History (25 page)

JANUARY-FEBRUAR

In Russia the collapse of the Don front marks the ruinous end of the Italian expeditionary corps, ovenv by Soviet troops. Forced by the Nazi-Fascist leaders to an impossible stand, and then abandoned in con fusion, without orders, equipment, or leadership, the soldiers of the CSIR and the ARMIR are dispersed and die, unburied, on the frozen steppe.

On the Baltic, after seventeen months of siege, the Red Army liberates Leningrad. The number of civilians who die during the siege is
630,000.

At Stalingrad, defi surrender of the Germans remaining in the city, surrounded by the Russian forces and reduced to a depository of corpses.
(
1446 hours, 2 February In Stalingrad no further sign of fi .) In North Africa, the Italian colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, abandoned by the Halo-Germans, are placed under Allied military adminis

tration.

The Yugoslav resistance against the Axis occupying forces spreads to Greece and Albania.

From the United States, a news bulletin declares that, among the workers in the war industries, there are more than four million women.

In Germany, a decree is issued, drafting all male Germans between 16 and 65 years of age and all females between 17 and 45, for labor in defense of the country.

MARCH-JUNE

In Italy, for the fi time during the Fascist period, there is a workers' strike. The strike, called by the workers at the Fiat plant in Turin, spreads to other industries in the North. The organization of clandestine parties, opposed to the regime, is intensifi with the Communist Party partic ularly active.

In Warsaw, at the end of a despera te revolt by the surviving prisoners of the ghetto, the Nazi occupiers set fi to the quarter and raze it to the ground.

Conclusion of the war in Africa, with the fi surrender of the Axis to the Allies, opening the way to Italy.

American naval strategy prevails in the Pacific, and the Japanese suff a series of defeats.

To show that the USSR is renouncing plans for world revolution, and

to favor the coalition with the \Vestern Powers, Stalin dissolves the Comintern.

JULY-AUGUST

New defeats of the Panzerdivisionen on the Soviet front, and landing of Allied forces in Sicily, which is rapidly occupied. In Rome, the Fascist

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chiefs plot to dismiss the Duce, with the idea of dealing with the Allies and saving their own interests. A similar plan on the part of the King, to save his crown. Meeting of the Fascist Grand Council, where, for the fi time in the history of this institution, there is a majority vote against the Duce. Re ceiving him at Villa Savoia, the King informs the Duce of his dismissal and has the Carabinieri arrest l1im as he leaves. After various moves, the prisoner is taken, under heavy escort, to an isolated locality of the Gran Sasso moun tain in the Abruzzi.

To replace the deposed Duce, the King appoints Badoglio, a monarchist general of the Regime and the conqueror of Addis Ababa. Badoglio simul taneously proclaims the end of Fascism and the continuation of the war at the side of the Nazis, ordering the Italian army and the police to repress fi any attempt at popular uprising. Meanwhile, the general and the King engage in secret negotiations with the Allies on one hand and with the Germans on the other.

Rejoicing throughout Italy at the end of the dictatorsl1ip, while large Nazi contingents gather at the border, ready to intervene in the peninsula.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER

Signing of the armistice with Italy, announced by the Allied radio. The King of Italy, the Government, and the High Command flee towards the South, already occupied by the Allies, abandoning the army, Rome, and the rest of Italy to their fate. By order of the Fuhrer, the prisoner Mussolini is freed by a unit of Hitler's paratroops, who land on the Gran Sasso in heli

copters. Headed by Mussolini, under Hitler's control, the Nazi-Fascist Re public of Sal
a
is founded in the North of Italy.

The Italian army collapses, both in the peninsula and in the Axis occupied territories, where Italian units are massacred by the Germans or else deported to Germany for forced labor in the war industry. Those who manage to escape seek refuge in the South of Italy, or join local partisan bands.

The Allies, after landing at Salerno, arrest their advance north of Naples. Above this line, all Italy is under German military occupation. Groups of armed resistance against the occupying forces begin to be formed, especially in the North.

Through the Spanish Embassy, the monarchist Badoglio government in the South communicates Italy's declaration of war against Germany, while the Salo republic publishes decrees caiiing up young men for the formation of a Nazi-Fascist army.

More workers' strikes in the industries in the North.

As in other occupied territories, also in Italy the Nazis proceed to the "fi solution of the Jewish problem."

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In Moscow, the "International," offi anthem of the USSR, is re placed with a new anthem in praise of "Great Russia."

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

In Italy, bloody reprisals by the Nazis, assisted by Fascist squads, which have returned to action, in the service of the occupiers.

In the cities and countryside of central and northern Italy, the partisans' armed resistance is becoming organized, coordinated by the clandestine political parties, and especia1Jy by the Communist Party.

