Eyewitness Testimony Alfio Colonnelli

1 COLONNELLI ALFIO BORN IN TOLENTINO IN 1926 ROUNDED UP IN TOLENTINO ON MAY 5, 1944 INTERVIEWED AT THE ANPI OF TOLENTINO ON JANUARY 15, 2002 MEETING WITH THREE DEPORTEES IN KAHLA. ONE OF THEM, ZENOBI, KEEPS A PIECE OF BREAD FROM THAT TIME. Interviewer. Your name? Alfio Colonnelli. If you would like to tell us about your experience in Kahla… I take advantage of this invitation from ANPI because I think we were more present in your news which could serve you throughout your life. At that age, 16 or 17 years old, we were rounded up, taken and deported to Germany. Life was very complex and very hard, because there was no experience. We were coming out of the war where there were... here in Tolentino we had, in the partisan camp, several fellow townsmen who then lost their lives. I, in this very hard war, if I have to tell my very brief story, which would be long if I told it all, here I will try to be as brief as possible; trying to make clear the essential elements of this our deportation. As I repeat, I had to note here (he has written sheets in hand and the registration sheet) the movements, the dates that gave us the departure, from the concentration camp of Sforzacosta, then we were transferred to Florence, from Florence to Suzzara and from Suzzara we were transferred to Germany, first enclosed inside the wagons that served, still serve, for the transport of animals and cows, let's say, and those were the ones that accompanied us until the first stop at Erfurt. Erfurt was the first, because in Florence we stopped, they made us stop for 5 days, they recorded some data, the origin, the age and so on, then, after the 5 days in Florence, we were transferred to Suzzara: the same procedure, the same requests, date of birth, profession and so on. In the morning we were woken up very early: from there they took us to the Suzzara station, the group from Tolentino was 25 or 27, I remember some names, two in particular, one who died meanwhile when I at that time, I was at the field hospital, the hospital which was not really a hospital, an infirmary that existed inside the camp 1 where we were enclosed, a certain Calvigioni who is from Tolentino. I did not take advantage, let's say, of his kindness, but perhaps of his illness, because it turned out later, after asking for information, that he had meningitis and therefore the only thing he refused was bread and for me bread was a very necessary thing, because, at that time, the bread rations were not such as to be able to stay calm all day, so I went out from that small, the field infirmary and he, the only thing he wanted was beer, in fact every time I went out I took beer and brought it to him. After a few days practically I go out, so remembering this period, and this memory in particular, it almost makes me want to cry, because it was bad… given the very young age and inexperience, there was no experience, so here, I say to you young people that (we hope life is the longest possible), but not to remember that period anymore so that you young people can live a little peacefully and not thinking about the conflicts of war.. Can you start telling us for example how and when you were rounded up? This is already a detail that I can tell you very well, because at that time, since as a boy, at least at that age, from 6 years on, they first sent us to workshops, after school it was a job, an after-school job, let's say. After school they sent us to do something, some learned carpentry, some learned tailoring and so on. Since I was sent to work a bit with tailors, at that time of the roundup I already knew something about the tailoring trade, so that morning, finding myself unemployed at that time, I took advantage of that youthful experience, as a boy to be able to exploit it then in a particular moment which was that of unemployment, so they sent me to get cigarettes in the square in Tolentino and 15 - 20 meters on Via Nazionale, that is before reaching the square, I was rounded up by the Italian SS. The Italian SS handed us over to the Germans who, in front of the building in Piazza della Libertà, gathered many of us and in the afternoon did not let us talk and there until the buses arrived, and from those buses, they transferred us from Tolentino to the camp of  2Sforzacosta, a former English concentration camp, at that time the English were still there before us. What kind of work did you do? At the concentration camp, it wasn’t about work, because, strangely, we were just waiting for our fate, because, as I repeat, given our age, inexperience, and so on, we were rounded up, but without knowing the consequences or why we were there, they took us to that concentration camp. We found out later, after about ten days, not even that, after 7-8 days, there was a roll call by the Germans, naturally with the presence of some Italian interpreters. They called us to a roll call and told us they were taking us to Florence. In fact, from there we left, as they said, for Florence. We hoped, since there was the war, the Resistance, and so on, we said: “maybe on this journey from here to Florence, we might find some partisan troops who would stop our deportation,” but that was not the case. Shortly before going to Florence, there had been a bombing and, because of the bombing, they made us get off the bus and even pushed us with our shoulders and our strength, we crossed a field to get onto a road, which had already been bombed so there was no regular passage for a bus, so we took it to the other side. From there they took us to Florence, we stayed there for 5 days... then we arrived, as I repeat, in Erfurt and from Erfurt to Kahla. From Kahla, after getting off the black