I remember the morning of 12 August 1944, I was a 15-year-old girl, and like every morning, after taking the cows to pasture, I went to the 8.00 Mass. When I arrived at the church, the priest's father informed us that the Germans had arrived in the locality "Casa della Marianina".
The news terrified us, because "Al Cerro" where I lived and still live, the partisan formation of Tommaso Ferrari composed of about 30 partisans had been camped for a week, they slept in our "teggia" some were locals, others came "from away", from far away, even from Bologna; they had arrived from Montefiorino following the famous battle.
I, Laura Santelli and Gina Santelli ran, in a panic, home to warn. The partisans already knew the news, some ran away and others hid in the nearby bushes. I remember that 2 women followed the formation (killed a few days later, in the locality "Gallinaro"), and that weapons, an Italian flag and some clothes were thrown into the "Ghigliottina" (deep crevice in the rock) to erase the traces of their presence.
With wide and incredulous childish eyes I began to hear mortar shots and bullets falling next to me. They were also shooting from Gaiato. All the men of the families ran to hide in a shelter dug some time before underground in the "Campo delle mele" to avoid being arrested and deported, only women and children remained.
After the attack the German troops arrived, they ordered us to cook 15 chickens, otherwise they would have killed us all, I think our animals perceived the fear, because the chickens were all crouched down and let themselves be caught without any difficulty. On that tragic day Evaristo Passini was arrested and deported. The German formation camped at Il Cerro.
During the night, to feel safer, all the women and children slept together and we heard shots and screams, we were horrified. In the early morning the Germans took some of our haystacks and burned, in retaliation, some houses of Cerro. My mother, for fear of losing everything, threw what she could out of the window, I remember a bucket that rolled for a long time down the slope below. Everything burned, they also stole an ox and left.
The return of the Germans
The truce lasted little. Around 15 August they returned, it was a terrible day in the history of Rocchetta, so many houses were burned: Casa Battistella, Il Casino, Poggioluccio, Il Poggio, La Teggia, Il Corneto, Casa Ciocci was spared thanks to the intervention of the priest Don Boni, and others that I don't remember.
Other memories
At night we had to keep all the lights off because "Pippo" passed, with this funny name we referred to a reconnaissance plane (probably American) that signalled where to bomb, usually where there were lights. In the long nights of that winter of 1944/45 very often the Germans burst into our houses, all dressed in white to camouflage themselves in the snow.
In all this horror, I remember a gentle act of compassion, my father sick came down the stairs without knowing there were unexpected guests, he was not arrested, they instead took an interest in his health. During one of these nightly raids, Giuseppe Santelli jumped from a window over 5 metres high, he fell, got up and like a flash I saw him disappear into the snow.
In January 1945 we were warned that the front would pass from Cerro, the Germans had placed their artillery in the "Campo della Chiesa" a few metres from our house. We were forced to "evacuate", we had hidden in a "Fondo", then walled up the few things we had. Cerro was bombed, many houses destroyed, when we returned to our house the floors were missing, the wood had been used to build a shelter, I went to see it, it was beautiful, I remember it smelled good.
In this period even the wheat got sick, it got "morella", the ears turned black and could not be used. The little wheat that was not diseased did not grow enough and so did the grass... who knows...
Finally we heard the festive bells announcing the end of the war, it was 25 April 1945.
