For each of my classes we have had to write a research paper. I wrote about Pesach for my Jewish foods class, created my own Chianti and wrote about it for Wines, gave an oral presentation on my family for Italian, and wrote about Michelangelo’s Last Judgement for my Renaissance class.
When we were choosing topics in my World War II class, Amy and I choosing from a list of topics he gave us and were thinking of writing about the Holocaust in Italy, something we already knew a lot about but learning about the Italian side of it would add depth to what we already know. Our professor then asked if anyone had any family in Italy in WWII and when I said my Grandma was, he got VERY excited and told me that I could write about her for my research paper! And so, the greatest research paper to ever be written was born.
Here we are!
Backstory on Grandma: My Grandma Louie just turned 92 years old on Thursday, and is pretty much one of the greatest grandmas ever. I joke that she slightly condones mediocrity, for example when I was little she used to come to my dance recitals and say loudly to my dad “she’s really the best one on stage” and anyone who knows me, knows that that certainly was NOT true. She also bought my Uggs my senior year of high school as a present for being in the play. I had no lines. I think I get part of my inflated ego from her, but know that it’s not as much the mediocrity that she condones as it is her obsession with her grandchildren and family. She also has a better social life than I do and that’s not an exaggeration. I have to book her in advance.
When Louie isn’t busy looking fabulous, you can find her being a straight-up diva in Queens. She has 6 grandchildren and claims to not have a favorite although none of us believe her. It’s really an ongoing battle in our family because being the favorite grandchild of the greatest woman ever is a pretty big deal. And now on to her WWII story.
it was actually harder than you would think to find a picture of the three of us
Well, before I begin, I would like to thank a couple of people for making it all possible. First, thank you Aunt Carole, for facilitating and organizing my Grandma’s retelling of the story, providing me with the pictures I used for the presentation (and now for my blog), and serving as the liaison between me and Grandma. Next, I would like to thank my little cousin, Emma, for being Grandma’s scribe and writing her memory of her story, complete with the most adorable rainbow-colored cover page.
Grandma with her parents, Margherita (who I’m named after) and Andrea
So my Grandma, Luisa Ceci, was born in Vallecorsa in 1920. She moved to California when she was 7 years old, but returned to Rome in 1934 when she was 14. This was right as Hitler was starting to rise to power in Europe, and although the US Dept of State urged her and her mother- American citizens- to return to the US in 1939, her uncle in Italy thought that the war would be over soon, and so they stayed.
She received her high school diploma in 1941 (she had to repeat some grades because she lost her ability to speak Italian while in America and so she had to relearn the language) and began studying at the University of Rome. Fun fact: my Grandma was the first woman in her town to go to college and receive a diploma!!
Her ID for the University of Rome
In July 1943, Mussolini’s government was overthrown by the Fascist Grand Council and Badoglio took over as Prime Minister. On September 8, 1943, it was announced that Italy had signed an Armistice with America, and they would cease fighting. The Italian army was disbanded, and soliders fled the German army to their homes. Thousands were captured and deported and chaos ensued. My Grandma and her mother decided to return to Vallecorsa.
this is a postcard of Vallecorsa. I believe our property is the big yellow house in the center.
Her grandfather’s house was on this land, although it was destroyed and rebuilt. This land was where the Germans were headquartered.
Things weren’t much safer there. The Germans took over northern Germany after the Armistice was announced and created the Republic of Salo- a puppet state- with Mussolini as leader once again. Vallecorsa was in this Republic, so German officials were in charge of the town- actually top German officials were using my great-great Grandfather’s farmhouse as a headquarters.
The road in Vallecorsa was one of the only roads still leading to Rome (ironic, I know. We all thought all roads lead to Rome, but not at this point in time) so the Americans bombed the town every morning at 9am to destroy the road and cut off the Germans. On the first day of the bombing 95, civilians were killed. 94 of them were found, but my Grandma’s aunt, Laura Ceci Mauri was not. There’s now a plaque in Vallecorsa in her memory.
the plaque
It really is a miracle that my Grandma survived, because she had many close encounters and made a lot of risky decisions that could have gotten her in serious trouble, or worse, killed.
