War, Prison, And Liberation

By Gervsio Massetti

During WWII, Gino was active with the Italian resistance movement, building radios for the partisans. He was arrested, imprisoned, and ended up in the concentration camp in Bolzano on his way to Dachau.

It is the story of how his technical knowledge avoided him the otherwise fatal leg of the trip, how the German commander of the camp wanted him to build a radio to illegally receive Radio London, and how he was finally liberated by the arrival of the American tanks in Bolzano.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Massetti Publishing
• Release date: Nov 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215598771

Gervsio Massetti

During WWII, Gino was active with the Italian resistance movement, building radios for the partisans. Unfortunately, he was arrested, imprisoned, and ended up in the concentration camp in Bolzano on his way to Dachau. The present is the story of how his technical knowledge avoided him, the otherwise fatal final leg of the trip. It happened because the German commander of the camp wanted him to build a radio to receive Radio London illegally. He was finally liberated by the arrival of the American tanks in Bolzano.

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Gervasio Massetti

War, Prison, And Liberation

Gervasio Massetti

Copyright Gervasio Massetti 1999

CC Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0

Published by Enrico Massetti

All Rights Reserved

1939 – Gino, my father, was doing his military service in Milan, and…

I have 10 days of leave and try to have fun. My friend Oreste lives with his mother and a younger brother on the same floor as ours. Sons of two different fathers without any marriage, they often quarrel. Oreste is called Giola, a derogatory name. He made himself a business card with the name Rag. Romeo Rovelli (CPA)to present at the first approach to one of the many girls who work in shops or offices around San Babila, in the center of Milan. In this group of girls, I noticed one, called Mariuccia, that works in Via Montenapoleone and lives in Porta Vittoria. Oreste has already been in the military service in Milan, horse artillery, hippo-driven cannons. My other friend Egidio instead was Alpine, mountain artillery, kicking mules.

…

During the illegal three-month license, I designed a radio transmitter and receiver for fishing vessels used for armed escort to light convoys. I also worked with in a sample of transmitting complex for the native troops in East Africa, powered by a pedal generator placed on a deck chair.

It is not possible for me to I follow the project from beginning to end. My military service prevents this from happening, and, I do not have the ability as a designer. I’m too young and I also have other needs. You do not live only to work. There are also the girls, and I am twenty years old. I go often to wait for Mariuccia when she leaves the shop in Montenapoleone to accompany her home in Viale Montenero. I asked her out to dance in a ballroom at Porta Vittoria, and we tried to dance, but that was: a disaster! We also went with Egidio and another girl to the Teatro Puccini to see the operetta The Land of Smiles in which the tenor sings the aria Tu che mi hai preso il cuor - You’ve taken my heart.

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Egidio, Oreste and Gino

…

Returning from a trip to Erba, near Lake Como, on a train of the Nord railways, I meet a girl who is with a group of friends. We exchange opinions and appointments. Starts an unconstrained affair. I’m 21 she 28. My friends call her your twenty-eight. Rina is scarce in the chest, but firm and well done in the back, and she boasts about it. She works in a peletería near the headquarters of