War Diary
Marisa Corsellini, housewife, was born in Florence in1927. The handwritten diary was given to the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale of Pieve Santo Stefano on 2nd April 1986 1Tr. Note: original ‘rastrellamenti’, literally ‘rakings’ – refers to regular house-by-house searches carried out by German troops to round up suspected anti-German fighters. .
Sunday 23/7/44
Pisa is occupied by American troops!
The 8th American armoured brigade is moving towards Florence in three lines. One is coming up from Tavarnelle, the second from Greve in Chianti towards San Casciano, and the third from San Giovanni Valdarno. Each of them is only 18km away from us. The hour has come!
Monday 24/7/44
The Germans have destroyed all the telephone exchanges in the city, so we’ve lost our only hope of communicating with Genova
They are still rounding up men in house-by-house searches in the city but I think these will be the last as the British have advanced again by a few kilometres.
Tuesday 25/7/44
The British are just 15 km away from us. They’re at Strada in Chianti next to Grassina2Grassina: district of Bagno a Ripoli in the province of Florence.. We can still hear the shelling very clearly, every moment we’re expecting a state of emergency. Today the Germans put up posters ordering everyone to hand in all forms of transport including carts and horses.
They’re planning to take away as much as they can.
Wednesday 26/7/44
Today the distribution of drinking water was suspended for a few hours – we thought that they’d blown up the waterworks but in turns out they haven’t done so yet, but I’m scared that they will soon. And in the morning too all the tramcars were ordered to go back to the dépôts for an hour and a half, because the Germans were going to blow up the electricity plants. But this didn’t happen, and in the afternoon [the trams] resumed normal service. We learned from some refugees from Signa3Signa: town in the province of Florence. that the village had been completely burned down by the Germans, but I still don’t know the reason. These days won’t be easily forgotten!
Thursday 27/7/44
Refugees from all over the countryside are flooding into the city centre.
So many terrible sights! People who have fled with what little stuff they could manage, loaded onto handcarts, walking for miles; and then people who have the bad luck to need to go to hospital having to be taken there on a cart (if they’re lucky enough to find one !), because there isn’t even a single ambulance
And then so so many other things, that break your heart to see and to write down, which happen every day because of these Germans who still won’t go, even though the British are at their heels (they’re near Montelupo and Tavarnuzze.)4Montelupo Fiorentino: town in the province of Florence, Tavarnuzze is a district of Impruneta.
Friday 28/7/44
We can still hear shelling and now it’s very near. They say that they’re 3 km from Empoli
Life is getting very hard.
Last night, from 3am onwards we didn’t sleep at all, because of the shells that whistled around the house.
Saturday 29/7/44
This morning they put up posters saying which roads must be cleared for the troops to pass through!5The Germans put up a poster to command the residents around Ponte Vecchio, Borgo S Jacopo, Via de Bardi, Via Guicciardini and Via Por Santa Maria to leave their homes by 12pm on the following day (30th July). The roads include the two lines on the near and far side of the Arno. Lots of people are homeless. We’re in Piazza Duomo and we believe that we’re safe, let’s hope so !
Sunday 30/7/44
All day there was nothing but people moving from the areas of forced eviction with endless amounts of stuff on their backs. I saw truly pitiful sights. In the night they deprived the whole city of water and electricity, using mines. Luckily we had some saved up, but if we’re here for a long time, who knows, maybe it won’t last. This morning there was nothing but people with bottles getting water from the pipes on the ground. We went to the pumps at the hospital at Santa Maria Nuova. I really hope this pump doesn’t dry up, because that would spell real trouble. These Germans couldn’t be worse cowards – turning off the water in a populous city like Florence is the worst outrage you could inflict on the civilian population.
Let’s hope that the British get here soon, and can repair the works. As I write this, one of the fiercest battles is raging outside. It’s 11 o’clock actually 23 hrs to be precise, but it’s impossible to go to bed because of the loud shells. They’re so close it feels that they are already in the city. If that’s true then it must really be nearly the end.
I’ll stop now as I want to try and lie down a bit, fully clothed of course !!
Monday 31/7/44
It was calm all day today. We didn’t hear any shelling at all ; it seems impossible that the day should be so peaceful after such a tumultuous night !
But all day there were endless queues for water. I queued too with my family for 4 hours in a queue at the Cassa di Risparmio, where there are three wells in the gardens.
