by J. R. Sharp
Catherina had heard the vehicles approach and quickly went to the kitchen to prepare the now customary snack for the German officer. Just as the major was stepping out of his car, Pietro heard the familiar sound of his daughter coming out of the main house. She was ready with wine and hazelnuts. Pietro looked behind his daughter to see that all the children—they all looked they just got out of bed—were sitting on their assigned steps. He could hear Anna in the kitchen, which put a slight smile on his face as he returned his attention to their unscheduled guests. As Major Klein approached the main house, Pietro noticed that this wasn’t the same man that he usually interacted with in the past. For the first time, Pietro noticed that he looked shaken, almost in fear.
“We are going to harvest your fields for you today and tomorrow, you will be expected to help. The food is needed very quickly in our mother land,” the major said. Pietro didn’t say a word and just nodded.
The major ordered the men to work. The German soldiers guarded the Italians, who were escaped soldiers and now German prisoners as Pietro had suspected. Pietro told Catherina to go back inside the house and lock all the doors. These soldiers looked like they haven’t had a good meal in sometime, or a woman. Pietro wasn’t taking any chances with his family. As they walked towards the barn, Pietro was wondering how they would be able to get all this work done in such a short time.
Major Klein drove off but left Francisco to ensure that the Italian soldiers performed their duties or be shot by the Germans guarding them. Every one of the soldiers knows what they were doing, thought Pietro. They grabbed the horse, cow, spade, and all the other equipment needed to start taking down the crops. Francisco walked over to Pietro and said, “They were all farmers at one time or another.”
“Then why are they here and not fighting against the Allies?” asked Pietro.
“These soldiers have decided that they are on the wrong side and don’t want to fight for the Axis Powers anymore, so instead of killing them we are using them to gather up the crops for you and the other farmers in this region. Why don’t you go back to the house and spend some time with your family,” replied Francisco. “We don’t need you.”
Pietro looked at Francisco angrily. Adding insult to injury, he thought. Getting into a confrontation with him probably wasn’t going to be a good idea, so Pietro decided to walk to the main house to talk with his wife.
Anna had opened up the window in the kitchen and was listening to what was going on.
“So what are you going to do?” asked Anna. Pietro took the cup of coffee and sipped it.
“Well I am going to watch these fine young men work my fields and then we are going to feed them when they get done,” answered Pietro.
“Pietro, we don’t have the food to feed all of those boys, and they are not our responsibility,” responded Anna.
“If my Italian son was working the fields somewhere and he looked like one of those boys we would want him to have a good meal. That is the least we can do for these Italian boys. The Germans will probably work them to death, so let’s give them a decent meal on this farm,” Pietro said.
Anna called Catherina from the other side of the house to help get the food ready so their guests would have a hot meal before they left that afternoon.
Pietro spent the day watching the soldiers harvesting his crops. He decided to see if they had any new technics for harvesting, but at the end of the day he saw nothing but a bunch of tired soldiers plowing his fields. It was getting dark when Francisco ordered the men to stop working. The two German soldiers walked over to the main road to look for the transport truck while Francisco stayed with the soldiers and Pietro. Much of the field was done but they would have to come back tomorrow and finish. Pietro usually took a week or more to finish harvesting the fields with Bruno, so watching these soldiers almost finish in a day was impressive. As the soldiers gathered around the barn to wait for their transport to arrive, Pietro made his way towards Francisco.
“Francisco, your prisoner soldiers almost finished in one day. I have never seen that happen.”
“Well, we wanted to finish today but we will have to come back tomorrow,” replied Francisco.
“Can I show you something over here in the fields which could help you the next time you come here, or if you do another field?” asked Pietro.
Anna was watching from the kitchen window and knew what to do when she saw the two walk towards the fields, she walked out of the side door with rations of polenta and sausage, wrapped in a kitchen towel, to feed the Italian soldiers. The soldiers saw Anna coming out the side of the main house but made no attempt to go towards her for fear of being shot. As Anna made her way towards the barn, Catherina walked out the front of the house and started to sweep the front porch. As Anna approached the barn, she looked behind her to ensure Catherina was blocking the guard’s view of the barn and soldiers. Anna quickly distributed the food to the Italian soldiers so as not to be noticed by the guards and Francisco. The soldiers took all the food and quickly hid them within their ragged soldier’s uniforms and thanked Anna for her hospitality. She continued her travels towards the other side of the barn to inspect the chicken, goose, and duck coops to ensure none of their animals were missing. Just as she was finishing she could see Pietro walking Francisco back towards the barn area.
“So, like I was saying earlier, you need to plow in the direction of how the crop was planted and not in the direction you did today,” Pietro told Francisco.
“Yes, I heard you for the third time, Mr. Zucchet. Is there anything else you would like to advise me on before we get out of here?” responded Francisco as he made a pointing gesture towards his driveway.
“What time are you coming back tomorrow?” asked Pietro.
“Same time as this morning but we should be finished before noon,” replied Francisco.