The German counteroff in Russia breaks down. Violent air raids on Berlin. The Big Three ( Churchi11, Stalin, Roosevelt) meet in Teheran . . .

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Where are we going ? Where are they taking us ? To the land of Pitchipoi.

You leave when it's still dark, and you arrive in the dark

It is the land of smoke and screams

But why have our mothers left us ? Who will give us the water for death ?

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Nino, in that year, had grown much taller. And his physique adapted itself to this growth in an unruly way, changing without order or measure, creating a disproportion and an awkwardness, which, still, in their fl duration, gave him a diff grace. As if the shape

of his childhood were rebelling, in a dramatic struggle, before surrendering to his impatience to grow.

When he looked at himself in the mirror, he made furious grimaces, observ by his brother Useppe (who followed him always ) with profound interest, as if at the circus. The chief cause of his fury was his wardrobe, all makeshift and ill-matched in the impossible race against his growth. And on some days, spitefully, he would go out in a bizarr camoufl ge: for example, with a dirty towel as a scarf, an old woolen blanket around his shoulders, and a half-crushed hat of his father's on his head making him resemble a goatherd or a bandit. And he was capable of turning up at school in this costume.

Always hungry, he would rummage in the kitchen cabinet and scour the pots, even eating dishes before they were cooked, he was so rabid. One evening he arrived, waving an enormous piece of dri cod like a banner, not even bothering to hide it. He had stolen it at Piazza Vittorio, he said, because he felt like eating steamed cod with potatoes. Ida, fri

cowed by her respect for the law, refused to cook it, telling him to take it back; but he declared that, if she wouldn't cook it for him, he would eat the whole thing raw, there on the spot. Then, martyrlike, Ida did cook it; but she wouldn't eat a morsel. So he feasted blissfully with Useppe and Blitz.

This skillful theft marked, for him, the discovery of a new entertain ment. Another evening he arrived with a string of sausages around his neck, and yet another evening with a live pullet on his shoulder, saying he would take care of killing it and plucking it, and then Ida would cook it. But since the chicken promptly revealed itself to be a comical, bold animal (instead of running off it crowed and pecked at Nino's locks as if they were grass, and played tag with Useppe and Blitz), Nino became fond of him and didn't want to kill him then . So in the days that followed, the chicken lived in the house like a boarder, threatening the cockroaches with spread wings, jumping on the beds, and soiling every Until fi

Ida made up her mind and traded it for some cans of sardines.

Now (along with the shame of being-she, a schoolteacher-practi cally an involuntary accomplice in these thefts ), Ida turn pale every time Ninnuzzu was late, thinking they had ca him red-handed. But he said, with self-assurance, that if such a thing happened, he would display the black scarf with a skull pri ed on it, which he wore around his neck,

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declaring himself a musketeer of the Duce, authorized to requisition supplies.

For Nino, this was a season of frenzy. The lousy winter hindered his daily and nightly roving through the streets; and on some evenings, when he also lacked the money for the movies, the boy was forced to stay home and go to bed early. But since his little brother and his dog fell asleep before he did, he was left alone, deprived even of his faithful gnomes, and he didn't know where to fl himself until it was time to sleep, or how to release his energy. So he was even reduced to talking with his mother, loquaciously exalting the plots of the latest fi or the future era of the great Reich, or the secret weapon; while she, seated at the kitchen table, already under the influence of her sleeping pills, lowered her heavy eyelids and let her head slump until it banged against the marble tabletop. In his boyish oratory, meanwhile, he was never still a moment; an irresistible urgency seemed eager to express itself through every muscle of his body. He would kick a rag that had happened to be in his path, and slam it vehemently all around the kitchen, as if it were a football fi or he would strike a blow in the air with one fi then with the other, as if in the ring . . . Until, when a futile whistle addressed to his mother proved she was asleep, he would give up talking by himself and sullenly go off to his room.

Not even reading his sports magazines, his cheap novels of adventure or scandal, could amuse him any more; instead, they increased his restless ness, stirring up his desire for action, or for making love. At this point, on some evenings, he would go out into the street, even in the rain, hoping for some chance encounter, maybe even with a cheap, lost little whore who, for the charm of his curls, would receive him free of charge in her cot, or
(
if she was without fi address ) would follow him silently up the stairs to the seventh fl to his daybed. There, Blitz, already ca trained for these eventualities, would welcome them soundlessly, barely greeting them with his tail.

But he rarely had such strokes of luck, which had actually befallen him during the fi season, and even a couple of times towards Christmas. As a rule, Ninnarieddu encountered only the freezing desert of rain and darkness. And he came home alone, all soaked, to go to bed, head down against the pillow, infuriated at having to sleep so early!, while life, with its cots of love, its bombs, its engines, its massacres, was still raging every where, merr and bloodthirsty(