wagons, as I said earlier, they took us to a suburb that wasn’t even a village, Niedercross. We stayed there for several days, and in fact from there we were assigned to some companies. We and several from Tolentino, not all, at least I don’t remember well, because you would have to ask the others too, were entrusted and requested by the Faotto company and there was another company called Strassenbau, that is, those who built roads, and Faotto, I don’t know if it was carpentry or masonry, something like that. And from Niedercross, in the morning we woke up early and naturally went on foot to Kahla and from Kahla to go to the construction of our first concentration camp, because in fact our first job was to build Lager 1 which then served us during the internment imprisonment. But we made another 6 that were meant for the French, the Belgians, the Russians, that is, prisoners of other nations, so life was very hard. Even before starting this interview, a friend asked me (it’s Liduino Zenobi) and showed a piece of bread, the kind that at a certain moment they gave us to survive; because the work was very hard and had to be done on foot from the station, to carry wooden stirrups, wood that was needed for the very heavy coverings and from there on foot to carry them to the top of the pine forest where the clearings were made, where the barracks were installed, which then were, let’s call them our little houses inside this. Nothing, life was very difficult because we worked a lot during the day and the difficulty was above all in knowing the language, because in fact we took so many kicks, slaps, and blows, but also beatings, let’s say, which would be the most exact and right thing. When they spoke their language and unfortunately we Italians, especially at that age, did not know it, so when they told us to take a tool to carry on the work we were doing, we didn’t understand, so... we remained there stunned, not knowing what they were telling us, but they made it clear in a very simple way, that of grabbing us by the ears, kicking us in the butt and some beatings and then they taught you with their finger the tool you had to take to work with. These are bad memories, because, as I repeat, especially the hunger... at the beginning they gave us... and I, instead fortunately, because, they even made me barrack leader, but... staying among Italians, because we were all Italians. They made me barrack leader and so I had to go and get, let’s say, the bread for barrack number 1 and then vice versa 2, 3, 4 and so on. The bread had to be divided, that little loaf of black bread had to be divided into 4 portions; up to that point, well... more or less, right, there was almost no reason for discussion. Then, besides the work, besides the cold, during the winter period... friends who tied cement bags around their legs or over their shoulders, to endure the cold there, because Germany is much colder than Italy, so, as I repeat,... the discussions in that barrack arose later, because a...loaf of bread that was initially supposed to be divided into 4, then he even brought it to 8 portions, so, at a certain point, that knife that could make 8 portions and I was always, let's say, at the height of the discussions, because, logically, it’s not like I was a professional bread cutter, so some slices could come a bit thinner and others a bit bigger, hence the big arguments there, which then, eh! Naturally true... these are very bad memories, very bad memories. Eh! I hope you never go through them... never go through them because it’s hard to forget. What is the episode that struck you more than all the others or that you remember the most? Well! The episode I particularly remember was... There are several, I’ll tell one that could be the escape. In fact, at the time I was hospitalized, let's say in the field infirmary... there was a certain doctor, whose name I don’t exactly remember now, who pretended to be a doctor, in fact he was somewhat under the Germans, and indeed the first cannon shots were already heard, the heavy machine gun fire, so it was clear that the Americans or the Russians, we didn’t know who could eventually be our liberators, were already approaching, so here... (a moment of amnesia) I’m picking up the story I was telling, you had asked me for a detail. That is, this escape was organized by this doctor, but in fact we found ourselves there in that hut, which was the field infirmary, the Germans were already starting to move away and had already formed columns to move further away; it was what could be called the line, let's say, between the concentration camp and practically the advance of the liberators, who, as I repeat, could have been Russians or Americans. We decided to leave that field infirmary and decided to walk during the night and stop in the woods, because Germany, at least as far as I remember, had several, let's say, woods, so the only thing we found was that we walked at night, but the strange thing, let's say, that I remember, was that after 4 days, one fine morning, after having walked for several hours during the night, we found ourselves in the same place where we had started. But, beyond that, another more interesting detail. This is already a continuation, because when we, who were there, meanwhile trying to get as far away as possible, actually stopped in a country hut where the Germans kept their equipment for field work, and not having, let's say, someone to feed us, we naturally had to survive with what we found. In fact, since there was a cultivated field of potatoes, which they called Kartoffeln there, we started pulling these pieces of potatoes out of the ground, to then cook them in buckets... whatever we