I29 Adalgisa

Reporter: Davide Bragagnolo

My great-grandfather Guglielmo Martini had been enrolled during the World War II. On September 8th 1943 he was captured by the Germans. He was sent to a work camp in Germany. There he managed to survive suffering from hunger and difficulties, living like a slave and exposed to the acts of cruelty of the German soldiers. At the end of the war, freed by the Americans in 1945, he came back to his house. He could not believe it, when he was in Germany, but he still had hoped that nightmare would end.

When he was at home he could work, get married and have children. He called his first daughter Adalgisa to keep a promise he did in the work camp in Germany, because a woman had helped him.

In fact when he was imprisoned he used to look for leftovers from food on the ground and in the corners of the camp. Nearby there was the house of German farmer who was a widow. He managed to get in touch with her and, using gestures and facial expressions, several times he asked her for something to eat, even kitchen leftovers. They became friends and she decided to help him, so she threw pieces and peelings of potatoes in the waste of her sink, they ran through the drain outside, along the fence of the camp, and great-grandfather picked up the leftovers secretly. He ate happily and was grateful to that farmer for the help she had offered spontaneously and without getting herself noticed. He swore that he would call his first child with her name and he kept his promise.

His first daughter Adalgisa is still alive and she told me the details of this story, which is connected to my personal and familiar background.