Testimony

Giovanni Maltagliati – Walpersberg

35. Did you find out if any former guards or other people were arrested after the arrival of the Americans? No, I haven't heard anything more (cf. Q1) 36. When did you return to Italy? I arrived in Magenta on July 26, 1945, at four in the morning. I passed by my aunt's house and saw from the window that she was already up because she was preparing for work in the stable. I called her, she let out a joyful scream that woke the whole neighborhood, ran to me, and hugged me several times. My cousin took the bicycle and ran to notify my parents. Questionnaire 1. When were you arrested by the Germans and under what circumstances? I was arrested during the Nazi-fascist reprisal action on July 20 and 21, 1944, in Robecco su Naviglio, a small village near Magenta, which at that time had about 3,000 inhabitants. Description of the events. On the afternoon of July 20, 1944, a group of soldiers consisting of three Germans and one Italian fascist set out to seize a stockpile of fabrics that a Milanese businessman had hidden on a farm. This was guarded by some partisans. A shootout occurred, in which a German sergeant and the partisan Luigi Valenti were injured. The former was taken by his men to Abbiategrasso but died on the way. The latter was treated by the village doctor, Dr. de Bonis, and his assistant Don Magni and then, already dying, was taken to a hut used by the farmers for their fieldwork near an estate called “Tangola.” On the way back, the doctor and assistant were stopped by the Germans who had returned to the village. After threatening Don Magni to line him up against the wall because he refused to reveal the wounded man's whereabouts, the doctor explained where they had taken the partisan. Upon arrival, the Germans began arresting some farmers of "Tangola," then took Luigi Valenti from the hut and brought him, along with his father, brother, and sister who had come to help him, to the place where the fight had taken place. After a brief meeting, the soldiers shot his father Enrico and his brother Angelo and threw their bodies together with the now dead Luigi into the hut, which had meanwhile been set on fire. However, the German reprisal action was not yet over, as the German command had ordered the SS and the Legioni Muti to launch a new attack on Robecco. The following day, at 10:30, the Germans and fascists returned to the village with reinforcements, distributed machine guns in the church square and at all entrances, and forced all the men of the village to come to the main square. They then divided them into two groups; one group of the elderly, the other those they considered fit for work. After several hours, when several houses had already been set on fire, the German leader of the punitive squad announced his verdict and five citizens (Castellari Giovanni, Locatelli Mario, Pellegatta Ermanno, Pellegatta Luigi, and Staurengo Angelo) were executed by a firing squad. Another sixty citizens were loaded onto a truck and deported. Initially, they were taken to the camp in San Vittore, and then, on August 9, they were sent to the concentration camp of Kahla Weimar. There they had to dig tunnels in long 12-hour work shifts and were given a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. Due to the lack of food and the violence inflicted on them, nine of them did not return. I was also among the deportees. 2. Please describe the transport from Italy to Kahla. Do you remember any stops during the journey? What were the transport conditions? On the evening of July 21, we were taken to Milan, to the San Vittore prison, where we stayed for 20 days. On August 9, we left Milan (Scalo Farini) in a cattle transport towards Germany. Each wagon contained 25 people under the supervision of an armed German soldier. There was only some straw to sleep on in the wagons. We had a bag of bread that our relatives in Milan had given us on the day of our departure. Then we stopped before the Brenner Pass, between Bolzano and Bressanone (Brixen, editor's note). They let us get off near an orchard so we could relieve ourselves. Two of my fellow prisoners, Cereghini and another who was not from Robecco, managed to escape. When our German guard noticed this, he started shooting wildly into the orchard. Another stop was after Munich. We arrived in Nuremberg at night during a bombing; we were locked in the wagons in the dark. After four days, towards evening, we arrived in Weimar. For the first time, they gave us dinner: soup and bread; we slept on bunks. The next day we were taken to Kahla. The labor camp was called "Rosengarten." 3. Do you remember when you arrived in Kahla and in which REIHMAG camp you were first housed? Were you later moved to another camp? At first, we were housed in a garage for buses. There were 133 of us, and we stayed there for 40 days. Then they took us 3 km from Kahla to the Reiseneck camp in a building that might once have been a theater, because I remember scenery painted on the wall.