LEST WE FORGET
Four men from the parish of Salce, captured after 8 September 1943, who never came back from Germany
After the armistice of 8 September 1943, hundreds of thousands of Italian servicemen were disarmed by the Germans and deported to camps in the Reich. Many refused to go on fighting alongside Germany and were treated as «military internees»: forced labour, hunger, disease. Men from the parish of Salce were among those who left and never returned.
In September 2007 Armando Dal Pont, in the Col Maòr series «Lest we forget them… Soldiers of the parish of Salce who fell in war», gathered the stories of four of them. In 2019 the newsletter reprinted the same text. These are their stories, as the records give them back to us.
Andrea Dall’Ò, marble worker from Bes
Andrea Dall’Ò was born on 17 September 1910, son of Luigi and Luigia Fiabane, and worked as a marble cutter. A corporal in the 15th Artillery Regiment, attached to the «Puglie» division, he fought on the Greek-Albanian front from February to April 1941; then, with the 73rd Pack Section of the XIV Army Corps, he stayed in the Balkans from November 1942 until 8 September 1943.
After the armistice he was captured by the Germans and interned in Germany with prisoner number 182487. He died of illness on 23 January 1944 in labour camp no. 6010 near Hanover. He is buried in the War Cemetery of Hamburg, section 1, row 1, grave no. 30. In 2007 Dal Pont noted that his name did not appear «on any plaque or memorial» he knew of.
Sirio Saronide, sailor
Sirio Saronide was born on 20 March 1913, son of Ettore and Maria Supani, known as «Marieta». His family came from Salce and later moved to Sargnano. He was a petty officer second class in the Royal Navy. After 8 September 1943 he was taken prisoner and interned in Germany.
He died in Berlin on 25 April 1945, days before the end of the war in Europe, and was buried at Blumberg. In 1973 his remains were brought back to Italy and laid to rest in the cemetery of Cusighe. His name is engraved on one of the small plaques of the little church of the «Beata Vergine dei Caduti» at La Rossa.
Vittorio, medical corporal
Vittorio was born on 2 February 1914, son of Antonio and Angela Carlin, the ninth of thirteen children. Unmarried, a factory worker, he came from a Salce family that later moved to Cuceglio, in the province of Turin. He was a lance corporal in the medical corps.
He was captured by the Germans on 8 September 1943 and died on 10 August 1944 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His remains were later moved to the War Dead Ossuary in the municipal cemetery of Prade. One of his brothers, Giovanni, also died in that war, on 30 June 1944.
His surname has not yet been established. In the 2007 Col Maòr he appears as Vittorio Sacchet; in the 2019 reprint as Vittorio Schiocchet. We are looking for confirmation in the registers and on the memorial plaques; until we have it, we prefer to call him only by his first name.
Gino De Martin, Alpino of the «Belluno»
Gino De Martin was born on 22 March 1924, son of Sebastiano and Maria De Min. His family, from Fossa di Bolzano Bellunese, had moved to Col del Vin in 1938 and to Prade in autumn 1944. Unmarried, a farmer, he was called up on 19 May 1943 into the 7th Alpini Regiment, «Belluno» battalion. He was nineteen.
After the armistice he was captured and interned. He died in captivity at Heppenheim on 28 December 1944. He is buried in Frankfurt am Main, in the Italian Military Cemetery of Honour, plot D, row 6, grave 23. One of his brothers, Pietro, is listed as missing in Russia.
Why we remember them
Four men with four different stories: an artilleryman, a sailor, a medical corporal, a young Alpino. What binds them is the date of 8 September 1943 and the choice, or the fate, that took them to the German camps. Two of them still lie in Germany; one, Andrea Dall’Ò, according to Dal Pont did not even have his name carved in stone.
The Gruppo Alpini of Salce remembers them alongside all the Fallen of the Memorial. If your family keeps photographs, letters from the camps, internment documents or memories of these four men, please write to the Gruppo Alpini Salce: every piece of information will be checked carefully and with the respect these stories deserve.
📚 From the papers of memory
- Armando Dal Pont (ed.), «Per non dimenticarli… Soldati della parrocchia di Salce caduti in guerra», Col Maòr no. 3, September 2007 (in Italian), p. 3.
- Armando Dal Pont (ed.), same title, Col Maòr no. 1, April 2019 (in Italian), p. 3.
