On the memorable date of 8 September 1943 Italy signed the Armistice and the government headed by Badoglio surrendered to the Allies. In retaliation the German army occupied the entire Nation to stop Anglo-American troops climbing from the south. The German military strategy marked the Gustav Line which split Italy into two parts from Abruzzo to Campania. Torricella was the theatre of war, the Germans occupied the town, with their raids, oppression, deportations, violence and massacres, until they bombed the town.
Nevertheless, in spite of the sufferings, the grief, the sorrow, the casualties, the men at war and the joungest fighting with Brigata Maiella, the population of Torricella Peligna united in a noble Humanitarian Resistance. Not few fugitives, partisans and patriots rejected the fascist regime and tried to cross the Gustav Line finding freedom, were welcomed and protected by the generous citizens of Torricella, despite the risk of ferocious retaliations should the German enemy find them.
The most emotional proof of such Humanitarian Resistance has been given by the Italian-Cuban writer Alba De Céspedes, an intellectual and a partisan who described the generosity of the people of Torricella Peligna in her diary, published on December 1944 on the magazine “Mercurio”. For 50 days, from 8 October to 20 November 1943, she was sheltered “in a remote stable at 1000 metres” by the farmer Trecolori in the wood of “Difesa” near “Tre Confini”:
“We shyly entered your houses - De Céspedes writes – a fugitive, a partisan, is a burden, loaded of risks and jeopardy. But you didn’t even show signs of fear or caution: soon your women dried our clothes, warmed us in their covers, sewed our worn-out socks, added more polenta in the pot. There were already many people around the chimney, some since many days. They were mainly Italians: no need for passports, though, to come in your house, no law on nationality and race was in force. There were English, Romanian, Slovenian, Polish people, you didn’t understand their language, but that was not necessary; you understood they needed help anyway. What don’t we owe you, dearest people of Abruzzo? You let us your beds, clothes, for free, if we didn’t have money”.
Alba De Céspedes left Torricella Peligna on 20 November 1943, she passed the Gustav Line harmless, reached Bari and there she continued her partisan mission becoming one of the honourable women who made history.
[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]
