built a fence with those who had said yes: they were all well dressed, with leather jackets, had cigarettes and showed off. They told us “Come with us” And we never joined! They said to these “But do you feel like going to Italy to fight, to kill your own brother?” “But I’m hungry” “You keep it” was the answer. Besides, they were 17-year-old boys, I was 24. I have nothing else to add. I made it too long. I own many documentaries, dozens and dozens of books on internment, films, all material I can make available. In ’79 I went up to see the camp where I had been. Instead, they told me “You can’t enter!” I went up to the tunnel, a van came out with workers to whom I said “I was a prisoner here,” I showed the ausweis, they let me take photos. Returning in 2000 on that same road, they closed everything, all the entrances. Why? As long as the GDR existed, they continued to use the tunnels (I don’t know if for weapons storage or something else). With unification, there is no more interest, they barred all the entrances to prevent illegal immigrants from using them, but they don’t even keep guards anymore. “They could make a national monument” — we ask —. As a monument, they made this shrine (shows the photo) and as a tomb this one. Instead, up there on the runway, they planted trees, but as soon as you touch them they fall, because underneath there is cement. Every now and then there is a big hole. I asked, they answered that the runway was all mined by the Russian army to destroy it, so there are pits, holes like puddles.