The war prisoner of the British.
Here
there are some pictures of Turin during the first winter of war
1940-1941 explained by the notes of Piero
Sartorio [notes from the mid 1970s].
Corso Massimo D'Azeglio.
Turin, winter 1940-1941.
Pictures: Piero Sartorio.
Snow on the
trees of Valentino park.
Turin, winter
1940-1941.
Pictures: Piero
Sartorio.
Siberia-like river Po.
Turin, winter 1940-1941.
Pictures: Piero
Sartorio.
Snow being removed in front of Valentino Castle.
Turin, winter 1940-1941.
Pictures: Piero
Sartorio.
When
writing about my, or our feelings during the war, I take the risk to
make big mistakes. I should need at least to refer to news papers of
those years. I believe that the main concern was not the Reich invasion
of France or Norway, nor the German successes on the Atlantic, nor the
loss of Oriental Africa, nor our back and forth in Libya. The point was
finding the food. Everybody was speaking of black market, white bread,
surrogates or silly ways to find things otherwise missing.
And from
this standpoint the inhabitants of the cities were in far worst
conditions than us as, leaving in a small town, we could easily access
to the resources of the countryside.
I don't remember precisely if
it was in this period of time that my friend Beppo, who went to Africa
with the first troops, was made prisoner by the British.
His parents
got crazy and even looked ridiculous especially because, being a
doctor, Beppo was living reasonably well, even as a prisoner.
Not only...
Some months later, after an exchange of prisoners, he came back home,
fatty and happy talking very well about the British.
The
political secretary learned about this, called him, and intimated him
not to continue in this way too different form the official propaganda.
So, form that day, Beppo began to talk about his horrendous suffering
in the prisoner camp.
Notes and pictures: Piero Sartorio.
