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

Sunday February 4, 1945

The 5 of us robbery victims agreed to go to the police tomorrow and report these criminals, these swindlers who live with us, but I honestly think it’s a waste of time. This isn’t the first robbery in this shelter, within the course of a year there have been four thefts which were even reported to the police but to no avail. Here the only thing the police do is arrest and lock up foreigners who are absent from work for two/three days, work which for us has no yield, it merely covers expenses… some expenses, we live like pigs. What profit have I made in 16 months of forced labor in this damned Germany? Let’s hope it’ll be over in a few days, rumor has it that Berlin has also been occupied, so this shouldn’t go on too much longer. What have I earned up till now? How much money did I send to my wife and children? None! And there are hundreds of thousands of millions of men in the same situation as me! What will our children live off of? Who will work for their wellbeing? These are the fruits of this damn war!
Tonight, Agostino and I went to another lager where Goffredo Maina, Pasquale Marrese, and Giovanni Augone live. Last Saturday I found out that Giovanni Augone is being repatriated because he was declared ill, so we immediately went to say goodbye to him, hoping that he will soon reach home through the Red Cross. We begged him to send our love to our families and tell them we are well. I gave him a note, asking him to hide it since he’s not allowed to take anything with him. I asked him to keep it safe and give it to my wife upon his arrival, thanking him profusely. If all goes well, he will leave for Italy in about ten days, and I hope that he will be home in about a month. That way my darling wife, even if she will not have the pleasure of seeing me return, will at least have the pleasure of reading a note written by me recently and will be assured that I’m in good health so she can pray to God for my imminent return!

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

This work is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND