Today wasn’t like the other Saturdays. Since I’ve been in Germany, we’ve always had half of Saturday and all of Sunday off, but today they made us work the entire day and tomorrow on Sunday, New Year’s Eve, we have to work until noon. This is how our year will come to an end. After a dozen days of continuous good weather, which is unheard of, it snowed yesterday. The ground is covered in ice, it’s brutally cold out, this year’s winter is much harsher than last year’s.

As I said, we had to go to work this morning too. It’s snowing and freezing out. At noon we went home to eat. Today we had a special New Year’s Eve lunch: potatoes. And tonight we’ll have kartoffel, but let’s not forget the famous appetizer: warm-water soup! I recall the wonderful Saint Sylvester feast days spent with my darling Carmosina! I wonder if the good Lord will allow me to spend more of those days with my dear family!

Today is New Year’s
It’s the second New Year’s I’ve spent in Germany. I hope this new year will bring peace and I hope the good Lord will open the minds of those responsible for all this suffering and sadness, so that the long-awaited day of peace will arrive soon and all the survivors of this inhumane catastrophe will be able to return home, into the arms of their beloved families who are anxiously awaiting! Today we had potatoes and soup for lunch, and also for dinner.

We worked half a day like we do every Saturday. It’s unbearably cold out. Last year I was less equipped with clothing yet I wasn’t as cold as I am this year, even though I have better clothes and shoes now. Everyone says it’s extremely cold this year, it snowed for three days straight, it’s so dry it’s like sand and perfectly intact as if it had just fallen.

The siren has not gone off in Munich since January 1^st, except once last Tuesday. I don’t think they’ll attack Munich anymore, perhaps they’ve finished, they’ve completed their task.

About 80 percent of the city is destroyed, including the factories. Why would they bother attacking anymore? I hope the Lord keeps us safe from all danger and gives us strength, health, and patience so we can continue to endure this cold weather, work, and…!

This afternoon I went to see Mr. Schumann, he recently returned from Konstanz where he had spent Christmas with his wife. He was intent on setting up his room that had been damaged by the last attack on December 17^th. I don’t know what to do: staying inside all the time is boring but it’s very cold outside, going to work every day is even worse; what can I do?! Oh Germany!  Such human suffering. In the evening I went to see if I could find some fellow townsmen at the black market where all kinds of things are bought and sold for staggering prices. I only saw Ciccillo who was buying tobacco, there were no other men from Casale, and it was freezing cold so I left quickly. This market is composed of people of different nationalities, of all nationalities, of both genders, and of all ages. There are many unfortunate young ladies, especially Russians, who are alone without a father or mother, with no one, who were taken to Germany like me! I see these young women, even foreigners, with babies that have no fathers! Poor wretches, they are all alone, they’ve been away from home for years and I’m sure they are starving, and as the days, months, and years pass, they fall into dishonor!

It’s not their fault, these poor wretches, it’s the fault of those cowards who tore them from their families. At times, I grieve more for them and their condition than for my own. To think it’s been 15 and a half months since I was dragged to Germany and have not received news of my wife and kids, yet at times I pity these young foreign ladies more than myself; let’s hope this will end soon!

At 7:00 at night, Agostino, Ciccillo, and I went to an eatery in my neighborhood to have them cook up the veal liver and macaroni I purchased yesterday. After eating, we talked a bit about Casale and our ill-fated families, pleading for the end of this inexorable war which is destroying everything! 20 minutes after Agostino and Ciccillo left, I was still in the room where we ate with some other friends; we suddenly hear the siren go off. We decide to go to a nearby shelter. I’m with Vincenzo Liberti from Carinola, Andrea Castoldo from Afragola, and Vincenzo Camerota from Minturno. Out of the four of us, I’m the only one who brings a suitcase with some necessities, after all my belongings went up in flames on April 25th 1944, I try to be cautious when I can. We get to the shelter and 15 minutes later we hear shooting. The doors tremble, bombs must have fallen nearby. Suddenly, a loud explosion rattled us, some people scream out of fear, the shelter sways, we all fear a bomb has fallen on us, there’s a moment of communal terror, but then we realize we’re safe! Once the shooting stops, the warning siren goes off. Those who want to go outside, can. They’re given permission to leave but are told there’s danger of unexploded bombs which could explode at any moment. Some people start to leave but when they reach the last doorway, they turn around and come back in, while others leave and don’t return. The four of us don’t know what to do, the three of them want to leave immediately but I suggest we remain in the shelter since there are many other people still here. I can’t blame them because all of their belongings are at home and they risk losing everything like I did on April 25, 1944, but I tell them, and they agree, that their safety is more important… not for us as much as for our children who truly need their dear parents! Once everyone starts to leave, we do too. Once outside, we see enormous flames everywhere. The house above our shelter stands alone, luckily it was the only one that wasn’t hit. We’re start heading home and look in the direction of our house, we see no signs of fire and we say: We got lucky this time too.

