Anyhow, the priest came down to hear the confessions of these four. The firing-squad then lined-up in front of the portico, and once the men had been confessed, the public executions began.

As a matter of fact, the event of simply having to stand and watch while these men were being shot to death was by itself more than a tragedy to the town - and this did not simply apply to the four people who faced the firing-squad, but to the moral of all the inhabitants of the town as well! The four were in fact shot one at a time, and at an interval of precisely fifteen minutes from one another: and in this way, what otherwise would have been considered as a single execution was instead made to last for one endless hour! Now, can you just try to imagine how it must have felt to hear that burst every quarter of an hour knowing very well that it was killing someone?

So, there was this iron gate which went into the castle, and since some friends of mine happened to be there as well, we decided to climb up onto the wall. This wall is still exists today, and so does its elevated portion from which we were able to look right inside. We remained there at the first burst. At the second, they took… they spread a length of material over the castle, over the gate; and so we ran away up to the monument - there actually was a monument dedicated to the Unification of Italy in front of the station. So we went there. After this I took the bicycle; for the reason why I had come down to the square was because my brothers, and my sister, had told me, "Go down and find out what is going on." And I therefore continued going to-and-fro, and by bicycle, telling them about what was happening. At a certain point when I had returned on my bicycle Vaccari’s sister, Irma, took out a hand grenade and the pistol and came out onto the street! She was living in Saint Sebastian's convent, and so she came walking down along the closed street which passed behind the convent. She came down right up to the big fountain, until my brother Nanni and I had to get hold of her. And then Nanni said to her, "Where do you think you are going?" She answered, "They are shooting him… Come on, take your hands off me…!" she insisted, "I have to go to the square and throw a hand grenade at them…" Anyway, - and this is where I start - it was really a moment of great emotion for me. In short, we were able to stop her, remove the hand grenade and pistol away from her, and take her back home. I then went back down the street and… what really could one have done? This poor family was composed of Irma's mother, Irma, Fiorinda… A terrible stench of lead hung heavily over the whole town… I am sorry, I never thought it would have been this moving, but what could one do about it…? And so… the entire afternoon passed in this gloomy atmosphere.

The Fascists then decided to… they wanted to put them outside… hang the corpses of their victims outside the castle, right…? Well, eventually they had to give it up, because at first it was the priest who intervened, then this one, and then yet another one; and so then they were all taken to the cemetery. They took them to the cemetery and there… the night fallen… Bepi Pizzicotto therefore decided to light-up a small oil-lamp in the mortuary cell, and this light could be seen right from the convent… A son of the Viccari's had been executed, and so the whole family was screaming wildly. I therefore decided to walk downhill towards home - I am talking in this way because this also is what is written in the book… My return home was fatal… My mother said to me, "Now just give me the time to prepare some soup so that you can take it to them; so that the Viccari's will at least have something to eat…" She got it prepared, and then she said to me, "Now please go and fetch me some Marsala cream…" And so I went to Rita Mocche, who was running a tavern right there in Giara - how strange! All the more, it was even war time, and therefore nobody could have imagined how such a place would remain open. The fact that they even had Marsala cream almost made me laugh: one simply wouldn't have been able to figure out the existence of Marsala cream, not with all the hunger that there was; and yet here was someone who entire barrels filled with this delicious cream!

