Domenico Collot

Domenico, a farmer, father of three young children and with a fourth on the way, began taking care of Allied prisoners shortly after the armistice, together with other families from the village. He hosted intermittently, at his home, the English soldier Harold Heggs, who stayed in the area for about eleven months, providing food, clothes and money.

On November 20, 1944, however, a group of fascists from the X Mas reached the small village in search of escaped soldiers; the main targets were three American pilots who had already been aided by Domenico. Domenico was interrogated and beaten while the fascists tried, in vain, to find out where the fugitives are. He  refused to speak — he knew, in fact, that the soldiers were moving away from the village to link up with a group of partisans — and for this, he was savagely beaten. After being tortured, he pretended to confess, trying to further delay the fascists in the village and give the prisoners more time to escape.

On the evening of Monday, Domenico was shot in front of his pregnant wife and young children; the fascists then stole from his house all the family supplies (lard and pork), two bicycles and the money that Domenico had in his wallet.

Before leaving the village, the fascists arrested another seven men, announcing further executions and the destruction of the entire settlement if no one spoke. Alerted by the news, Harold Heggs, who had managed to escape, decided to surrender himself to the enemy in order to avoid further suffering for those helping him. 

Back in captivity, he wrote to the allied authorities on 29 November 1944 to ask that Domenico’s sacrifice not be forgotten:

Domenico Collot could have spoken, but he didn’t. At the second interrogation, after his refusal, they shot him in front of his wife and children. He died while we were escaping. If you could do something for the family, I would be very grateful. This man deserves a generous reward.