We’re about 50 meters from our home when the siren goes off again. We turn around and race back to the shelter for the second time. After 10 minutes, all hell has broken loose! It’s raining bombs in our vicinity, or so it seems. There are constant blasts, one after another, continuously. We feel the ground rise beneath us then the bombs explode with such a painful noise that I have to plug my ears. This has never happened to me before in Germany, I’ve never heard such noise from bombs, there seems to be no end to it. We’re all squatting on the ground, we all fear our time is up and that our miserable existence is about to end, then finally, after 30 minutes of constant terror, it stops. It was a close call, but the good Lord saved us this time too. At around 11:00, we leave the shelter. Despite the fact that it’s the dead of night, it’s as bright outside as if it were noon. Once outside we notice the building above our shelter is in flames, which the firemen are trying to extinguish. We start heading home. The men from Carinola and Afragola, upon seeing flames everywhere, decide to race back to make sure their belongings aren’t in flames. The man from Minturno and I walk back calmly. The roads are littered with rubble, branches, and trees which were strewn everywhere. Before turning onto the street that leads to our home, Kirchenstrasse #6, I said to him: I have a feeling that bright light is our home in flames. As soon as we turned onto Kirchenstrasse, we see our home in flames. This man from Minturno didn’t bring anything with him so he races ahead to save his belongings. Once I arrive, I call out to them, they are all inside, the three of them live on the ground floor which hasn’t been touched by the flames so their belongings are safe, but everything is strewn on the floor, the wardrobes, the windows, everything shattered by the blasts. I live on the second floor which is already in flames by the time I arrive; I run up and manage to save a few things, but not everything. My room is in flames so I have no choice but to let the fire take its course. The nuns and all of us: Italians, Dutch, French, and men of other nationalities, race to transport mattresses and other items from the unscathed rooms which risk catching fire. Later, the firemen arrive and start extinguishing the flames. They spend most of the night dousing the place with water but they cannot put the fire out. At around 3:00 at night, with our help, the nuns set up a dormitory on the ground floor, which was barely damaged, we place the mattresses on the floor and we all rest there together.

We woke up at around 9:00, the nuns gave us some coffee and a slice of bread, then we began clearing the rubble. Since we did not show up at the factory for work, at 10:00 our boss came to see what was happening, when he saw us all busy working he understood our situation and left without saying a word. At around 1:30, the siren went off again. We all ran to the shelter. We stay there for about an hour, until the siren stops. As soon as we get home, the siren goes off again, we race to the shelter again, after 15 minutes it is over, they didn’t attack Munich, which is still burning like a crater. And so I am a disaster victim for a second time, but thank God I am fine, and I hope I’ll continue to be fine. I don’t care if things burn, so long as I can return home safe and sound!

We’re still all working together on our home. We somewhat fixed up the room where we eat, we’ve placed mattresses in there and that’s where we sleep. At noon, a worker from the factory came and forced us go back to work in the factory, but not all of us.

This morning we all went to work at the factory, the boss decided that one day the 6 Dutch men will stay home and deal with fixing up the dormitory, then on another day us four Italians plus two Frenchmen would stay home and work. We’re doing all we can to avoid going to the lagers because it’s worse there- in terms of sleeping arrangements and food.

Today we Italians and the two Frenchman stayed home. Three Italians stayed in and did repair work while I went out to get the disaster victim documents for all four of us. I went for the four of us since I’d already done it once on April 25th, so I was familiar with the procedure, in fact I was back home by midday with all their documents, my friends were very happy.