Eyewitness Testimony Fiorino Odasso

Mr. Fiorino Odasso was born in Garessio on 28.08.1902, he reports the following: The Germans arrived in Garessio on July 25, 1944. A group of them also took quarters in my apartment. On the evening of July 27, they had very strange conversations. After that, I wanted to hide, but one of them followed me and caught me. The raid had started on Via Garibaldi, and many of the arrested were on the Luvio bridge and later together in the Miramonti Hotel. We were taken to Kahla. On the way, we Garessians, fellow countrymen from our immediate area, and several Milanese, who had previously spent a short time in San Vittore prison in Milan, formed our own group. After three months of imprisonment in Kahla, we were moved to another accommodation, namely the Rosengarten, on the outskirts of the city of Kahla. From there it was closer to REIMAHG. We all worked there. In my free time after work, I worked for a family. There were two old people living there with the wife of their youngest son and two girls aged 10 and 6. All six of their sons were at the front in Italy. I helped out in agriculture there and received potatoes and tea. Since I knew some German, I taught the two girls words in Garessian. The camp leader was a war invalid; he had lost an arm. His family lived in Kahla (wife and six children), and they often accompanied him to the camp. Our overseer was a German from Kahla who wrote and spoke excellent Italian. He was married to a nurse. From time to time, I had to go with him to Kahla to collect the mail. We had a strong secret friendship. He even took me into his kitchen, and I could have breakfast there. When we arrived in Kahla at that time, there were already other Italian forced laborers there. They worked in the tunnel, and I witnessed how two to three died there. From our camp, I still remember exactly, three dead were taken on a cart to the Kahla cemetery. Twice I was in the infirmary, where there was a French nurse and a Russian doctor. I often went to a tavern in Kahla. The owner's daughter refused us entry, while her old father often cautiously opened the door and let us in. When the Americans approached, the Germans took us to another camp. This was not very far away, in the middle of forests. There I saw a priest for the first time, a very devout one. We received communion from him. Exactly one year after we were captured, on July 28, 1945, we returned to our homeland via Switzerland.