(ANSA) – STAZZEMA (LUCCA), SEPTEMBER 29 – At the age of 83, due to an illness, Miria Pellegrini died this morning, one of the few children who survived the massacre of Sant’Anna di Stazzema (Lucca) of 80 years ago. She was just under three years old when, at the hands of her mother Rita Bertelli, hidden in the fields, she escaped the Nazi-fascist fury which in the meantime had laid waste to fire and fire on the morning of 12 August 1944, the villages of Sant’Anna, killing hundreds of women, elderly and children. “My mother, that morning, was hiding with my grandmother Rita Bertelli in the fields – says her daughter Paola Capovani as reported in a note from the Museum of Sant’Anna di Stazzema giving news of the disappearance of Mirta Pellegrini -. She was holding hands on my side mother Miria and on the other brother Angelo, from what she always told me, she was discovered by a German soldier and said to him: if you have to kill, kill me and not my children.” But this soldier pardoned all three.” They were saved, but the torments of the trauma never left them. The event in fact had repercussions on Miria’s family, despite the fact that she had always been a strong and simple woman. “My mother went through a life of hardship – continues Paola – because my grandmother Rita had been so affected by the massacre of Sant’Anna, losing her aunts and sisters, that she was left mentally devastated by it. So throughout her life Miria assisted her mother in her many hospital stays, and also looked after her brothers since Rita had not been able to do so. However, she has always been an active and happy woman, who was satisfied with little, a woman of substance and a fantastic mother.” (ANSA).
2024-09-30 16:43:00