A blog from World War 2 | Un Blog dalla Seconda Guerra Mondiale

April 9, 1944

Easter! Christmas passed and Easter has arrived, and I am still far from my dear family without news of them! When will it end?? This morning we went to Mass and at midday we all ate together at a hotel in Baierbrunn. It was a special lunch: two/three potatoes wedges and a soup that should’ve been used for a foot bath. This is what our daily lunch is like in Germany. In the afternoon there is a bit of sun so Antonio Aurilio, Pasquale Migliozzi, and I take a walk to a nearby town called Grünwald, where other men from Casale and San Donato live. We find Achille Verrengia and Domenico Minchella, we say hello and then we go to the station to catch the train. We have a roundtrip ticket we got in Munich yesterday. We are about to board the train at the station when the police stop us, take our tickets, and tell us we cannot get on the train… “Today foreigners are not allowed aboard trains” they tell us. Antonio and Pasquale Migliozzi are still with us, they direct us to a place one kilometer from the station where there is a tram for Munich. So with saint-like patience, since today is Easter, we head back to Munich. On Monday we go to the same place of work, Ciccillo and I work at the same machine, Agostino is in another sector.
I’m always with Mattiussi at night, we eat at the same place, we’ve become good friends. We eat potatoes for lunch and kartoffel at night, they are not even peeled well, and there’s always that lovely soup, our pigs wouldn’t even drink it!

2 Comments

  1. Olg:

    Mi pare di vivere io stessa queste esperienze che avevo un po’ dimenticato, o neppure sentito raccontare… E immaginare visivamente le sue parole raccolte giorno dopo giorno, mi emoziona davvero. Mi sembra di seguire nonno per le strade di Monaco, di parlare con i suoi amici. Prendo il tram con loro…mangio le patate…sento una sensazione di speranza e paura insieme per il futuro. Grazie al suo diario posso piangere, ridere e “campare” con lui…

  2. Linda Andolfi:

    Thank-you for sharing your grandfather’s diary with us. I look forward to reading all the pages. My parents are from Casale di Carinola and I have visited several times and my father was forced to work for the Germans while he was in Sicily.

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