Well, I therefore bought a three quarter measure of Marsala cream, and while I was in there; well, I told you earlier on about the guy who had erected the pole, right? I met Caberlon and his son inside. Both of them were dead drunk, having gulped down one glass after another in a bid to forget about had taken place. In fact, Mario e Tequillo Caberlon were continuously repeating, "Look, it isn't our fault if we erected the pole!" It was quite a sight: Rita Mocche was seated on one side, quite taken up by her meal, and there was Gighetto on the other side; then there were these two Caberlons crying loudly enough that one could make out the words, "It isn't our fault!" I am telling you these things because it is my desire that… I am ready to have someone write it down even right away: I want people to know about how we passed those days! Well, as I approached to do the buying this guy asked me, "What do you want, Pompeo?" "I want some Marsala cream," was my reply. I bought the Marsala cream, and put it in a bag. Then they started saying to each other, "Now, he would have to go inside the convent premises. But there are Fascists in there. We have to be careful!" My sister therefore turned to me and asked, "Well, what shall we do it?" And I said, "Don't worry, I know how to go up into the convent compound: I will go right up, walk through the Lunardons' house, down into the Canegons', and then come out and pass behind - the Fascists were in fact trying to hang around outside the convent premises in order to to be able to spot any partisans or fami… someone who would eventually try to approach the Viccari family. In the convent compound there actually lived five or six families, perhaps even seven or eight: thirty people altogether inside these premises! Old Mr.Viccari was in the Segafredos’ house, while the women were at home screaming. And so, slowly by slowly - I saw quite clearly that the Fascists were there, but having good knowledge of the Saint Sebastian convent premises - I managed to get to the Viccari family; and once there found the three women - it was dark and all I had was the light of a candle. They were in bed, half naked and screaming desperately! They were "half naked" in the sense that they had already gone to bed, poor things; and once in a while the mother would arise and walk up to the window to call the son… I tried to make her have some Marsala cream. I said to her, "I have brought you some soup." I managed to get something and give it to them to e… they were able to eat something; put something into their mouths, and have something to drink. And while I was there… It wasn't so easy to stay there: there was such an atmosphere of despair about the place! I tried to … I myself wasn't really worried at all; I mean in the sense that I of course knew about what had taken place, but still, it really hadn't happened to my blood brother, right? And yet, it was certainly not so easy to be in that house that night.

After a while, as had been planned with my brothers and my sister, I went out and gave indications… I told them, "Look, the Fascists are located at such and such a point," and afterwards they themselves moved closer and, keeping bent down low, were able to enter the house. That was only my brother Nanni, and my sister, while I myself then went back home. I returned home in the morning - because this, in fact, is what is written even in the book.

This, substantially, brings us to the end of the tragedy of the four executions. Well, some time after this Irma Viccari was told "Irma, you are exempted from exporting, considering the fact that your brother was executed…" Such a decision was made among the partisans of the Borgo Giara group, because the Borgo Giara group was organised… in fact, it was under the command by my brother Nanni, my sister, and my father… Well, it was well organised: in short, these were all boys who came frequently to my house… And Irma was told that she should try to, kind of… try to look after her family, and that she did not… that she did not have to expose herself anymore… She had been taken note of… The partisans had already been detected by the Fascists, and so she had to calm down. She therefore began to come, poor devil; she would come down to work as a housemaid for a family here - the Los family. She did her work inside the house, and was therefore surrounded by the families.

I have narrated to you this episode exactly according to what actually took place. Thereafter the partisan formation began to break up, and I eventually found myself left with just a few partisans… amongst whom, Commander Munari. And so we put him up in Nove, in Pasquali’s house. By this time we were already in 1944: things continued getting organised, the boys started going up into the mountains, and activities inevitably began to alternate. Many people came to our house in search of answers, and my mother was very good at finding answers. And so were my brothers too: how to get organised, what to make of the situation, how to bear with the hardships, how to avoid getting in trouble, and so on. There was also a problem of what to do in order to earn a living. My father with had this enterprise… which could then make some little money; well, quite a small means of subsistence. And we therefore were able, not only to have something to eat for ourselves, but also provide some food for the others as well. By this time we were going… We had gone through almost the first half of 1944, and I was always there at my daily work of… subsistence, keeping myself busy doing this and that. However, something new happened in the meantime: there was a certain Giuliano… Gagliano Guerra, who they had captured and taken to the district headquarters in Vicenza - which is to say that such were the kinds of things that were happening. Now, it was at the district headquarters in Vicenza that all the identity disks were stored; such that when one arrived here he found a uniform and everything else waiting him. So, what did this Giuliani Guerra do? Well, we gave him the names of all the partisans that were in our possession… both those who belonged to the formation, as well as those who were simply stragglers. And from the district archives, he was able to took away everyth… He tore off pages and made them disappear, and carried away even the identity disks - such that at the district, whenever they tried to identify stragglers or others, in order to recruit them under the Republic of Salò, the names were actually nowhere to be found. I remember one night when, at his arrival, he took us up into the house. He had brought home the identity disks of my brothers and other partisans, goodness gracious! It didn't even seem to be something real!