***
The next morning they arrived at the same time as the previous morning. But this morning, however, there was an additional truck with the troop transport. Pietro figured that they were going to load the entire harvested crop onto the other truck and be done with his farm.
Pietro was already outside sitting in his normal spot having his morning coffee. As the soldiers were being unloaded, each one of them walked by Pietro and said, “Good morning, Mr. Zucchet, and thank you for your hospitality.” Francisco heard all of them greet Pietro but couldn’t figure out why they were so nice to him. Francisco dismissed the event and quickly put the soldiers back to work plowing the fields. This time the transport truck wasn’t going anywhere and there was an additional German soldier watching. Pietro had already told Anna to have lunch ready for the soldiers, but now he was rethinking his generosity.
“Why do you have such a worried look on your face, Mr. Zucchet?” asked Francisco as he lit his cigarette.
“I just don’t want my horse and cow to get over worked. This is a lot of work for them in a short period of time,” answered Pietro. Just as he was finishing talking with Francisco, Pietro could hear the horse making noise from the barn. The soldiers were trying to get the horse to come out of the barn and he wasn’t having anything to do with going out into the fields today. Pietro and Francisco walked over to the barn and sure enough the horse was kicking and pulling back on the reins. Pietro walked over to the soldiers.
“Please, give me the reins of my horse before he hurts you.” Pietro grabbed the reins of the horse and proceeded to bring the horse out of the barn. “Francisco, I will have to help you today or the horse will not cooperate with the soldiers. He is not familiar with what is going on and will be very difficult all day.” The soldiers turned their attention to the cow with no problem. Francisco had no choice but to do as Pietro requested; he had to get the crops into the truck today or face Major Klein.
Anna looked out the window and could see what was happening. She was smiling because she knew the horse wasn’t going to be very cooperative today. Then her attention shifted on how she was going to feed all those boys to
day with all of the guards looking at what was going on in the farm today.
It was about eleven o’clock when Pietro and the soldiers finished up with the crops. Pietro completely forgot about the other area that needed to be harvested, and he wasn’t sure if Francisco knew about that area or not, but he wasn’t going to say anything. As Pietro made his way back to the barn where Francisco was standing, Anna came out to him with some water and something to eat.
“How are you doing?” asked Anna to her husband.
“I am fine, but the horse is done for the day,” replied Pietro. Anna was breaking up the food and giving it to her husband when Francisco moved towards the Italian soldiers sitting down taking a break by the front of the house. They were using the water pump to cool off and drink before heading back into the fields and load the crops up.
“Tell one of the Italian soldiers that there is a sack in the troop carrier with some polenta and sausage that has found its way under the back bench on the right-hand side,” Anna said to her husband as she finished giving him the last of his lunch.
“You always find a way, my dear,” remarked Pietro as he kissed his wife.
It was getting late in the evening when all of the crops were finally loaded on the truck. Pietro had given his wife’s message to the oldest soldier he could find and the one he had spoken to the most. They were all stripped of their ranks so it was hard to see who was the leader of the Italian soldiers. As the soldiers were loaded on the truck, they all waved goodbye to the Zucchet family and Francisco took his usual place in the passenger seat.
“They are so worried about being punished and losing this war that they aren’t paying attention,” Pietro said of the Germans. “We will wait a couple of days for the animals to recover and then we will go harvest the other land and hide that crop for our own use.”
Chapter 16
NAZIS TAKEOVER
IT WAS THE WINTER of 1944, and the Allies were trying to push their way through Italy. Northern Italy was still in control of Germany and Fascist supporters of Mussolini, who was put back into power by the Germans after he was arrested. The rest of Italy was now under control of the royal family and a new prime minister. The Axis Powers were slowly losing their control of Europe with every passing day. In addition, they were losing thousands of men to the new Italian freedom fighters out of Yugoslavia and the Alpine Mountain regions.
***
Catherina was outside playing with her two daughters to see if she could get them to expel some of their energy. Having two small children in an already small farmhouse was enough to make the most patient person lose their temper. There hadn’t been a lot of activity on the farm since her father harvested the crop from their hidden area back in the fall timeframe. Catherina helped her father during that week, which wasn’t all that bad. They did all the work at night so they were not discovered. They finished in four days and had enough to fill all of their pots with extra to sell in town.
As she played with Maria and Loretta, her thoughts drifted back and forth between her brothers and husband as she stared at the enormous Alpine Mountains in the background of the farm. She knew that Chester was in Germany somewhere being used as a force laborer since he had refused to fight for the Germans and Fascist puppets. Bruno was working for the Germans as a railroad laborer, but with the constant bombings from the Allies on their railroad system and him being constantly sick, she wondered if he would last until the summer. The reports on the conditions that they endured usually ended with them dying from sickness or being shot for not doing what they were told. But her greatest fear was for her husband, Gino. He had disappeared from Rome before the fighting between the Germans and Italians erupted after the armistice with the Allies was signed. The Germans had already come to the farm looking for him because he was suspected of other activities in Rome before he left. Her father had told her about seeing Gino in town, against Gino’s advice, and his plans to escape to Yugoslavia. She hoped he made it and was safely milling among shipyard workers as planned.
