WWII early mornings

A story from the wartime.

During the war, German soldiers were taking the local men prisoners. Sadly, most were shot.

Often in the early mornings the German soldiers would be banging at the door. They would come in and search the house. When they found nonna’s grandfather in bed, they tried to take him but couldn’t lift him up from the bed as he was ill, so they left him. When they saw photos on a cabinet of Nonna’s father Ettore, they asked her mother where he was but she said he had died in the war. Little did they know, he was in hiding in the caves surrounding Taponecco, like many of the other men from the village. One word nonna specifically remembers the Nazi soldiers saying was “kaputt”, which literally means broken, has a connotation meaning “dead”.

This is just one of the many stories Nonna told me of her first fourteen years
in Italy.

Featured image: Path to Taponecco, 2007

Credit: Elisa Bastiani