Who knows how much longer this miserable life will go on?
If water goes, everything goes !
Tuesday 1/7/44
All day there have been very loud explosions, one after the other. It seems, from what we heard, that the Germans have blown up a stretch of the Santa Maria road, after they’d made all the residents leave.
It seems that more houses suffered the same fate on the other side of Ponte Vecchio. I’d like to know what’s going through the minds of these Germans.
Surely they don’t want to blow up the whole of Florence ! And it was meant to be an open city!
Wednesday 2/8/44
Life is getting harder and harder now. There’s never enough water and we have to wait in long long queues to get a little to drink. The bread ration has gone down to less than half ; suffice to say that we get one and a half little loaves, 250 grammes, between three people. Some people are saying that they won’t give us anything tomorrow. The mines that the Germans have put under the houses go off all the time, so we can never ever sleep. We haven’t heard the shelling for two days now, it seems that the British have drawn back a bit to wait for some other columns which are advancing from the sides, so that they can move together to surround the city. Perhaps they’re doing it like this to save our beautiful Florence. The Allies have entered Pistoia today and General Rommel was killed in the battle. The latter was the commander in chief of the German army in France.
Thursday 3/8/44
Today at last they’ve put up posters announcing ‘a stage of emergency.6After a state of emergency was declared on 3rd August 1944, violent explosions reduced bridges, streets and palazzi around Ponte Vecchio to rubble. From today no-one can even put their nose out of doors until the British have passed through.
But let’s hope they hurry up because we can’t last much longer like this. We’ve nothing. Water, electricity, gas, coal, food. Suffice to say that they didn’t even give us our bread ration today because there aren’t any more mills to grind the wheat. I don’t know how it will end. There are shells whistling from all directions. The Germans have even put their artillery in Piazza [dei] Giudici, near [Piazza della] Signoria, and at the Fortezza da Basso. The whole house shakes when they fire.
Still, in spite of everything I’m glad that we’re in a state of emergency because at least at the end of these days this endless waiting for the arrival of allied troops will be over. Let’s hope the Lord will protect us and save our city, so when it’s all over we can all go out freely and see each other again.
Friday 4/8/44
Today must be counted as one of the worst we have had till now.
Last night the Germans started exploding mines, and went on through nearly the whole day. The house was shaking so much that none of us could sleep. Even the windows in the house opposite were broken.
Each explosion was followed by a great cloud of dust, so thick that we could hardly breathe. We were so frightened !
Unfortunately there won’t be any water until the British get here. After a long time it finally rained today and all the tenants in the block brought as many receptacles as they could find into the courtyard, to fill them up. We made a hole in the shower and put in a piece of bent tin like a kind of tap, so we were able to get lots of water.
And we actually got washed with rainwater, as we didn’t have anything else, so as to save our water for drinking !
Saturday 5/8/44
We had to sleep with all our clothes on last night ! At dusk a battle began, one of those you won’t forget in a hurry.
Right up to midnight we all stayed in the stairwell because we were too scared to go to bed because of the shelling. ; then we decided to go back upstairs but all eight of us went to bed in a little room on the first floor where they’d put some mattresses, camped out like gypsies, and we dozed off a bit to the whistling of the shells.
Then at about six in the morning, now that the battle had quietened down a little, we decided to go back to our own beds, and there we rested until nearly ten o’clock.
These is the kind of life that we are living now, let’s just hope it’s over soon !
Sunday 6/8/44
Our dreadful living conditions are just the same.
If this doesn’t finish soon, it’ll be us that’s finished. The Germans have dug themselves into all the surrounding hills and have positioned their artillery in the city. We hardly sleep at night and still camped out like so many gypsies.
I don’t know what the end will be if the British don’t come soon.
One of our many hopes is that there will be no fighting in the city, that would compensate for everything we are going through now !
Monday 7/8/44
Everything goes on as before. Now the Germans have allowed women and children to go outside during the day, the men are absolutely forbidden even to show their faces at the window. Every day we stand in long long queues for water, and we go about all day looking for food ; not because we’re starving, of course, because we still have stuff to eat at home thank God, but since everything seems to be taking so much longer we’re doing all we can to save our supplies. There are so many unfortunate families with lots of children, who don’t even have a crumb of bread to feed them.
