Adelina Perotto

At the end of September 1943, Adelina discovered that some English escaped PoWs were hiding in the woods around Rivalba, in the San Raffaele area:

I felt sorry for those poor men […]. I decided to go look for them despite the risk. They were my brothers and the Divine Providence would guard over me. However, I knew I could do very little for them on my own, as I was in a dire financial situation.

Adelina reached the place she was told, bringing bread and some food. She encountered the six men who were hiding in a cave. The meeting was cordial, despite the fact that they do not speak each other’s languages.

I immediately had the impression of being in front of kind people, good soldiers and men. I felt really sorry seeing the desperate conditions they were in. Thus, I decided I had to help no matter the cost.

Adelina continued his helping mission until 15 October when, upon arriving at the hideout, she discovered that the escapees had left. She later discovered they had moved to a safer area, aided by another local helper. By the end of the month, however, they contact her again, looking for help. This time, she sent them to Mrs Mazzocco.

On 5 January 1944, she ran into two of the escapees she had assisted previously. They were wounded during a battle near Cuneo. She brought them to her home and managed to contact, through Ferruccio Borio, Doctor Palmieri, the leader of a partisan band operating near Foglizzo (Turin). At the end of the month, Adelina discovered that two English former PoWs are living in the cave again (it is unclear whether they were part of the original six she had encountered in September or a new group). When she paid them a visit, she discovered that one of them had fallen ill and arranged for his treatment.

Meanwhile, the weather worsened, and the escapees could not leave the cave. At the same time, food started to run out, and the Fascists and the Germans combed the area hunting for former PoWs.

 At the beginning of March, as the weather finally improved, one of Adelina’s sons, Giovanni, brought one of the escapees to the nearby town of Fogliazzo by bike, as they considered it a safer hiding place. Fifteen days later, her daughter brought the other one as well, walking for almost fourteen kilometres. Every week, moreover, the two youngsters visited the new hideout to check on the escapees and bring them food.

In May 1944, two of the escapees returned to Adelina’s home:

They were in a pitiful state, poor boys. I sent them to two nearby farms where, working as labourers, they spent eleven months with my help.

At the end of the war, three of the six men assisted by Adelina were finally rescued. Two were sent to Naples waiting for repatriation (Horace Martin and Jack Richardson), while one of them, John Arnold, decided to remain in the area for a while: «you can see how he feels at home with us now, and he discovered that not all Italians are bad after all».

Another two escapees aided by Adelina, George Hooker and William Hill, were instead killed while fighting with the partisans on 3 January 1944, during the Boves Massacre. The last one we know of, William Anderson, died on the Galisia pass in November 1944, buried by an avalanche together with forty other escapees and partisans.

I emptied my wardrobe and gave my children’s clothes to them, and I am happy and proud to have done so. I helped six poor souls who, without our help, would not have returned home to their families. In this way, I tried to remedy the dishonour of those Italian women who, aligning with Fascism, had no scruples and sold the prisoners for 1.800 Lire.