I26 Advice from the enemy

Narrator: Maria Teresa Piva Reporter: Giorgia Rastrella

Maria Teresa Piva is 91 years old and during World War II she was about forty.

One day, while she was at home with her little children, some German soldiers entered and asked for something to eat. She offered them some bread and lard and they gave her some advice that could help her in difficult war situations. First of all they told her not to keep any red clothes at home because it was a colour against the regime and she would have been arrested if they had found them. Moreover they recommended looking for shelter whenever she heard the bombardment alarm and not to turn on any light during the night otherwise their house could be hit by a bomb, as had happened to their neighbours’ one night.

Then they asked her where her husband was, for enrolling him in the army. Maria Teresa answered that he had already left. They kept telling her that he would be back in a short time.

Actually Adelmo Camillo, her husband, was hidden in the fields in order not to be found and not to leave his wife and his children alone, even knowing that he would have been killed if he had been found.