In the meantime, we were nevertheless aware of the existence of secret informers at the district, and tried to get rid of these as well: the fact was that whenever the Fascists returned from their outings the Germans would try to find out from them where the stragglers were hiding away. Their families actually would always say, "Well, what can we do? he has never returned from the war. I haven't seen him ever since!" - and this was enough for the families to justify themselves, as long as the spies did not go on to say that these men were actually around.

And while all this was taking place, the partisan formations of Grappa were beginning to gather up, and it was then that these formations were actually born. We ourselves were not part of these formations, but we nevertheless were in touch with them. My sister, who was actually a Political Commissary, had to go a little bit all over the place, not to mention that she was also contemporarily a courier at the Bishop’s Palace in Vicenza. In those days, my sister had to respond to the bishop of Vicenza. She would go to the Bishop’s house where the clergy… She had the spirit of the Resistance in her… Substantially, she had already completed her training. There were normally quite a few things to be discussed. The greatest contribution to the struggle was provided by the Left-wing groups, but even the clergy themselves did make their own contribution. In fact, in many parishes and churches, as well as in numerous other places, the parish priests distributed food to the people. Of course some of these chose to take sides with them, but then there were those who were on our side too!

We went through the summer, and the Grappa partisan formation got more organised, just as we too tried to get ourselves organised. However, further difficulties linked with subsistence had also arisen: some Jews had been able to arrive here, and had been provided with accommodation. The big issue was that they had no ration tickets, and that without ration tickets were allowed to receive neither bread nor anything else! Somehow, we therefore had to recover some food that we could then go and give to these Jews. So, what was done? A rope was used. A rope with which a dividing line was drawn, and this then established whatever part of the crop the farmer - each and every farmer - was ready to donate. Some donated potatoes; some this, and some that. And it didn't matter however little it was: it could be some maize or even a little amount of wheat! We had equipped ourselves with small manual milling machines, and therefore were able to grind-up the wheat, the sorghum… Just a bit of beans, or two or three potatoes, can you imagine! It really took very little stuff in order to do this; and even with a small quantity of flour, they would be able to make some "polenta" and take it to them.

I remember passing… that summer passed on in this way…We had Alfredo Munari, who had to be taken… It was no longer safe for him to stay here. The Fascists were actually looking for him since he became, let's say, the Commander of the formation after the mopping-up operations. My sister therefore went down to Piemonte in order to see if he could be taken to that zone: take him outside, so that he would be out of reach from… being hunted down. But the partisan formations out there were not in a position to receive, or rather, didn't like the idea of having to receive partisans from this side, and Munari was consequently forced to remain here. Together with the "Giovane Italia" partisan formation, the detachment which controlled this area and was stationed here in Rubbio, inside… in Val Gallina, in front of… this part here, let's say, the part facing… overlooking Valsugana. It was "Giovane Italia" that was in charge of them all, and such territory included even Marostica, Mason, part of Bassano, Nove, Cartigliano, Pozzoleone, Sandrigo, Breganze, Thie…, Scaldaferro, let's say… then all the way up here to Pianezza e Molvena. All this lot of places was under "Giovane Italia".

