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My article is an example of creative oral history. Amati and Salia were two Italian officers in Slovenia, Salia was also in Russia, in the Second World War. In Slovenia, Amati and Salia rescued a band of local musicians from a severe beating by a large number of Italian soldiers because the musicians refused to play the Fascist song "Giovinezza". Later on those same musicians, who had joined Tito's partisans, spared their life. In spite of the ferocity of war some people never loose their humanity. Salia went to Russia. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he retreated with three Italian Divisions, marching all the way back to Italy in the middle of winter. La Julia, la Tridentina and la Vittorio Veneto were the only invading troops who came out of Russia undefeated. Stalin himself paid tribute to their epic retreat on Radio Moscow. This war episode is little known, outside Italy and Germany, because the enemy is never a hero. Half the soldiers died in the long march. |
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