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Farm Kitchen:  The Wartime Kitchen and Garden  |
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 08 2015 : 10:31:01 AM
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I use Rosemary as my screen name, because somebody else already was using my real name years ago when I signed up. I live in Virginia. Everybody mixes that up, including MaryJane, so not to worry!
Funny you should mention Italy. I was just talking yesterday with a woman in her 70s who was a wee child in Naples during the war and remembers how her family had land that they rented to farmers in exchange for produce, which is how they all survived, but only just barely. My husband's Greek mother describes the Nazi occupation of her country. They had German officers quartered in their home, against their will. One of them was a young fellow that my MIL rather fancied. I think they might have had a little tryst. She was just 15, but I don't judge her, only the officer involved. Anyway, they were all very nice and cultured gentlemen for the most part. One day, this young fellow got very Nazi all of a sudden and confiscated the family bicycle so they couldn't ride into the town for whatever meager supplies they could barter for. Turns out that very day, a huge bomb went off in the marketplace. If they had gone there as usual, they probably would have been killed. Millions of stories. |
Edited by - Rosemary on Jun 08 2015 10:31:52 AM |
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Ninibini
True Blue Farmgirl
7577 Posts
Nini
Pennsylvania
USA
7577 Posts |
Posted - Jun 08 2015 : 5:01:54 PM
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Oh, Rosemary!!! Thank you for clearing that up! I am sorry - but so glad it's not just me! ;)
My neighbor is from Naples, too! Well, the way he describes it, Naples was or is more like a county, and they lived in a town there. His dad was the mayor of their town! He said that the air raids were constant, and the Germans were ruthless when they came through - they didn't even care about the fields or anything - so the people couldn't really plant anything in order to feed themselves! He described one air raid in particular: The day had been unusually quiet and although the people didn't know what to make of it, they were grateful to have peace for once. He said just as people were starting to relax, the ground suddenly started shaking - and he said he meant SHAKING. They had no idea what was happening. Then off in the horizon, it was as if there were these clouds rolling in, but they weren't clouds. At first people were so stunned, they didn't know what to think. Then suddenly the clouds took shape, and thousands - THOUSANDS, he said - of airplanes were overhead, dropping bombs. The terror was still in his eyes. There was no where for them to hide! He said it wasn't like today where people had root cellars or strong buildings or anything like that. They would just run for cover and pray. He thought he was going to die that time for sure. He told some horror stories, believe me. He always tells the story of when he was fifteen and his best girl, then thirteen, and her cousin, left his home one afternoon to get home before the air raids began. She hadn't gotten very far down the road when suddenly a bomb was dropped. He watched as she and her cousin were hit, and scrambled to help rescue them as they were burning in the flames. She survived several days. He said nobody should see a person when they are suffering like that. He said ninety percent of her body had been burned and melted. As young as he was, she was the love of his life, so he went to visit her every day until she finally passed. He said that you just never shake a vision like that; you never get over it. No one should ever go through it, and no one should ever see such things.
He also tells stories of the Germans "murdering" people in droves just for being suspected rebels. They were merciless. He said when allies with Germany, there were many rebels in town who were against Mussolini. They had had it with the Germans coming through, destroying their fields, occupying their homes, taking what little they had, among other things, so there were often skirmishes right in town (gorilla attacks). He did say, however, that not all Germans were bad; one German soldier saved his life. He had just walked out the back door of his home as the rebels started firing at the Germans. A German soldier spotted him, leaped across the grass to tackle him, then dragged him over to a place where he could keep him safe during the skirmish. He was very, very grateful, to be sure!
He lived in Naples when they were under Mussolini and allied with Germany, as well as after that time when they were allies with America and England. He said that the Germans wouldn't give them so much as a crumb, even though they were starving. They only took. He said his mother would cry in agony every night having to send her children to bed hungry, and there was nothing she could do - there was nothing to eat! He also said that after after Mussolini's arrest, when Italy turned their allegiance to the Allies, the English came and the people thought they would be their salvation, but that just wasn't so. They hired him and a couple of other local boys to help build bridges - it kept them busy, at least. He said although the English had plenty of food to eat, they wouldn't give the boys who worked for them so much as a slice of bread with a little jam (the again, he said, what employer feeds their employees?). They were grateful for the money, but there was really nothing to buy (except later, of course, when they would buy tickets to make the voyage to America!); there was no food, nothing. He told a story about one time where one of the English soldiers asked him to watch a truck for him that was full of bread for the troops. While the soldiers were gone, his buddies came over and pressed him to give them some bread. One of his friends was all bones, like you see in the pictures of the concentration camps, and he just didn't have the heart to say no. He reached in and grabbed a loaf of bread to give him. The smell of the bread was intoxicating, and he and the other friend figured two more loaves wouldn't hurt. By the time the soldier came back, they had eaten nearly the whole truckload of bread (and had become quite sick in the process!). They were terrified, because, he said, you could get shot for even stealing one loaf! But the soldier was a good man, and laughed so hard that the three boys had eaten so much bread by themselves, he fell to the ground rolling in laughter. He didn't do anything to them - he knew they were starving, and that it probably wasn't wise to ask starving people to watch bread. He just sent them on their way, and that was it. They were in absolute shock, and always wondered whether the soldier was punished himself for the incident. He laughs and says that they sure slept well that night, though! :)
He said the only ones who fed them were the Americans, some of them giving up their own food to help the pitiful residents. He said people complained though, because the Americans mostly gave them pea soup, which looked an awful lot like slop. His father got angry with some men who had been complaining about it one day, and asked them, "Why are you complaining? Aren't your bellies full? What did the Germans give you? What did the English give you? Nothing - they ate in front of you and your people died! But the Americans at least fill our bellies, and our children do not go to sleep hungry! Stop your whining and be grateful!"
