As I continuously watch
movies with my Prime account, I stumbled today into the movie entitled “swimming
in Auschwitz” and while I’m watching it a very big flow of memories started to
form in my mind. These memories are so important and personal (closely related to the
Lingiardi family) that pressed me to make this post dedicated
primarily to my 2 treasures.
In fact my 2 grandfathers both in my father’s and mother’s
side had interesting stories about their lives during WWII .
-
Vittorio
My grandfather on my father’s side was a civil engineer
and when he joined the army during the war, he was officer already, was
sent to Greece with the purpose of building bridges and protective
walls, I remember that my father (Vittorio’s
son)
told me that Vittorio was captured by the German army when the Germans invaded Greece, Vittorio ended up on one
train travelling to Auschwitz (or
Dachau?), but before the train’s arrival, he was able to escape and
pretty much walked for 2.000 miles - in the middle of WWII - back home (Brescia
IT, where I was born).
What my dad and I could never wrap our heads around is the
fact that, aside from the fact he walked that long – during the war –
never stopping, when he arrived at the front door of his home, his
wife (Carolina, or “nonna
di Brescia”, we used to call her) opened the door to see her
husband as a man who had lost more than half of his body weight (from about 220 pounds down to
90 pounds) she couldn't recognize him and he died less than one week later due to heart
attack (= stroke) leaving
his wife Carolina, with the 3
children they had generated; my dad’s brother Alfredo (zio - uncle Dino – C.E.O of
Alfa Romeo for 25+ years) and sister – Giulia (zia - aunt Giulia, married to
Dante whose children are my cousin Paolo – accomplished orthopedist and
Antonella, married with another Paolo, the funniest Ph.D. in mechanical engineering I’ve ever met).
- Renato
My grandfather on my mother’s side was the train-station chief
in a small town not too far from Venice – where my mother was born and lived the
first 25 years of her life.
This is the grandpa I can remember well, we used to visit him
at least twice each month where nonno Renato and
nonna Pupi (his
wife)
lived, in downtown Venice.
Renato used to practice boxing in his youth, therefore he
still had in the bedroom the weights to lift for exercise.
“Nonno Renato” used to tell me about his research in the
origins of his family (Righetti) and he had
found that one of his great-great-great was a “Doge” of Venice, which means
king (Doge = king) of Venice and my
mother still tells me today – when asked - about her experiences during WWII i.e.
Her dad Renato being the chief of a train station was often going in
the fields where the trains filled with Jewish people were transiting toward
concentration camps and - using a hammer-like tool he was able to unlock the doors
of the train-wagons so that every Jewish individual imprisoned in it was let
free to run away.
Nobody can tell how many hundreds of lives he was able to save
from certain violent death, but I can say is that he died while sleeping, one
afternoon, with a smile on the face……
My mother always tells me of the terror she had when the US
bombers were flying over railroads to destroy them with bombs.
She was less than 10 y/o, so every time air bombings were
taking place she and her parents with the 2 brothers (Mario and Gino) and 1
sister (Francesca) would
run in the middle of the nearby fields, since my mother was very young,
she used to look at the flying bombers that would start to release bombs well
before being over their targets – to account for speed and gravity, resulting
in my mother being terrified to scream at the top of her lungs because she imagined the
bombs falling over her head. Given that the holocaust bestiality took place more than 70 years ago, less and less people remain alive as days go by, I strongly believe that we, the people who still remember those days - maybe from their parents like me - must keep the knowledge of what we people can do, that no other animal on earth does, and this is the very reasons why this post is dedicated to my two treasures who are the very reason for my living is just like I'm in Auschwitz.... The internet is packed full of videos, pictures and written reports, mainly I believe to keep the memories of those times and of the people.
I.e. when I was working at W,L.Gore & Assoc. since the European headquarters are in Munich, and I was working at Gore Italy, I was based in Verona, so from there to Munich it was a simple drive of 2 hours (at 200 mph normal in IT but slow in Germany - DE ) to be at the EU headquarters where more than 50% of the employees there (my colleagues) were either the children or the nephews of Nazi's, including Thorger.....the EU business leader....I could easily say that he's the descendant of some high ranking SS .....but I never asked 😉
I.e. when I was working at W,L.Gore & Assoc. since the European headquarters are in Munich, and I was working at Gore Italy, I was based in Verona, so from there to Munich it was a simple drive of 2 hours (at 200 mph normal in IT but slow in Germany - DE ) to be at the EU headquarters where more than 50% of the employees there (my colleagues) were either the children or the nephews of Nazi's, including Thorger.....the EU business leader....I could easily say that he's the descendant of some high ranking SS .....but I never asked 😉
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