She had visited Cimpello many times this winter looking for news about her husband and work. Each time she went to town she noticed that the conditions were getting worse, so work was impossible to find and there wasn’t any news about her husband or any other deserter that she could find. The only news that was posted in the center of Cimpello was the same, which was that the Great Mussolini was back in power. The list of deserters that were captured and imprisoned was getting larger by each visit, but she did not see Gino’s name.
As Catherina headed back to the main house from chasing her two daughters, she could see Pietro moving around in the barn. Anna was at the entrance of the house to greet her two granddaughters and warm them up with extra blankets.
“What is father doing?” asked Catherina to Anna.
“He needs some alone time and is going to town to read the latest news and see if there are any goods for sale,” answered Anna. Before Anna could finish talking, Catherina was already heading towards the barn to talk with her father.
Pietro was getting his bike ready for the trip into town. He needed to get going before the weather and darkness got worse. Just as he stepped out of the barn, there was his oldest daughter staring at him.
“So what are you going to go do in town?” asked Catherina to her father.
“Well I am going to see if there are any supplies that we need and probably go to the café for a coffee or some wine,” replied Pietro.
“What else are you going to do?” asked Catherina.
Pietro started to laugh and replied, “I am going to go around and ask to see if there is any news about Gino and the freedom fighters from up north. If I get any information I will be sure to come share it with you, my dear,” replied Pietro to his daughter as he kissed her goodbye.
Pietro was just about to be in town when he noticed German cars and trucks. They were everywhere and it seemed that they were looking for someone or something. He thought that he should turn around and go back home, but the Germans already saw him. If he had turned around then they would have suspected him of being guilty of something, so he decided to continue his trip into the middle of town for the latest news. He could see the German soldiers yelling at people in stores, on the street, and in their homes while they held some type of lists in their hands. It was very chaotic and dangerous, so he made his way as quickly as possible. After Pietro dropped his bike in front of the steps that he had climbed countless times in the past, he could already tell that there wasn’t any new news posted at the top. He almost turned around and got on his bike but he decided to make the long hike up the stairs to read the latest old news. Just as he got closer, there was something new posted on the board which caught his eye. Pietro got to the top of the stairs so he could view the notice which read: Any person or family knowingly hiding or not telling authorities the whereabouts of known deserters will be subject to harsh punishments which includes imprisonment, loss of property, or even death.
Pietro got on his bike and decided that today wasn’t a good day to be in town. As he made his way through town, he could still see that the soldiers were still harassing everyone. Pietro wanted to check on his apartment, go to the market, and maybe go see about a coffee but none of that was going to happen. Just as Pietro was about to make his last turn out of town, he could see a checkpoint that had been set up since he entered the town. The soldiers asked the couple in front of him what their names were and if they knew of any deserters in the area. They were checking the couple’s names from a list. After a short period the couple was granted permission to continue their travels. It was Pietro’s turn so he approached the soldiers.
“What is your name, and where do you live?” asked the soldier who didn’t want to be there but spoke perfect Italian.
“My name is Pietro Zucchet, and I live on my farm just outside the town.”
The soldier who didn’t even look in Pietro’s direction went immediately to his list to see if he could find Pietro’s name.
After a short time, the soldier ordered, “Stay here, and I will be right back.” The soldier walked towards the same Gestapo Captain who came to his house with Bruno not too long ago. After a brief conversation, the soldier returned to Pietro.
“Where are your son’s Bruno and Chester, and have you seen them?”
Pietro was wondering why they didn’t ask about Gino.
“Both of my sons are working for Germany right now. Do you have any information about their whereabouts?” asked Pietro.
“What do they do for Germany?” asked the soldier who ignored Pietro’s request.
“My son Bruno is working on rebuilding the railroads, and Chester is in Germany working for your government, but I’m not too sure what he is doing exactly,” replied Pietro.
“Are these people still living on the farm?” asked the soldier as he handed Pietro the list. Pietro looked at the list and everyone on the farm was listed with the exception of Bruno.
“Everyone is still on the farm and Bruno lives there as well when he comes back in the spring to help me with the crops.” The soldier made a notation on the paper and then looked at his superior who waved in their direction.
“You can go, Mr. Zucchet.”
Pietro didn’t even hesitate and started to pedal his bike as quickly as his tired old legs would allow him before they decided to ask questions about Gino. Pietro was about to reach his final destination of the day and could see the farm ahead of him. He finally slowed his pedaling down after pushing his bike down the dirt road as quickly as he could move it when he heard some commotion from where the checkpoint was set up. He stopped pedaling and looked behind him to just hear a woman screaming, and then he heard a gun fire. Then there was silence where screaming was heard just a second earlier. Pietro lowered his head to pray for the unfortunate ones that just lost their lives.