And so they could just as well have thought that… he had gone up to join the "Giovane Italia" - which was actually under the command of Moretto, the partisan commander we used to call "Il Negro". We therefore thought of eventually sending Alfredo Munari there; my sister thought of posting him out there. In the meantime, we offered him our hospitality, and lodged him behind the castle, in Seafredo’s cottage. One morning, my mother… After having waited for her for quite a long time, I said to myself… my mother had said to me, ‘Look, Alfredo Munari and some other guy have arrived, and we therefore must provide them with something to eat, in one way or the other.’ ‘Yes…’ I said. Then she continued, ‘Where do you think you will look to see if you can find something?’

Now, it was the beginning of August – check this out! It was the beginning of August, and so what did I do? I simply thought: "Now I will go and steal some beans from those fields over there behind the bushes; lentils, beans, grapes… "clinton" grapes, which normally ripened in August, because even the "bacò" type we had in the kitchen was beginning to… And thus, at 5 a.m. I was busy stealing some beans, a few potatoes, and four "sucati". By the way, do you know what "sucati" are? "Sucatei"; the ones that sprout amidst the sorghum fields, goodness! It was then that I heard someone whistling. "Goodness gracious!" I thought, "This must be the owner and he surely must have seen me, because normally…" I said, "Merciful heavens! I have really been caught this morning, and will probably receive a very sound thrashing". Some moments afterwards, however, I saw three or four partisans coming out of the bushes, and I said, or rather, thought to myself: "What kind of partisans can these be? If they continue whistling, they surely will give me away, right?" So I signalled them, in this way, to go inside… and then went back home myself, carrying the stuff with me. Later my mother prepared some soup with these, and I took it to them. I then said, "Look guys, when someone is stealing, you must not make any noise but keep quiet and let him do his job…!" We took care of this Alfredo Munari for a few more days, then took him up to the mountains to "Il Negro". We took them up to the "Giovane Italia" partisan formation. Meanwhile, what did I do after this? With my sister, we would leave each time we were allowed to use the rucksack. Whenever we could use the rucksack, we would depart and go up; with me… with her or me leading the way, and taking turns at carrying the rucksack. My sister would always take advantage of me, and, frankly speaking, she never showed any signs of feeling guilty about the matter! She would say to me, 'You will lead the way Pompeo!' And I simply said, ?All right, I will lead the way?; 'Take the rear, Pompeo, walk behind me!' Or, 'Go and find out what is happening, Pompeo!' And I would say, 'OK, I will go and find out.' Yes, because if it was I who would get caught... the others would have been taken to the concentration camp, but I myself… all the more… even the local Fascists here were used to seeing me cycling around on my bike. I was someone who was always outdoors, in town, even during my childhood days, right? I was just a wanderer as much as I was shrewd! I was therefore bound to move about the place unnoticed, and not even when I got too close to them… Besides this, I had made... I was even a good friend of the son of Caneva, the Fascist, who was called Tino Piciti. We were able to get him to talk, and so he would sneak inside the federation head office, and walk through from one side to the other. And when he finally came out we would ask him: 'Picitti what are the Fascists talking about inside?' And he would reply: 'Ah well, they are talking about this, and about that, and bla bla bla…' And so, through him, we managed to gather information; and even though he was unaware of this, he had practically become a spy! At times, we even made him carry away ammunition from inside the Fasces building because we told him we were going hunting. As a matter of fact we actually had a gun: it was a gun for hunting small birds, such as redbreasts. Now, all this had taken place before the 8^th of September, and he… Occasionally, on some Sundays, we would even take him hunting along with us - and so there truly existed a good relationship between us.

And so, we managed to con him into bringing out… And we would say: 'Don't worry, we will get rid of the gunpowder ourselves.' But instead, when we succeeded in getting whatever ammunition we could, we took them straight up to the mountains. Practically, we took advantage of whoever we could in order to achieve our objectives.

