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The Italian resistance movement, better known locally as the Partisans, was a group made of independent troops who gathered spontaneously siding the Allied forces to fight the German Nazis and Italian Fascists.
The local population supported the Partisans by providing them with shelter and food at the risk of their lives. Women especially acted as dispatch riders between the partisan divisions, nursed the wounded, scavenged for food and spied on the Germans and Fascists to report information.
A general uprising liberated Italy on the 25th April 1945.
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'We do not have any choice. This has become a trap and we are like rats!' The commander's fist hit the table and the rest of the assembly jumped in their chairs. A woman was observing the scene from the kitchen door and wondered if they jumped from the commander's action or the mental picture of a rat in a trap.
The rats had gone. Had there been any, she would have probably made them into a stew. She bit her lip remembering a time when such a thought would have been disgusting and her stomach growled.
None of them looked older than 25, even the commander. Dressed in a pair of old pants held up with a piece of string and a plain cotton shirt, he did not look like anyone in a position of power. Actually, no one in the room was dressed differently, except for an occasional ragged jacket.
Another loud explosion sounded outside the house and made the windows shake.
The men sitting at the square table stopped talking and sat still for a moment and then everyone drew a sigh of relief.
'Far enough.' murmured a younger guy with tired eyes and a worn out hat on his head.
The frustrated commander stared at him, barely hiding a snarl. 'They will...' and did not finish the sentence, aware it would not help the morale.