found. However, the owner, the proprietor of that land, discovered us one morning, but kindly (being an old man, and we were told - we already understood some German - that his son had been a soldier here in Italy and had spoken quite well of Italy) he told us that we had to leave that place, because he would be forced to report our presence in that hut. And fortunately we said yes, but in fact we did not move; the next morning, around five fifteen, five thirty in the morning, since we were sleeping in a hayloft that was in this small hut, where they kept the equipment, we heard gunfire, shots on the walls, because it was made of masonry and partly, let's say, wooden closure. We heard these bullets hitting hard against the walls and... we heard them even louder until some voices below in German told us to come down,... we came down and fortunately we had no weapons, nothing, except a simple little knife... to then serve the function of peeling the potatoes to possibly cook them in that tin bucket. We came down from there and this remained in particular a story of a certain... because at that moment, I saw death right next to me, not only me, I think the others too, because as we came down from this hut they took us, made us walk about 1 km and brought us up to a pine forest where each of us (since we were 5 who had escaped at that moment, that night) they put one per pine and a commander, an officer, let's say, of that group of soldiers who had taken us, gave orders and those orders were at first incomprehensible to me because I was already thinking of something bad,... of never seeing my family, Italy again. I report this detail because, putting one per pine, giving this order to two soldiers to take a machine gun, and another who accompanied the one carrying the machine guns... with bullets that, let's say, are used precisely to put the...machine guns, we were there crying and the only thing I said at that moment…. “Lord, why - I have spent this entire period of captivity - now that salvation is approaching, since it is true, the Allied troops are advancing, they could free us as soon as possible, are we here to die without justification?” In fact, that order, it is true, while that machine gun that was aimed in front of us had approached…….! One of us, Falistocco, I remember the surname, I don’t remember the first name, knew German much better than I did. He embraced that officer at the legs saying that we had done nothing wrong, that we had done nothing, in fact we told a lie, but it was a justifiable lie: we said that we had been hospitalized at the hospital in Jena, that from Jena they had sent us on foot to return to the Kahla concentration camp. I don’t know if that news struck the officer, and in fact seeing us all in tears, with tears in our eyes… he expected the end at any moment, instead it was a relief, because he gave a counter-order. That German who was handling the machine gun moved away from us, and then we understood that we would surely have this grace, let’s call it grace and luck to have been saved. In fact, they gathered us and said “look, Kahla is not far from here, even if it has been bombed and, …. From there you could see fires, smoke, and they told us, “now two soldiers will accompany you and will show you the way so that you can eventually be taught where you have to find Kahla where you have to return.” In fact, they took us from this village to another, and from there, twice followed by soldiers, they handed us over to civilians. And, as I repeat, even these other civilians were (despite Kahla already being visible nearby glowing red because it had been bombed), they told us that they had had a son in Italy and that he had treated him well. He said to us “now I, instead of accompanying you all the way there…. you are free, go alone and try to save yourselves…. and… here… without any escort, because there are no more soldiers here…. Because… you are free.” From there we went to Kahla. Then I conclude by saying that you could no longer go to Kahla. Instead of going to Kahla, we went to Niedercross about 3 - 4 km from Kahla and from there, in the morning, now I don’t remember the exact date, but reviewing a bit (looks at papers and reads) “liberated by the Allied troops, July 17, 1945.” We were indeed liberated by the American troops, from the air 7, after which we went through political distribution, (surely there was at the time the division of Germany) into East Germany, belonging to the Russians. We stayed there a few days with them…. they gave us a bit of free rein, so much so that I was accompanied to Kahla, ….. a not very nice gesture, but I want to tell it. I had the habit of smoking (and there the only thing that was not found, because they didn’t give it to us, so we smoked everything…) and he took me and accompanied me to Kahla, to a tobacco shop, he accompanied me to a tobacco shop; in front of me there was a lady and he told her to give me some cigarettes.. that is… he filled his chest, let’s say the jacket, full of cigarettes, then he said to me “you can go!” Well, I don’t understand much Russian, except a few words “skicoremia, davaido kuì, give me a cigarette or give me something to smoke, something like that. Eh, if I had to say, let’s say tell a bit of everything that has happened, there would be not only, here, this small interview, but it would take, here, a longer time, but to say that I thank you, at this moment you, for having invited us here and for having given us this opportunity and possibility to be able to show and make people understand, right, what in fact was our life and our…… stay, let’s say, as prisoners in Germany, as humble civilians in Germany. We thank you for your testimony.