The following pages offer a few passages taken from diaries or memoirs written by Tosca Ciampelli, Nanda Belli, Maria Alemanno, Perla Cacciaguerra, Margherita Biagini and Marisa Corsellini, six women who lived through the tragic experiences of the Second World War in Tuscany, the first two in Badia Prataglia in the province of Arezzo, the others in Florence.
Maria Alemanno was born in Venice in 1900 (and died in 1988) and successfully graduated from senior high school. During the war she was in Florence whilst her fiancé Nando was far away, in a German prisoner of war camp. The typewritten manuscript arrived at the National Diary Archives in Pieve Santo Stefano on August 6 1990.
Perla Cacciaguerra was born in Florence in 1926 and graduated from high school. The typed diary arrived at the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale of Pieve Santo Stefano on the 13th November 1997; the text was published in 2000 (P. Cacciaguerra, VINCEREMO... MAH!!! Diario di guerra 4 Ottobre 1943 – 4 Maggio 1945, Firenze, Ibiskos Editrice, 2000).
Margherita Biagini was born in Florence in 1931, and did the middle school diploma. She wrote her memoirs between 1997 and 2000. The manuscript was given to the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale di Pieve Santo Stefano on 14 December 2000.
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.