Tuesday 8/8/44
Today all the shops in the centre were ransacked by people who brazenly call themselves our ‘comrades’.7Term used to refer to people belonging to the Fascist party But God will punish them ! They had the nerve to say that Florence had suffered a violent attack from the air, with over 3000 casualties. We Florentines know very well that this is completely untrue, thank God, and we believe that this statement, which was broadcast everywhere through the radio, was just an excuse to justify their own violence.
We’re sure that they announced on the radio that all the bridges over the Arno were destroyed in the terrible aerial bombardment that we know nothing about.
Wednesday 9/8/44
We keep hearing the sound of exploding mines, which these wicked Germans have put under the beautiful palazzi in the city centre. I cannot express the pain it gives us to hear the loud booms, telling us of the destruction of the loveliest part of our our dear city.
The shelling never stops its ‘singing’ and at night it gets worse, so much so that last night we didn’t go to bed.
We are all feeling desperate, as this state of things is going on for so long, and we are dreadfully anxious about food.
After four days without bread, today we finally got hold of 100g of fresh bread, but it tasted so mouldy that we couldn’t eat it.
Everything goes on in the worst possible way and the Germans still won’t go.
If only we could do something ourselves !
Thursday 10/8/44
People wounded because of the shelling are coming in from all over. We are terrified to be in bed, so when we hear the battle raging we go off to the stairwell.
Thank God we aren’t going hungry yet but if this goes on much longer we will be soon.
The Red Cross people are a sight to behold, with their handcarts to take the wounded to hospital, if they are badly hurt they surely die before they get there.
I firmly believed that they wouldn’t fight over the city of Florence, but now all my fond hopes have faded. The sight of all the barricades everywhere means that we can expect even darker days. I honestly never expected that things would be like this!
Even those poor unfortunate people who had to leave their houses along the Arno, and leave all their furniture with hardly any notice, they’re left with nothing now.
Can this really be called humanity ?
Friday 11/8/44
But what a sweet awakening this morning !
I believe that the Lord meant us to have all those sorrowful days so that the dawn of this great day would be even more wonderful : 11th August 1944 ! Unforgettable date ! A date that will be stamped indelibly on the heart of every Florentine. At last the day we have awaited and longed for so passionately has arrived.
This morning at dawn Florence was liberated by the allied troops !
It’s impossible to describe the many states of mind; I couldn’t even if I tried. This morning at dawn we woke to the merry ringing of bells, we all stared at each other in wonder, unable to understand this unexpected event. For the bells had not rung for many days.
We went into the street straightaway, and with our hearts racing with excitement we watched the procession of patriots making their entry into Florence, singing hymns to freedom, [and they showed] to our astonished and still wondering eyes – for we almost could not believe it – the marvellous truth that just a few hours ago seemed so far away.
During the night the Germans had abandoned the city! After they’d blown up all the bridges over the Arno and destroyed everything they could destroy, they had moved away. Instantly the city looked like a city in celebration and thousands of flags unfurled in the wind.
The vile oppressors were gone at last! All the men, who up to this morning had had to stay well hidden indoors, for fear of their own ‘comrades’, now rushed through the streets hugging and kissing each other. Everyone was trembling with joy and so much emotion that we were nearly unable to speak. And so the day came to a close in this way, so different from the night before; for now instead of sorrow and distress our hearts were full of a strange gaiety and a passionate hope for better days.
- 1. Tr. Note: original ‘rastrellamenti’, literally ‘rakings’ – refers to regular house-by-house searches carried out by German troops to round up suspected anti-German fighters.
- 2. Grassina: district of Bagno a Ripoli in the province of Florence.
- 3. Signa: town in the province of Florence.
- 4. Montelupo Fiorentino: town in the province of Florence, Tavarnuzze is a district of Impruneta.
- 5. The Germans put up a poster to command the residents around Ponte Vecchio, Borgo S Jacopo, Via de Bardi, Via Guicciardini and Via Por Santa Maria to leave their homes by 12pm on the following day (30th July).
- 6. After a state of emergency was declared on 3rd August 1944, violent explosions reduced bridges, streets and palazzi around Ponte Vecchio to rubble.
- 7. Term used to refer to people belonging to the Fascist party
- Numéro: XX006
- Lieu: Archivio Diaristico Nazionale di Pieve Santo Stefano, Arezzo, Toscane
