Eyewitness Testimony Saulle Campana

Saulle Campana, questionnaire received through the mediation of Dr. Cleonice Pignedoli. Report Saulle Campana 05.02.2008 with the help of Dr. Pignedoli Mr. Bartuschka, I am sending you your completed questionnaire with what I still remember after all this time. Best regards Saulle Castellarano 5.2.2008 This is a copy of my ID (the original is in Reggio) Questionnaire 1. Near the village of Roteglia, Province of Castellarano, Reggio Emilia on 7.8.1944. I was taken to Sassuolo (Modena) and then brought to the Fossoli camp, where I stayed until August 14, together with other prisoners from our mountains. I was arrested together with my father; due to his age, however, he was left behind in Italy to collaborate with the Germans there (TOD organization). 2. On August 14, we were taken by an old bus to Verona. There we were loaded into cattle wagons and taken to Germany. We stopped in a place near Innsbruck, where we were divided and sent to various German cities. Then by regular trains to Kahla, Thuringia. 3. From Kahla station we walked to our first camp (Camp E), there were many of us, about 100. We stayed in Camp E for a while, maybe a few months, then moved to Camp 7, about 2-3 km from the construction site. 4. The barracks where we lived (about 20 men each) were in good condition with bunk beds. I do not remember if there was a stove (maybe yes). 5. The next day, photos for the ID were taken (see copy). I believe they gave us a blanket and a cotton work suit, because we only had the clothes we wore at the time of arrest, summer clothes with short sleeves. 6. Food: In the evening, after work, we handed in a voucher we had received at work. In return, we got a slice of black bread (I think about 100 g), a slice of margarine, and a bowl of some kind of broth. There was only one meal per day. I do not remember any other food being given. We received all this after waiting in a terrible long line outside, sometimes in the rain, completely frozen. I believe this ordeal was intended so that someone would give up the food or out of sheer cruelty. 7. We worked 10 hours a day, from sunrise until night, only one day off per month to wash the miserable rags we had left. We were dirty, ragged, and after some time full of insects and lice. There was no roll call; they checked us at work by showing the ID, where we also received the food voucher. 8. We walked in groups to work, without escort. The work was building and hollowing out parallel tunnels in a mountain, where an aircraft factory was to be housed. It was like a beehive. Then a runway was built on top of the hill, connected by a cog railway. Inside the mountain, huge vaulted cement halls were built with a diameter of 6-7 m for assembling the aircraft, which took place inside these structures. 9. As said, one day off per month. 10. The work was supervised by brutal foremen, at first two Poles (Franz and Runda?). 11. I do not remember any work accidents and I did not see any. But our work was not dangerous. We worked with shovels and pickaxes. 12. In the camp, besides the camp leader and a few guards (we said some must have come from the mental asylum because they shouted so much), there was no one else. The camp supplies (Camp E) were supervised by a Belgian or a Flemish Dutchman. They had no contact with us. 13. Theoretically, we could leave the camp, but we could not because we were at work all day. There was no fixed guard at the entrance, but the police checked outside from time to time. I and others (young and reckless) also left the camp without going to work to look for something to eat in the surroundings. We tried to escape the police, who, if they caught us, first beat us, imposed a fine of 22 marks, and ordered us to return to the camp immediately. 14. In our camp, we were only Italians. There were also camps with other foreigners (Russians with families), Slavs, French and others, but we had no contact with each other. We only met at work. 15. N/A (whether certain groups were treated better) 16. As wages, there were a few marks (I do not remember how many). However, they were completely useless because there was nothing to buy. They only served us to pay possible fines from the police. 17. NO (barter with civilians) 18. Of the few civilians I dealt with, all were completely indifferent. 19. No. I only heard of internments in a penal camp. 20. There was, as was heard, a penal camp. It was said that people were treated inhumanely there and that no one lasted longer than 8-10 days there. I do not know more about it. 21. The German foremen we dealt with did not pay any attention to us. 22. During the escapes from the camp, which I dared a few times to look for food in the surrounding villages at night, I met people. Apart from some fanatics, they did not treat me badly, especially the women had pity and tried to secretly give us some food without anyone seeing, especially the police. I remember with endless gratitude especially a miller’s wife, two women who had a stable and cattle, and others. Especially one who had two sons in Russia, without news from one of them. Secretly, I knocked on the front door, and she let me in and gave me a bowl of warm water in which I could warm my stiff frozen fingers. Only some chased us away and called the police by shouting “Police.” 23. N/A (How was solidarity among prisoners, were there informers) 24. N/A (Escape attempts and their punishment) 25. For a while, they tried to find volunteers for the German army. But I believe no one volunteered. 26. There was a room for medical care, which I do not know. Some who were very sick were sent to a small hospital in the area. 27. Many died, including some who came with us from Fossoli. Also two from my barrack, people from my village. Some from the surrounding barracks, acquaintances of ours. If the war had lasted until winter 45, none of us would have returned home.28. As it says on the monument at Camp 6, 6,000 people died there (added later, 1st person). We were a group that had come from Fossoli, originating from Roteglia and the surrounding area, from our mountains. Among us, it was said that the dead were buried in the forest near Camp 7, just behind the road. But I do not know anything for sure. In Camp E, on the other hand, they piled them up in a barrack and then took them away by truck; I do not know where. 29. In the last days, they gathered us in Kahla. We traveled as a group and moved exclusively at night so that no one would see us, no one knew exactly where, I think towards Czechoslovakia. We were accompanied by policemen and armed soldiers who kept us together. 30. I do not know. 31. One day, I believe it was in autumn, Minister Göring came with an entourage of many high-ranking military officers to inspect the tunnels we were working on; he passed very close to me. In the morning, when the visit was expected, we were held in the barracks because these were inspected particularly carefully. Afterwards, we went to work as usual, only with some delay. 32. A few days after my arrival in Kahla, I sent a postcard to my family. After my return, I learned that it had arrived and my relatives were able to know where the Germans had taken me after my arrest. 33. Exhausted from the journey, having eaten nothing, on foot, without sleeping, we traveled at night and could no longer stay awake. So I threw myself, together with a friend, Attilio Bucciarelli, who had always been close to me like a father, we threw ourselves into a roadside ditch full of water, and we managed not to be discovered by the soldiers who had noticed something. > continued on the last page We stayed lying in this ditch and slept until the afternoon of the following day, while our column had gone on somewhere unknown. We continued alone on the road until a road bridge near a small village. In a small hollow, we made a night camp out of leaves. A German soldier came near us and shouted something at us that we did not understand, then he came closer, and there was a huge explosion. The bridge had been blown up. Shortly afterwards, another soldier appeared and spoke and gestured. Since I thought he was calling us, I went up to him. But he was very surprised and I realized that he had been talking with a colleague on the opposite side. Then he began to speak with me and Attilio, but I did not understand him and he did not speak German. In his words, however, I had heard the word "Americans," and then I said to him "Italians," and I began to scream and cry with my friend. We had not known at all that we had reached the war front. The soldier called another who spoke Italian, and he explained everything to us. We were free! They immediately gave us chocolate, cookies, cigarettes. We stuffed everything into our mouths together like two madmen and cried. It was April 16, 1945. There were some houses by the roadside and I believe the settlement was called "Pirk." The patrol that freed us was the first vanguard of the advancing American troops. The next morning, the Americans advanced further and left us all the food our hearts desired. We stayed there three days and then set out on the journey home to Italy... We marched for several days on foot behind the troops, up to the vicinity of Nuremberg. There they stopped us and made us wait for a train that was being prepared. Finally, with much luck and various means of transport (due to the interrupted roads), we only reached home on June 12, 1945.