Giovanni Zulian

Giovanni, a farmer, lived in his house in Marano with his wife Agata and their daughter.

Our house – a very poor farm house – has been for months the very safe shelter for several Allied Pows, who had escaped from the concentration camps and who were wandering through our fields, looking for food and shelter. Although my family is very poor, always the Pow were friendly welcomed in my house, were given food and protection, in spite of the great danger we were running in so doing.

On 17 December 1943, during a German sweep (rastrellamento) of the area in which the enemy employed German and Tatar troops, Giovanni’s home was searched. The New Zealand PoW living with them was, at the time, working in the fields. However, as he saw the enemy, he ran back to the house, where he was immediately recognised and captured. Giovanni, at this point, was arrested for providing assistance to escaped enemy prisoners.

During the enemy operation, all men in the village were held at the local fishmonger as hostages. The recaptured PoWs, Giovanni, and another man, Antonio Corso (found in possession of an illegal rifle), were brought away.

My husband [and] Mr Corso were brutally obliged to go on board of a German truck, we were told that the two men had to be taken to Palmanova. We thought that they would be tried according to the law. On the contrary, near  Carlino (Pian di Nogar) they were asked to get out of the truck, were kicked to a near bush, and ordered to dig their grave. They refused to do it, and begged for mercy, but the Germans murdered them by firing their revolvers, and then threw their bodies in a small pit, without even covering them with enough earth.