Our roots for survival run deep through layers of genetics-driven ambition; what a thrill to peek backstage and discover who pulls the strings behind headlining events connecting generational handovers.
Leading up to WWII, which Italia joins to fulfil the misguided ambitions of the fledgling nation, Simonetti and Attisani families live through the abysmal functions of Bolshevism, Zionism, Fascism and Communism overseen by influencer Winston Churchill. Post-war immigration entangles Giuseppe in his father’s POW stories. To ward off complaints about the cold in the shacks they live in at Cobram, his father infuses conversations with quando io ero prigioniero di Guerra…. Anecdotes morph into a compendium of memories, later niggling with arousal, as he seeks closure over his father becoming one of the thousands of Internati Militari Italiani (IMIs) in Germany. Disastrous events ensue for Italians who willingly embraced the Fascist promise of glory. The North Africa and Greek campaigns bring the Simonetti brothers and Aussie Charlie Gilbert into the same theatre of war. Austro-German Vogels in Yugoslavia are part of Greater Europe’s troubled past, wherein ethnicity, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam bring out the worst of human behaviour. Diaries written by fellow travellers provide lucid accounts of the horrid fate of Italian soldiers post-Armistice. A massacre of Italians occurs at Cephalonia due to Divisione Acqui resisting German demands. Montgomery’s forces land near Pizzo and camp briefly near the Attisani Pontana farm.
