Giuseppe
A Survival Story
With a colorful cast of unexpectedly gentle German guards, helpful Red Army soldiers and generous American GIs, as well as avaricious looters and savage rapists, the book describes the odyssey of an Italian soldier trying to make his way home through a ravaged country. It is also a marvelous treatise on the folly of war and the consequences of becoming an outcast in a strange land. The protagonist tells us of his travails as an Italian military internee in various camps in war-time Germany. He witnesses needless cruelty while at the same time battling boredom and frustration.
He is a plain-spoken man but, in his simplicity, brings forth unpolished gems of wisdom that only a pure soul and a flamboyant mind can conjure. Having been a skilled dancer, he stumbles around in the dark after the apocalyptic fire-bombing of Dresden as this atrocity opens his eyes to the absolute horror of a war that knows no bounds.
Giuseppe: A Survival Story reads like an autobiography. We are given the fictionalized firsthand account of Italy for much of the first half of the 20th century. We travel with Giuseppe from his home in Pontestura to his service in the military, first in Greece, then akin to a conscripted slave, in Germany. We see through his eyes the rise of Fascism and the ascension of Benito Mussolini. Giuseppe conveys not an academic interpretation from a detached bias; but, rather, his are the observations of an everyday Italian concerned about living standards. ... Giuseppe: A Survival Story is a fascinating epic akin to the great works of World War II literature. The novel is a reminder of the terrible costs of war.
— PRIMO,PRIMO Magazine
Many historical fiction authors write about real people, combining facts with imagined feelings. San Giorgio has done exactly this – and done it so magnificently, that it reads like a genuine memoir.
— Helen Johnson,Historical Novel Society
Much of the history we in the English speaking world have of World War II focuses on the campaigns in Russia, Messerschmitts dogfighting with Spitfires over London, and the massive island campaigns in the Pacific between the Japanese and Americans. But one of the two founding members of the Axis Powers, Italy, receives much less attention, as its involvement does not neatly fit into the narrative of the world war, having begun operations as a fascist state in the 1920s and leaving the war early in 1943. The post-armistice period, however, was arguably the most difficult for Italy, as the civil war that broke out between the fascists, communists, and ordinary people took a tremendous toll on the social fabric of Italian families, and over 1 million men who were forcibly taken to Germany to work in their war factories. Piero San Giorgio, grandson of one of these men, joins us tonight to tell his story.
— Myth of the 20th Century,BitChute
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Additional information
Contents | 1944 Childhood Games 1915–1918 Christmas Duce — Part I Mining Heroes Military Service Africa Dinosaur Dance Women Campioni del mondo! Mamma Duce — Part II 1940 1941 Battle Greece 1943 Germans September 8th The Train Unpronounceable Stalag The Camp Registration Confiscation Disinfection Marking Roll Call Barracks Italians Kapos Traitors Rules Potato Chore Kartoffeln Arbeit Food Survey Learning German The Other Prisoners Cigarettes Red Cross Choice Coats Winter The First Christmas Hygiene God Is with Us Misery Cursing Vengeance Crime and Punishment Arrangements Disgust The Factory Factory Food Clogs Payroll Fraternisation Hans Lions Led by Donkeys Third Reich Victorious Shelter The Bomb Writing Home The Parcels Propaganda Civilian Workers The Mirror Not Dead Yet The Dead Hitler Kaputt New Leadership The Second Christmas Kurt The Last Winter The Bombing of Dresden The Red Cross Visit The End The Last Germans The New Camp Russians Not Quite Free Yet Certificate Officers Dresden Victory Basta! Kartoffeln, Again! Inventory The Road Water Fire Broken Shoes Heaven Werewolf On the Road Again Back to Germany Americans Munich Brenner Pass Verona Chaos Home Family Brother No Hero’s Return Time to Live Afterword |
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Binding | Paperback |
Author | Piero San Giorgio |
ISBN-13 | 978-1-914208-06-5 |
ISBN-10 | 1914208064 |
Languages | English |
Publication Date | 2020-12-15 |
Publisher | Arktos Media Ltd |
Number Of Pages | 280 |
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