Now, as I would say… something happened…! An accident; but, well, it eventually turned out to be a lucky event. The "TOT" was initiated; the "TOT"! I wonder whether you know that the "TOT" was the general mobilisation, meant to recruit the manual labour that was necessary for the construction of the... After the Maginot Line, which was over here, right? The Gothic line was this other one here, on the… or rather, what was considered to be the Gothic line by the Germans. Well, they were thinking of creating another line, the so-called "Pedemontana" line! And so it came to be that with the "TOT"… I am obviously bound to make some mistakes in my memories too… The beginning of the "TOT" marked the start of a good period because; what happened then? Well, we could contemporarily use the "TOT" and the partisan passes to cover ourselves up, and this was really something marvellous, right? These… those who wished to do so could present themselves and simply say "We have come to work under the "TOT" and they were automatically left unchecked by the Germans… for they would say, 'This lot has already been recruited, and so there is no need for us to check them anymore, because they anyway will have to report here every morning.'

Thus the "TOT" began working at the construction of tunnels and ditches, since it was conceived to become a defensive line in case of an eventual withdrawal from the Po line. The Germans were in fact determined to make a fierce resistance here in the Pre-alpine area, right? But of course it was also true that in this same Pre-alpine area, the presence of partisan formations constituted a major problem that had to be solved. And therefore when August came, a great number of mopping-up operations were launched so that the construction of the ditches could continue undisturbed. However, such operations were also indirectly aimed at wiping out the partisans from the mountains. It was in this way then, that the great moping-up operations began - amongst which were that of... let’s say, the Pasubio, of the valleys of Chiampo, and up here… of the Altopiano, and of Granezza. And these were all very massive moping-up operations, that led to the dispersal of many a partisan formation.

Then came the 28^th of September; and this time it was the turn of the Grappa, as you know…! There is one thing that I can remember clearly about this day: I happened to be on State Route no. 4, as it was called at the time, and was able to count as many as five hundred cart loads of Ukrainians - the fact is that the Germans had Ukrainians in their army, and the Ukrainians are a really cruel lot! Each cart that passed was pulled by a horse, and I really didn't know if it were provisions that they were loaded up with, but of course each one of them was also bearing four to five Ukrainians - which means, let's see: five hundred carts, with four to five Ukrainians each, sums up to two thousand five hundred men, right? This was at least the number. I had reported everything to my sister, as well as to the others: I had said, 'Look, I have seen five hundred carts passing by…' In fact five hundred cartloads of Ukrainians had passed in only three days, and one could have smelt the mopping-up operations in Grappa as they came. My sister - I will always remember that this was shortly before the mopping-up operations began - had returned home that evening… since she herself had taken to coming back home only occasionally… And when we were together she said: 'I have been to see the partisan commanders of the Grappa and the political commissaries… They have twenty-seven bullets each… and think that twenty-seven bullets per person are enough to keep a hold on… to remain in Grappa... Distributed among them, they had only twenty-seven or thirty bullets each... are we kidding? We simply have to beat it!' As a matter of fact… the commanders instead went ahead and took their decision, relying on the manuals that they had or whatever. Well, things then happened the way they did. They were actually convinced they could resist much longer, or that they could do much more: in brief, this was the kind of evaluation the commanders of the Grappa had done.

In the meantime, there also was an intensive dropping of supplies that took place before the mopping-up operations actually began… There we go, I had forgotten everything about the air drops with Pippo! Pippo was passing: this was a supply plane that was flying past, with Radio London providing… Well, just allow me to go back for a while… Radio London would provide the co-ordinates, such that one knew exactly what was meant when it said, "There will be snow falling on the highlands… Temperatures will be low on the Padana Plains… It will rain in the province of Vicenza…" The partisans… Well, these were actually co-ordinates… to which we therefore responded with our radio transmitters. And as soon as they understood our response the dropping of supplies - through the RASP - could proceed: up in the mountains, on the highlands, and, in short, almost practically anywhere…! This was something… The Americans… Well, they would drop supplies to the "White" partisan formations, and nothing at all to the "Red" ones. Now, this is really the situation which led to the "Red" partisan formations ending up with lesser arms than the "White" ones, and eventually to the development of sharp contrasts between the two groupings. But anyhow, one just had to cope with the hardship all the same!