There’s Margherita on the farm!
At one point she and her mom, Margherita, were “selected” by the Germans to cook for them in their headquarters. They had them peel potatoes, but at that time women of a certain means did not do manual labor so my Grandma did not know how. The Germans did not believe her, but luckily my Grandma was friends with the mayor of Vallecorsa who relieved them of their duty.
My Grandma and Nonna also housed Italian soldiers who had fled the German army in their chicken coop, farmhouse, and barn. Food was very scarce, so many of the refuges were forced to eat the grass that grew on the farm. Every day the Germans- who lived only 500 meters away in Luisa’s grandfather’s house- would come to the farm looking for olive oil and salt. My grandma would have to run out and give it to them quickly, in order to avoid them coming into the house and discovering the refuges.
One day, my Grandma went outside a little bit before the scheduled bombings. An allied bomber saw her and, perhaps thinking she was a German soldier, came down from the sky and began to shoot at her with a machine gun. She threw herself on the ground and covered her head. There were holes in the ground from the shells all around her, but somehow she survived this attack.
As the food grew more scarce and the Germans demanded more, Luisa and her mother had to abandon the farmhouse and depart for higher mountains in Il ravo Cap D’asino.
Grandma, Carly, and Me in Monte Cassino Summer 2010
Here they were much closer to the Battle of Monte Cassino, and could hear the gunfire throughout the day. They also were able to watch the bombing of the town and would look for their big, white house every day to make sure that it was still standing. It stood until May 1944.
Eventually they had to leave the house they had been staying in, and sought refuge in a cave with two men. These men were Italian officers and were armed so they would leave everyday to find food, dodging the shells from Monte Cassino. Nearby there was a much larger cave, “Grotte del Calvo”, which accommodated 400 people, so they moved in there.
A Church in Vallecorsa. This is where the rape scene in the movie “Two Women” was filmed and took place
One day, someone approached Luisa and told her that the Americans had arrived. She ran out to greet the soldier in English, however they did not understand her. They instead pointed to her wristwatch and said “argento”, the French word for “silver.” These soldiers were not Americas after all, but instead the infamous Moroccans. They arrived to liberate the town before the Americans and in the time they were there raped thousands and looted the town. They chased my grandma back to her cave, but were thankfully scared off by the armed men in the cave with her. Their valuables were also saved thanks to the cleverness of Margherita, who hid all of her real valuables and cried and made a scene when they tried to take the fake gold she was wearing.
Eventually the Americans arrived and Luisa returned to her village. On the way down all they saw were the corpses of dead Germans and the abandoned valuable the Moroccans had stolen but not been able to carry on their donkeys. Since their farm had been destroyed, they ended up staying with friends in town until they followed the American forces to Rome where they stayed until they returned to America in the fall of 1945, after the war was over. She continued her studies at the University of Southern California, met Abe Jacobson and the rest is history.
And now a quote from Grandma on war: “The atrocities committed in concentration camps throughout Europe overshadowed my sufferings and travails in the battlefield of Monte Cassino. I had hoped war would end forever but mankind has not learned its lesson and hostilities still continue…My prayer is that my grandchildrens’ generation will witness the end of all wars”
This story isn’t in its complete form, but I thought that it needed to be shared on my blog because my experience in Florence really gave me a deeper connection to my Grandma and my Italian roots. My other three grandparents are Jewish, so I feel like I’m carrying on their legacy and honoring their culture and history with every holiday I celebrate and Jewish milestone I reach. But Grandma is Italian, so I really have to work harder in order to celebrate her history, and I’m so thankful that I was able to be in Italy for a semester to do that.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY GRANDMA!
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