Eyewitness Testimony Giovanni Maiorana and Vincenzo Caligiuri

HISTORY The story of the son who did not know The story of Vanni the nurse who in the extermination camp helped and saved comrades and friends Christmas with the tree full of postcards from survivors ● “Paloma” to accompany the dying to the gas chambers ● Hospitalized among the scabies patients ● What Vincenzo Caligiuri told me by Ignazio Maiorana W e kids didn’t have money to buy decorations. it was customary in other German camps as well Vanni was recalled to service in The Christmas tree was made with mistletoe to accompany the deportees naked to the “shower” Rome around ’42, during the sec- branches tied to a nail on the wall. On the (gas chamber) to the sound of violin and accordion ond world war. Shortly after, sticky berries we applied colorful greeting playing “Paloma.” The piece was performed by two he was taken by the Germans and postcards sent by survivors addressed to my musicians who accompanied the group. first sent to Yugoslavia and then father in previous years, bearing the affections The unfortunate condemned to death was loaded transferred to the extermination camp of distant friends. We made several Christmas onto a cart pulled by a couple of his companions. of Kahla, near Leipzig, Germany. In trees over the years with postcards instead The image was always the prelude to the crematory the chaos and contradiction of those of balls. We did not know the documentary oven. events, no one knew the reason. value of those brief signed writings. My mother Anyway, the qualification of origin did not care much about those postcards, if Vanni was recalled to service in Rome around ’42, helped Vanni. Among the thousands she allowed us to use them as Christmas during the second world war. Shortly after, he was of guests in that camp, a hospital decorations. They were sent to my father, in taken by the Germans and first sent to Yugoslavia was organized run by a doctor and Castelbuono, by numerous military and prisoner and then transferred to the extermination camp of a nurse, also prisoners. The doctor’s comrades in German camps. The postcards Kahla, near Leipzig, Germany. In the chaos and assistant was none other than Giovanni began arriving at home immediately after the contradiction of those events, no one knew the Maiorana. He had the task of recording, end of the second world war. Then, gradually, reason. every morning, the name, number and their arrival became less frequent over the years. health status of those who came to That experience in Germany was not spoken of However, the qualification of origin helped Vanni. visit. It was a daily procession of at home. My father, Vanni, like many other Among the thousands of guests in that camp, a emaciated human forms. Among these survivors, wanted to remove it from his memory. hospital was organized run by a doctor and a nurse, people in line one day was also a young also prisoners. The doctor’s assistant was none other I was ten years old the only time I saw my father cry. During a wedding banquet I was sitting opposite the table. A musical trio was playing “Paloma,” the poignant and well-known Spanish tango. Vanni had tears streaming down his cheeks. – Dad, why are you crying? – I asked him, surprised and worried. – It’s the music of the prison – he replied, wiping his tears. I didn’t understand. I understood forty years later, when I learned from former deportees The last dramatic moment of a prisoner towards the gas chamber. Tragically accompanied by music28 PATRIA INDIPENDENTE/SEPTEMBER 2014  HISTORY taken by the Germans just after enlisting – Can I come back another time, if you of them, through hardships and troubles, in the Navy: he was Vincenzo Caligiuri and want – I thought it right to propose. managed to save his home, to embrace was 16 years old. – No, better now – the elderly gentleman his family again. Vincenzo resumed Thanks to him I was able to have direct and intervened firmly. And he continued to tell military navigation, Vanni joined his spontaneous testimony on a particular aspect the story. wife and the two little daughters born of my father's imprisonment. Here's how I – After the medical visits were over, Vanni before he was called back to arms. He came to know. asked me if I was willing to isolate myself immediately resumed work as a farm in the scabies enclosure. caretaker in the livestock farms, far from He assured me that there he could assist home. me better. I answered yes, maybe I could After the very heavy experience lived, save myself..., I thought. Vanni made me my father needed psychological and undress and spread a very smelly ointment emotional recovery, but duty and the all over my body. In that barrack I stayed need to think about supporting the ten days, enjoying a slightly better food family gave him neither time nor ration, useful to physically recover. possibility to do so. On the last day Maiorana told me that the After a few years Vincenzo Caligiuri, Germans were looking for a small group of much younger than Vanni, started a prisoners more suitable for potato picking family in Palermo. But another hard in a camp far from there. He asked me if I blow shook him: the loss of a 16-year-old felt up to going. Some potatoes maybe I son in an accident. The news caused a could steal and eat... stir in his native village where the boy's And so it was. Maiorana was a sensitive, body was brought to be buried. Vanni generous person. We do not know how many learned of it and came down from the people he helped and how he did it. Surely mountain, reached the mourners at the many, judging by the postcards his friends cemetery in time. Stopping in front of the sent him after the war. Vanni and Vincenzo coffin, he said: never met again in the camp. They never – This time I can do nothing. knew why they were taken by the Germans It was then that Vincenzo recognized him. who were allies of the Italians. Four people had to separate the two former prisoner friends from their moved, strong embrace in the unfortunate event. But Caligiuri only decided to tell someone about his prisoner story in Germany at a late age. Until then he had kept silent. I should deepen the story of my father in the German camps. Today the postcards I used as a child to decorate the Christmas tree would help my research. But they have all been lost. The only keepsake I have is a small wooden box where Vanni kept small valuables during imprisonment. Until a few years ago, opening it, I could still smell a pungent scent of medicines. To pay tribute to my father's imprisonment in Germany I went to visit a concentration camp. It is no small thing. Then, while there is still the ability and pleasure to write, I wanted to collect the story.nor during fascism. Nor did their respective families have any news of them. Their fates were separated. The heart was shaken by small tremors. "A break for an ice cream," advised the wife. After the war ended, however, each one was separated. I wanted to suggest these necessary points because the experience on which my father preferred to remain silent should not be completely erased. PATRIA INDIPENDENTE/SEPTEMBER 2014 29