Dropping of supplies and air cover were both requested for in the Grappa episode, and it was hoped that the fighter planes would be ready to strike when the mopping-up operations began… One always had his ears pricked to hear the English fighter planes that would come any time to gun down the formations… the German and Fascists troops. There were twelve thousand… twelve thousand… twelve thousand of them who took part in the mopping-up operations in Grappa - really nothing to joke about, right? Twelve thousand people on one side, against just one thousand five hundred men on the other side! Twelve thousand Germans or perhaps… ten thousand Germans… eight thousand Germans, plus four to five thousand men from the "Black Brigades", and amongst which there was even the "Black Brigade" of Marostica, is that right? It was… what was it? Asolo, Possagno… in that area there, right? The Fascists of Marostica themselves personally joined in to lend a helping hand. And, just as I was saying, before the mopping-up operations began, some English commanders had actually been parachuted along with supplies… Of course, what I am giving you now is only a summary, but if anyone wishes to obtain more information about this, he can read the texts for himself, and will be able to find all of these things in there; because I definitely cannot explain everything to you in a just few minutes!

When the mopping-up operations in Grappa began, we were … There was, a not really inconspicuous state of general confusion, for the partisan formation here had fully understood one particular thing: that it was only in the "Altopiani" (Highlands) that one would have been able to hide away, keep on the move, or even descend into the valleys below… Instead once Grappa itself were surrounded… the place is actually nothing more than a simple cone shaped mountain! Well, we all know how Grappa is: it isn't an advisable place in which to carry out guerrilla warfare! The Highlands are all right, but Grappa certainly isn't advisable. There is scarcity of water, scarcity of… Everything is scarce in Grappa!

But, all the same, the partisan formation had taken its decision; they were the commanders from the other side, whereas we, I mean my brother, my sisters and the local partisan commanders, were the people in charge here. As a matter of fact each side had its own tendency. After which; well, I will also tell you another thing: the saving of people's lives very much depended on the intelligence of the single partisan commander; according to how intelligent and how clever he actually was! Surely, the mopping-up operations of the Grappa dealt a great blow to what till then had been the Grappa partisan formation.

Nevertheless… there really was an evident state of general confusion… Now, I will narrate it to you in this way… When they hanged those people... We would do the registrations right here in Via Callesello; here at the gates of Bassano. And I remember that that morning I went searching for a piece of bread from one shop to another, just as I told you earlier on: first, this one; then, the next one; then, still another one! At one point a Fascist came into the shop in which I had stopped: in fact, they had a small tube of marmalade that was being carefully rationed out… just a few grams of marmalade per person. Well, a number of Fascists suddenly burst into the place. They took all the bread and the marmalade, and started eating everything up… Well you know, even small daily events such as this one can help give some sense to a testimonial, isn't that so…? They therefore started eating up everything, and so this unfortunate lady, the poor thing, said to them: ' What are you doing? Can't you see you are finishing all the bread ?' Well, they took this as an offence: they went onto the other side of the counter and said to her, 'We will hang you just as we did with the ones in Bassano!" Now, can you imagine that? How can a person dare telling you, "We will hang you…"? And I really will always remember this particular event because it took place just at the gates of Bassano. And so they were able to eat as much as they wanted; ate up… And those "poor devils" who went to the shop with their tickets that morning were probably forced to starve because these Fascists had eaten up everything!

