National Content: Italy
Interview to Maria Giulia Montesperelli
| Source | Interview |
| Event referred to | September 1st, 1939: Wehrmacht invasion of Poland |
| Technological characteristics | Type of file: Video Extension of the file: avi Dimension of the file: 2,47 MB Availability proposed: Full availability |
| Description of the source | Type of the source: Interview Origin of the source: Interview made by a student Language: Italian Copyright issues: Full availability |
| Contextualisation of the source | The woman interviewed in 1939 was a student. She lived in La Spezia (Liguria) when the news of the invasion reached her. She remembers that she was not worried because thought that Italy would never enter war. |
| Interpretation of the source | The women interviewed tells the way as she has learned the news, his mind state and the mind state of the people which were with her. |
| Original Contents | Intervista ad una donna che, quando i nazisti invasero la Polonia, aveva 19 anni. Ricorda che era troppo giovane per comprendere veramente quello che stava accadendo. La prima impressione, comunque, non fu troppo negativa: la guerra poteva sembrare lontana, molto lontana. Ricorda poi le famose immagini, viste in un cinegiornale, dei soldati tedeschi che sollevano la sbarra che segna il confine con la Polonia, entrando nel Paese. Ricorda infine che un suo amico, compagno di Università, figlio di un generale dell’Esercito, le disse che, dopo la conquista della Polonia, anche l’Italia – nel giro di un anno – sarebbe entrata in guerra. Come poi accadde puntualmente il 10 giugno 1940. Anche lei ricorda che, fino al 1945-46, la popolazione non seppe nulla di quelli che furono i peggiori orrori di una guerra che costò decine di milioni di morti fra soldati e civili. |
| Original Contents (English Translation) | This is an interview to an Italian woman who, when the Nazis invaded Poland, was 19 years old. She remembers that was too young to understand what was really happening. However the first impression couldn’t be too negative, because the war seemed an event far, very far. She remembers the famous image of a German soldier, seen on a cine-newsreel, trespassing the frontier of Poland. A friend of her, the son of a general of the Italian Army, after the invasion said to her to be careful, because, after the conquest of Poland, also Italy would have gone to the war. And his prevision happened: in June 1940 Italy declared war on France and Great Britain. She also remember that, until 1945-46, people couldn’t know anything about the worst horrors of a war that cost millions of deaths, among soldiers and civilians |