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An Eyewitness Account

The Monte Sole area

The Story of Salvina Astrali

When we heard the cannon shots, we decided to leave Villa dIgnano

and to go to Caprara, since my mother thought we would be safe

there. We tied the cows at the cart and then left with four other

families. We arrived in Caprara the night before the mop-up

operation.

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I survived because I said to my mother that night: We left all the

cows back home. I am going to bring them here. So my friends and

went back home. Along the way we met my father, who said: Kids,

go back because they are mopping up Caprara as well. Your mum

told me to leave. She said that they leave women and children. They

take the men and send them to Germany.

We went back passing through Tura, where some partisans were

hiding, and Ettore (a partisan from the Stella Rossa brigade) asked

where we were going. We told him what was happening and he toldus to stay over. The next day my two sisters arrived and we couldnt

recognize them: they were flesh and blood. One had her eyes burnt

out and couldnt see anything, and the other had been hit by a

cannonball in her back, leaving a fist-sized hole. It was very difficult

for them to get to Tura: the one who could not see carried the onewho could not walk on her shoulders, and was guided by the sister

who could see. Many people gathered around my sisters, but when

they heard how nobody survived in Caprara everyone became scare

and fled, except for a doctor who gave my sister an injection.

My sisters said that they survived because a cupboard had fallen on

them, and they had hidden under it. They could hear everyone

screaming. There were many children present, which explains why

only so few survived. A machine-gun propped up on a windowsill sho

at them, and those who were still alive ran away. They overheard

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some people outside who spoke Italian. Those who fired were not all

Germans; there were Italians, too.

In Caprara I lost my mother, three sisters, seven brothers-in-law and

my mother-in-law, th eLubini family. My husband only survivedbecause he was in Germany. His father never agreed to be

interviewed, but contained all his grief. One of his eight children was

only 20 days old and all that was left behind were the feathers from

his pillow; another son was found straddled over a window ledge, as

a pig ate his head. I had to take care of my sisters and my father, whwere all wounded, so I didnt go back to Caprara. I was 14 years old,

and we knew that everyone was dead.

Source:

http://www.sitesofconscience.org/sites/monte-sole/how-is-it-remembered/salvina-astrali/en/

http://www.sitesofconscience.org/sites/monte-sole/how-is-it-remembered/salvina-astrali/en/http://www.sitesofconscience.org/sites/monte-sole/how-is-it-remembered/salvina-astrali/en/