大象传媒

I was working in the offices of The Allied Millitary Government in Udine from 1945-1947.
I think it must have been 1946 when a young Estonian/Lithuanian boy came into the office trying to find some means of reaching his country. This was a most difficult task as the Russians had by then occupied Hungary and Austria. He had come into our office after walking and hitchiking all the way from Naples. He had been fighting alongside the Germans at Monte Cassino, where he was wounded in the leg. He had been taken to a German military hospital for treatment, In the bed next to his a young German soldier had just died. The doctors amputated the leg of the German soldier and transplanted it onto the Estonian/Lithuanian's. We could not believe his story until he took off his shoes and sock and lifted his trousers to show us the operation stitches. What we saw was two totally different feet, one that of a farmer, very squat and the other much more delicate like that of a city person. It seems hard to believe I know, but I saw it with my own eyes.

Our (the British) young drivers contacted the American transport and helped him by hiding him in the American troop lorries who were able to go through this region unchecked.

We never heard from hime again but I always hoped he made it home.

Another memory comes to my mind when a young man came to our office, he was dressed in the typical Hungarian dress, with a jacket buttoned right up to the neck. The Russians had occupied Budapest and his father, a professor, had been killed. He and his mother escaped but got separated. He knew she was going to Trieste to get a boat to Genoa and he was trying to meet her there.
It was difficult to get to Trieste, because it was an area that was being contested by Tito and the Italians, however our drivers (British) used to take the mail to the British Command there and so the trucks would go unchecked. However we managed to get our young man to Trieste and eventually to Genoa where he later wrote to us to say he had successfully met his mother ( a small miracle in itself) and they were waiting to board a ship to America.

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