TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1021151
February 16 th , 1944 Two other prisoners who have escaped from the bombed train at Alerona were waiting for me in the wood this morning. They are two Americans , who have been living for three days in one of our farms where their uniforms are being dyed : and now they are planning to go to the coast and `somehow' get a boat to Corsica , or else to walk up to Piemonte and get into France through the Alps . I point out the difficulty of both courses , and they decide to go south instead . They are from the Eighth Army, and were captured at Venafro. She told them that walking north was sure to invite recapture, and that a German intelligence officer had told her that when Rome fell, the German Army would not defend it, but would retreat to their new defense line in the north, between Florence and Bologna. She gave them each 100 lira, and advised them to turn back south, and find shelter with a family, which they did. Having been in prison camp for months before his escape, my fa- ther had had no news of the war since the prior year, and certainly none in English. For as long as he lived, he credited her with saving his life. As children, my sisters and brother and I grew up hearing stories of the `Marchesa Origo', who became something close to a mythical, revered figure for us. The diary was published in 1947 in Great Britain in English, Origo's native language. The book is one of several she wrote during her lifetime, and what she originally called `my little diary' is far and away her most celebrated work, referred to as `a classic of the Second World War.'