Anyway, at our house, there was always a lot of agitation: there was such a tremendous ferment that it never came to an end… There were always people coming and people going away carrying things, and that is how it was. And eventually we ourselves started having problems too... Some partisans had in fact been picked up and were in the custody the "Black Brigade"… Let me just give you a summary of this episode: they were told… or rather, we ourselves told all partisans who were captured, or at least to those who we knew, and were under... under… the auspices of our formation here: "Please tell them that you are opting for joining the "Black Brigade." And this was because if they had been taken to a Concentration Camp, they probably would never come back; whereas joining the "Black Brigade" would have guaranteed that they stayed here. Well, wearing the uniform of the "Black Brigade" was something quite difficult, you know? I mean, at least for those who had been captured! Nevertheless, among those who eventually got picked up were Italo Maso, Cristiano da Valle, and a few others; and, of course, they all ended up in the "Black Brigade"! And sometimes news from them did manage get through to us - and perhaps even accompanied by a handful of ammunition!

So there was the "TOT", and to those who had something to eat at home, we therefore said, 'As for the food… you can have it for yourselves… you are peasants. Please eat what you have at home. Always carry your meal along with you, so that you can hand over the purchase vouchers to us." And so with these purchase vouchers… In Borgo Giara there was… there was a big factory at Costenaro’s that had been turned into a German food depot to cater for the feeding necessities of the entire lot of people who had been recruited under the "TOT".

And so, they cut down numberless trees and dug trenches everywhere here in the Pedemontana. The construction of tunnels proceeded… it was such an effort…! They went underground up to a depth of about seven or eight metres: they were drilling holes of seven, eight, ten metres deep; just enough to house a machine-gun or a canon above the tunnels. And for building the shallow trenches down here; well, they had cut down the stem of every the tree, and used the branches for constructing the trenches. All that one was able to see was a desolate landscape: there was only hunger and desolation! And yet the "TOT"… Well, frankly speaking, with the coupons I managed to get something each time they changed shift; when they changed… this is how it was… Whenever it was the German who distributed the food on Thursdays who was on duty, I would go in and hand him the coupon, and he would give me a share of dry ration which I then carried away. I will always remember this… There was also another childish game we then used to play. Well, we had these moments too: moments in which the "Black Brigades", including the one in Marostica, got involved in killings. In fact on one occasion they went up to San Luca, burnt down houses and murdered the Morello brothers, just to start with… The people of Marostica did not do anything… They killed the Morellos and killed people in Marsan… They killed whoever they had to kill in Marsan. The "Black Brigade" had actually swollen in number due to the arrival of people from Faenza… people coming from Faenza… from Faenza; along with others who… As a matter of fact, the war front was getting nearer, and this was owed to yet another fact, because when… when the Americans started advancing, the front line actually fell back to as close as, let's say, just a few kilometres away from the Pedemontana. It was now along the Po that the battle front was situated, right? The Fascists, including people coming from Tuscany and others, all found refuge here. Only the Fascists were arriving here, and they were more aggressive than ever! As I said, they did it every night… someone always got killed by the Fascists, because… at least someone was murdered by them! There were hordes of spies prowling all over the place… Then it at times happened that someone voluntarily or involuntarily reported the partisans, attracted by all those proclamations they had stuck around the place: five kilograms of salt, five hundred Lire, some bread, some wheat flour, and so on, to anyone who collaborated. You would really have had to read those proclamations in order to realise how much scum there was! Well, someone… To many the proclamation seemed to be something quite pleasant; and so they simply said to themselves, "It doesn't really matter if I denounce the partisans as long as this will allow me to receive this and to receive that." As a matter of fact, in times of war, people… Well, in those days the level of culture here was what it actually was; with all the ignorance and maliciousness that it harboured. And I really don't want to blame them for anything, apart from the fact that those were days in which we were going through a very tough period and, surprisingly enough, someone was nevertheless tempted to betray, and even did it! Such people in fact gave away vital information whose effects were felt in places like small hillside districts or elsewhere. This is what I can say in order to give you an idea of that period.