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Oral history recording in English with Damiana ("Dina") Ruggiero. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Summary part 1 00.01 Damiana Ruggiero, called Dina in Wales, her maiden name is Malozzi. She was born on the 2nd April 1920. Her family is now all dead. Her brothers all worked on the farm they lived on, which was large, with six rooms but no running water so they and to go to a well. Her father died at 58 and her mother at 60. Her father was Antonio Malozzi and her mother was Pontecorbo [ph]. She had nine siblings who all sat together at the table to eat every evening. Everyone in the town worked the land, she remarks that the North and South were very different.

03.21 The family started off around Rome, they then went to Castelforte and following that to San Cosimo Damiano. The whole comminity was religous; they went to mass and on Easter procession which she describes with singing and candles. She recalls they had to cover up to go to church, with their knees covered. She remembers all the churches were situated above the towns. She says that Wales is different, it is less religous and she knows less people though she likes to go out.

07.49 Damiana goes on to describe her home, it was large, six rooms and in a valley. Again she says that there was no water but they found water from a spring near the house which was hot during the winter. They made and drank wine as well. The family lived and worked together there. Her mother and father were distant cousins, distant enough to have different surnames so they were able to marry. Her mother’s brother had died in the war and so her mother was on her own. The men went to do various jobs to earn money, whereas the women worked on the farm. Damiana would carry containers for wine and water on her back and sometimes let it fall on her back due to the heat. She enjoyed working on the farm, now she doesn’t get out as much. Damiana explains how they made wine.

Summary part 2 0.01 Damiana travelled all around Italy and was in Germany for almost three years before she returned to her home. Damiana’s father was a builder so was able to buy another house after the war however Damiana was away for some time after the war. Damiana worked as a seamstress for six and a half years, she recalls getting to grips with the electric machine and that machine breaking once [difficult to understand]. The community was very good she says, they worked on farms or as electricians or builders. On the land they grew wheat, Indian corn, beans, chick peas. She recalls it as a wonderful time. They would eat three times a day, in the fields during the day, all together at home in the evening with wine, salami, pasta, and vegetables. Her mother would sit proudly at the table, happy to see all her children.

07.07 During and after the war everything changed. There are roads everywhere now. She was taken prisoner by German soldiers during the war. When the war started, everything carried on as usual, however Damiana remembers when German soldiers arrived in the area and started to destroy everything. They had to leave their home and go up into the mountains, they lost everything that was in their home. After that, in the mountains she was taken. She had gone to thrash the corn and didn’t return for two and a half years. She doesn’t know how she survived. She wasn’t the only one to be caught, many people were taken. All the men hid underground so that they wouldn’t be taken prisoner or to fight. They were never able to return to their home as it was taken over.

12.50 Damiana describes how her daughter was 21 months when she travelled to Wales with her on her own. She recalls her husband asking her if she wanted to come to Wales, her father told her to go. She also recalls meeting with her mother again and her mother’s joy at seeing Antoinette again, she says ‘your children are your children, but your grandchildren are dearer’.

Summary part 3 00.01 Damiana spent nearly three years away from her family when she was taken prisoner by the German soldiers, she doesn’t know how she survived. They took them by car with hay inside to sleep on. It was full of flies. She recalls one young girl who wouldn’t eat due to the flies, they would only be given a piece of bread. They managed to return to the village after and she recalls her arrival there. She wears pendants around her neck which remind her of her loved ones.

Summary part 4 00.01 When they left their house for the mountains, thousands of people were doing the same. They made cabins up in the mountains. They slept on the ground with no covers. Damiana was taken when she was out looking for food her family. She recalls children crying in the mountain.

Summary part 5 00.01 Damiana tells a story of a man who took a cockerel out to the village to find more food, he was shot. They were terrible times she recalls. She recalls that they were treated awfully by the German soldiers. She states again that she was taken away by German soldiers to Germany. They had nothing to eat whilst they were prisoners but eh German soldiers had stolen animals as well. She recalls one man who had all gold teeth and the German soldiers took all his teeth out.

05.40 She was around eighteen when she was taken, until she managed to escape back to her town at 21 or 22 years. She recalls that all the animals were taken. They escaped through a hole during the night and managed to get to Milan. Good people helped them along the way. They went back to empty houses. When she returned her father was ill in bed. She had to work again when she returned as they had no money. She travelled far to work on foot. She continues to stress that she wasn’t the only person who experienced these things, everyone suffered in the area during and after the war. Slowly they managed to earn money to buy a sheep and other animals to survive, and they looked to the land which was full of food from which they survived. She tells how she met her husband, her families were introduced first and then they wrote letters. When they had both returned to the village they were married. She talks of her husband and how he worked on farms as a prisoner of war in Wales.

16.56 Before the war Damiana enjoyed dances and going to church, but during and after the war these things stopped. She recalls again when her husband came home and they were married. When he left Damiana had Antoinette and had to go out to work in the fields keeping her in a handmade hut to protect her from the sun. She was given sheets for her dowry but not very much else as they were poor.