Suffer the Children ? Growing Up in Italy During Word War II

Donato De Simone
WORLD WAR II EVENTS NARRATED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE CHILDREN CAUGHT IN THE WEB OF ADULT INSANITY

A young boy . . . a beautiful town . . . stalked by the Nazis
bombed by the Allies . . . hiding Jewish refugees
Abruzzo´s mini-holocaust . . . meeting Padre Pio
escape to a new life in America

Growing up in the tranquility of the Abruzzo region of Italy, Donato De Simone, Danny to his friends, was abruptly plunged into the violence of war as the Germans and Allies contested for the Sangro River in a major World War II battle. Now, after decades of pondering the meaning of these events, Danny recalls the drama of his times.

Mixing humorous touches with his graphic descriptions, he creates for his readers a vivid picture of life in wartime: the nomadic journeys trying to escape the Nazis; the drama of a downed British airman sheltered by his grandfather in a barn; the little-known story of Jewish refugees hidden from the exterminators by sympathetic Italians; watching Allied bombers shot down by German antiaircraft batteries and sent crashing into the Adriatic Sea; finally finding his home destroyed. These are the circumstances under which Danny grew up.

His shrewd mother's planning enabling her family to escape German terror, the family's hardships as they slept in a hastily-constructed air raid shelter, titanic efforts to avoid stepping on personnel or anti-car mines, praying that bombs from both sides would miss them-all are created anew by this masterful story-teller.

The normal educational patterns having been disrupted by war, Danny struggled to learn in ma