The one thing he said that struck me the most was that he held/holds absolutely no ill will toward the Germans, the English, the Americans or anybody. He said when you got to know them, they were just people. They weren't evil, they weren't cruel on purpose or anything like that. Some didn't even want to be there, but it was their job and they had to do what was expected of them. He said, "What do you tell your government when they tell you you have to go to war? You don't tell them 'no!' You do what you are told!" Most of the Germans were boys themselves, and generally pleasant and kind, he said; but mostly ALL of the troops who came through their village were very afraid. He said that Italy was just not prepared to fight. He said he remembers how some of the Italian troops would run through the fields and scramble all around when there was an air raid. People were shocked and wondered how they were supposed to fight a war and win when they weren't well trained and didn't even know what they were doing. And he said the English couldn't be faulted for not sharing; they knew that the people back home were suffering without food so they could eat, and they didn't want to waste a thing. He always said - and still says - "Thank God for the Americans, though. Thank God for the Americans."
He has so many stories to tell. He said he could write a book, but he is too old. I told him I would write his book! He smiled and asked me when I want to get started. :) We're going to start walking together during the week to get some exercise. I think I'll start taking notes then. :)
Hugs -
Nini
Farmgirl Sister #1974
God gave us two hands... one to help ourselves, and one to help others!
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Jun 08 2015 : 5:16:25 PM
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Nini, what amazing stories. I will ask my friend (whose last name is de Lizza) if she knew the Mayor of Napoli during the war. Wouldn't it be an amazing coincidence if she did?
I encourage you to record your friend's stories and write them down, if not as a book at least as a blog or something. The last time I encouraged a friend to write something like this -- it happened to be a fleshed-out adaptation of his father's memoirs as a Jewish orchestral musician under the Third Reich -- it became a best-seller. So there. ;)
We Americans don't have much idea of what war is like. Well, I live in a part of Virginia that is steeped in Civil War history and Southerners will always look at you cockeyed if you say we don't know what it;s like to be invaded, but you know what I mean. As much as Americans suffered on the home front, and even during the preceding years of the Great Depression, it was nothing compared with how Europe suffered during and after the War. Don't even get me started on what's going on this very day in other parts of the world. |
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Ninibini
True Blue Farmgirl
7577 Posts
Nini
Pennsylvania
USA
7577 Posts |
Posted - Jun 08 2015 : 7:32:29 PM
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Amen, sister, AMEN!
Yes - His father was the Mayor of their town/village, not of all of Naples, if that helps. He said Naples - Napoli, like you say! - is/was? so big that it was more like a county, with many villages or towns inside as part of it. And yet they were all Naples. Does that make sense? He didn't specify a name of the village, but I will ask him. :) I will ask him if he knows the name de Lizza. I would rather not post his name here for privacy purposes, but if he gives me permission, I will email you, okay? That WOULD be amazing if they knew each other!!! I wonder if she has the same recollection about the pea soup???
Thank you for the encouragement - I'll do my best! I will just be happy, though, if it does my neighbor justice! :)
What the South endured during and after the war is unspeakable. I pray we never have war on American soil again, in any form. 911 was such a devastating wake up call for Americans, don't you think? I guess what it boils down to for me is this: In the Bible, in the book of Hosea, chapter 4, verse 6, God says, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." Perhaps that's why I love these series so much... I may not have learned everything from Grandma, but these programs truly help to fill in the gaps! As Grandma would say, every bit of knowledge is just another feather in your cap! :)
Hugs -
Nini
Farmgirl Sister #1974
God gave us two hands... one to help ourselves, and one to help others!
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notathreatinsight
True Blue Farmgirl
626 Posts
Erin
Monroeville
IN
USA
626 Posts |
Posted - Jun 09 2015 : 06:16:45 AM
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Rosemary and Nini, thank you for sharing your stories! Or rather the stories of those you know. I'm almost done with the Wartime Kitchen and Garden. I have half of episode 8 left. They're so short, that seems kind of funny to say, but I was watching it with my 3 year old, and she was turning into a pumpkin so I had to turn it off. I have been taking notes though. Nini, thank you also for sharing that bible verse. Knowledge is so important. We have been so lucky in our country. I hope and pray we never have to experience what so many others like your friends from Naples have. It's good to have some knowledge though, just the same.
Erin
Farmgirl #3762
"It is... through the world of the imagination which takes us beyond the restrictions of provable fact, that we touch the hem of truth." - Madeleine L'Engle
http://www.etsy.com/shop/femmepostale/
http://www.pinterest.com/femmepostale/ |
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Farm Kitchen: The Wartime Kitchen and Garden |
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The Wartime Kitchen and Garden
