During World War Two, the Italians started on the Axis side with Germany and Japan. However, in 1943 with the removal of Benito Mussolini from office, the Italians flipped sides, siding with the Allied forces. So the German soldiers that once were allies with the Italians, suddenly had occupied much of the nation except Sicily and part of the south. Meanwhile, the Allies were pushing the German soldiers up toward the northern border. They occupied many of the Italian villages. On March 22, 1945, Elia Coppola, my father, remembers a very scary episode that almost claimed his life.
Fran Coppola
I remember that the Allies were close to ending the war and in Italy, some pockets of German soldiers still remained and were roaming through some Italian villages. My village, San Salvatore, Telesino, was one of those that had not been liberated. I was a boy only 5 years old and remember not having any toys to play with. I used to play in the house with a big, large key about 12 inches long which resembled a pistol.
On this sunny spring day I decided to go over to my second floor balcony and, just playing, aimed the large key through the balcony's rail at the street pretending to shoot someone that was passing by. As I was yelling, "Bang, bang," two German soldiers were fast walking under my balcony and I then proceeded to aim the large key at them and screamed, "bang, bang!" The soldiers stopped and `yelled at me in German, and not knowing what the soldiers were saying, I proceeded to keep yelling, "bang, bang!"
After I kept this up, the soldiers - confused about what I was saying - began to believe that the key was a gun and aimed their rifles at me. My mother had just entered the balcony and understanding very quickly what was happening, grabbed me by the hand and took away the large key and yelled at the two soldiers, "halt, halt." The soldiers then took it upon themselves to enter my house and yelled at my mother to bring me downstairs. At this point, a whole crowd of villagers, including the mayor who spoke German, arrived.
The mayor explained to them that I was just playing with a toy. However, they still insisted on taking the key to make sure to themselves that it was not a weapon. My mother then handed the soldiers the key to examine. As they were examining it, they were making threats at the mayor and shouted something in German and pointed their rifles at the mayor. At this point, I was extremely scared and started to cry while my mother held me tight. After examining the key, the soldiers started to walk away because by this time a crowd of over one hundred people had formed. The soldiers began to get a little bit nervous. As they did, they were shouting at me, my family, and my fellow villagers in German.
Two months later, the war officially ended in my country and I from that day on, was known as "The boy who scared away the last two Germans."
Elia Coppola
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