I was in Milan...
There I picked up a machine gun in parts
and put everything into a suitcase, a suitcase from my father.
And then I arrived here in Laveno.
Here I had to take the boat to bring the gun to the mountains.
When I arrived...
I got scared and thought, now it's over.
They will see me and kill me.
Come on, put it inside, put it inside.
SEVENTEEN
You don’t know what happened in times of war.
When you ask young people today, if they know what the partisans did...
“Oh, they just created problems.”
I had an older brother who was also a partisan.
But in our family everyone else was a fascist.
We had Mussolini, the leader of fascism
All of Italy was at his feet.
So... I was a fascist too.
I was on fascist manifestations because I was a child.
On Saturdays, we always went to the manifestations.
Then I met a priest in Cuggiono close to Milan.
He explained to us what fascism really is.
So then we were a whole group who became anti-fascists.
We started working, painted slogans on the walls.
Until we started doing bigger things.
In Milan they told me to pick a number.
I said "seventeen".
Because I was seventeen years old.
So we started to transport weapons.
Because the guys in the mountains they couldn’t move.
If they got down, they would have been caught.
So it was us women who did this work.
There was always a danger that we would get caught.
They would at least rape you, if not worse.
There was this Osteria where we would all meet.
There I met people who wanted to join the partisans.
So I took them to the mountains.
We, the runner girls, we gave it our all.
These were amazing girls.
And so many of us died.
I was in Scareno and I monitored the infirmary there.
The people from the village helped us tremendously.
All the villagers.
Because their children had all been sent to the war.
And everyone was asking: Where are our children?
That’s why they were on our side.
Sometimes I had to get medicine from the hospital.
I would go from Scareno at night...
I crossed the river and walked to Esio.
The hospital was where it is still today.
So the nurse came out at night...
She gave me the medicine that I needed.
When it was cold there was snow, and sometimes a lot of snow.
We adapted.
We tried to keep as warm as possible.
We didn’t even have wood, sometimes the farmers gave us some.
Or when we were very cold, they let us warm up in their houses.
Oh how hungry I was... There was not much to eat.
If there was something, we always gave it to the sick and wounded.
I was as thin as a woodpecker, after the war.
And then I helped a lot of Jews.
I only spoke to one of them and told him:
Tell them to follow me but never to speak to me.
They mustn’t speak to me because that was dangerous.
If they would catch a Jew they would let them betray
and talk... okay.
I brought them to Intragna.
And in Intragna there were smugglers who brought them to Switzerland.
I took Jews, I brought weapons,
food, all that...
But then it got very dangerous.
I had moments when I just wanted to cry.
When I got to Pizzo Marona and saw all those dead bodies...
I said: This is impossible.
Ah, Madonna... I have never been back to Marona.
They killed so many there.
They threw them into the valley, naked.
Is it worth it?
To get to be 20 years old and then get killed?
I see them again and again, I see their faces.
I see my friends in front of me.
And now? They are all dead.
We have won the war, but what does it even mean.
We didn’t even know, what it was that we had won.
We haven’t noticed anything.
I had hoped that things would change.
Even after the war I went to manifestations.
We were fighting for a just government.
No, please. That such a thing never happens again.
There are no more living partisans here anymore.
I don’t know a single one.
I am the last one, old and senil... No, senil I am not.
Blessed are those peoples who have no need of heroes