I24 Carrying papers

Narrator: Rina Conte Reporter: Luca Martignago



My family was very poor and I, when I was 16 years old, to pay some debts, started to work in a spinning-factory for nine hours a day, earning only 3.25 lira a month.

On Saturday people did not work because it was the day of “Sabato fascista” (Fascist Saturday) but to help my family I used to carry some parish papers, printed by the nuns, from Vedelago to the bishop’s Court in Treviso (18 kms by bicycle) so as to get some flour in exchange.

It was the beginning of April 1940 and I was cycling to Treviso, with a small cart badly tied with an iron wire under the saddle of my bicycle. The wire broke in the town centre. All the papers fell on the road and in that moment the sirens started to ring: fighter-bombers were flying over Treviso, people were shouting and hurrying down into the shelters. I was scared. I did not know what to do. Luckily an old man helped me to hide apart under a plant.

Finally, after the alarm, I could take the papers to the Court. I ran a big risk: one week later Treviso was heavily bombed.