history and memory
Pompeo with the uniform of the Italian aviation.
To not all the people who lost their lives in Borgo San Giovanni, i 3e boys at the time, they managed to give back the voice with a poem, some, like the sons of Giuseppe Selleri in the above poem, are quoted internally to that of the father. He was saved therefore only the little Pompey who went to live with his aunt Linda and the daughter who was also fatherless. The difficulties of poverty after the war they led Linda to entrust her daughter to a college in Assisi and Pompeo to one in Collestrada ... so she could study and then become non-commissioned officer of the Italian aviation ... "Peace planes" and a large family arrived for him. He lived in Perugia and Rome but was returning for every 25 April, ours, that of '44, and it almost always told of what had happened that day. About ten years ago, suddenly, he received the news, later revealed to be incorrect, of the discovery of the tomb of one of his brothers, whose body had never been found in the rubble of San Giovanni, in the cemetery of Preggio. Pompeo wept for a long time for the emotion of the news showing that pain that had never left him.
At the beginning of this year Pompeo died, but he did not really leave his Umbertide because it is here that he wanted to go back to rest, close to Giuseppe ad Assunta and his brothers.
Below the memory of the other victims: by clicking on the names below you can access the direct page of the existing "items":
Neodemia jars
and finally the animals of the village ...
Images comparing the current Piazza 25 aprile with the side buildings of Borgo San Giovanni. after the bomardamento The square is now used as a parking area for cars in the cobblestones it is reconstructed of the position of the inhabited areas. A panel with the reconstruction of the old Umbertide before the bombing was installed at the entrance to the square.
Source:
- AAVV (Mavarelli-Pascoli state middle school): "Voices of Memory", Municipality of Umbertide and S. Francesco Cultural Center, Umbertide 2002.
-Mario Tosti: " Beautiful works. Information, documents, testimonies and images on life and death events that occurred in the Municipality of Umbertide during the Second World War . Edited by Mario Tosti. Municipality of Umbertide, 25 April 1995.
- Photo: Francesco Deplanu
- Photo: historical photos of Umbertide from the web and from various private archives to which we applied the " umbertidestoria " watermark in this way we try to avoid that further disclosure on our part favors purposes that are not consonant with our intentions exclusively social and cultural.
- Photo: http://www.umbertideturismo.it/content/download/292776/3109285/file/Relazione%20comune%201952.pdf http://www.umbertideturismo.it/content/download/292776/3109285/file/Relazione%20comune % 201952.pdf
Voices of Memory
The bombing of Umbertide took place on 25 April 1944; 12 Kittyhawk of the SAAF allied aviation did not hit the bridge over the Tiber which was their goal to cut the retreat to the German troops and instead hit the town, the "Borgo San Giovanni". 70 died, people "evacuated" from the city also because there were two more bombings in the following period.
In 2002 due to the sensitivity of Professor Mariella Migliorati, of other teachers, together with Eng. Mario Tosti, the pupils of the 3e of the middle school of Umbertide told in poetry the lives of the 70 broken lives, first counted in 74, in a small book published by the Municipality of Umbertide: "Voices of Memory". A kind of little "Spoon River" ... only with real pain.
For some time now, however, it was a William Thayer, interpreter, history enthusiast and webmaster who gave it digital life who from 1997 to 2004 visited Italy and stopped several times in Umbertide (recounting it in his diary ), being struck by the bombing. Having come into possession of the book, he published everything online with the permission of the Municipality of Umbertide:
Building above the current Via Mancini hit by the bombs on 25 April 1944
This is the list of the people who died there:
Pupils Pierucci Antonio aged 45, Arrunategni Rivas Mario aged 37, Baiocco Giulia 17 years old, Anna Banelli years old 3, Banelli Hamlet of years 36, Barattini Neodemia of the 60s, Barn owl Antonio of years 82, Bartoccioli Giulia aged 38, Bebi Elda aged 45, Bebi Luciano 16 years old, Bebi Mari Domenica aged 33, Bebi Tecla 32 years old, Bendini Annunziata aged 17, Bernacchi Anna Maria aged 2, Bernacchi Benedetto of years 84, Bernacchi Raffaele aged 5, Bernacchi Valentino aged 4, Boldrini Cecilia of years 24, Boldrini Elisabetta aged 52, Boncristiani Rosa 88 years old, Borgarelli Armede Gina 25 years old, Borgarelli Ester 75 years old, Cambiotti Amalia 6 years old, Goats Assunta 43 years old, Ceccarelli Marianella 14 years old, Ceccarelli Rosanna 20 years old, Ciocchetti Fausto 22 years old, Ciocchetti Giuseppe 15 years old, Cozzari Veronica 45 years old, Cozzari Virginia 21 years old, Domenico Donnini 1 year old, Donnini Gianfranco 3 years old, Fagioli Franca 10 years old, Ferrari Alfonso aged 74, Galmacci Realino aged 54, Gambucci Ubaldo 49 years old, Grandi Giuseppina 14 years old, Leonessa Licinio 20's, Marianna Manuals from the 80s, Massetti Anna Paola 3 years old, Mastriforti Marianna 67 years old, Mazzanti Graziella 3 years old, Merli Argentina aged 24, Mischianti Angelo 84 years old, Mischianti Ida 18 years old, Monfeli Galeno 35 years old, Montanucci Felicia 37 years old, Mortini Elvira 18 years old, Orlandi Augusta 57 years old, Palazzetti Angela of years 31, Palazzetti Assunta aged 11, Panbuffetti Giovanna 13 years old, Pierini Giuseppe 12 years old, Pierotti Giulia 49 years old, Porrini Assunta 62 years old, Renato Bengasina 32 years old, Renga Rosalinda 36 years old, Renzini Maria 31 years old, Romitelli Rina 18 years old, Luisa Rondini age 79, Sabbiniani Leopolda 46 years old, Santini Letizia 64 years old, Mario Scartocci 22 years old, Selleri Angelo 2 years old, Selleri Giuseppe 41 years old, Selleri Pasquale 4 years old, Tognaccini Delma 36 years old, Tognaccini Zarelia from the 80s, Violins Lina 22 years old, Villarini Bruno 25 years old.
Of this attempt to bring back the "voice", that's life, of our Umbertidesi who died in the bombing we invite you to read the verses dedicated to Giuseppe Selleri who died together with his wife, Assunta Caprini, and his two sons, Pasquale aged 4 and Angelo aged 2 leaving the only surviving son Pompeo why the bombs fell on his way to elementary school:
GIUSEPPE SELLERI
We had recently moved to Umbertide from Preggio:
we had three young children
one close to other . . . And my wife could
so rely on help of the sisters.
TO Preggio I was postman,
here I found work at Miccioni, better known as Paris,
And I was a shoemaker in the shop
near the "Fornaci".
Ours was an unfortunate choice:
we went to meet a destiny
which could not be more tragic.
that morning, my wife Assunta,
back from school
where he had accompanied his eldest son,
she stopped at the "Pompone"
to fill the jugs. . .
THE small were still a read . . .
I was at work.
Although we were in different places
L' death scream of the bombers reached us all. . .
L' black shadow has enveloped i our children
saving only one. . .
May other planes come for him;
may airplanes of peace fly for him!