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Martin Sdler, a 96-year-old former US soldier, fulfilled his dream of meeting, albeit virtually, with the three Italian children he saved in 1944 during a military operation in World War II.
Thanks to the power of social media, Adler, who resides in Florida (United States), after posting an old photograph with the children on the veterans’ website, was able to speak with them on Sunday, 76 years after having been about to be riddled with bullets in a town near Bologna.
Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi, who were then 7, 6 and 3 years old, remembered that day with Adler, who has not forgotten it since.
“There was silence, we did not know if the Germans had withdrawn or if they were waiting for us in hiding and had set a trap for us,” the elderly soldier said in an interview.
“We went into a house. There was a huge wooden trunk from which strange noises were heard. John and I had our fingers on the trigger ready to shoot, they could be German, ”he recalls.
“Children, children!” an Italian mother suddenly yelled. The three children came out of the wooden trunk, laughing. Adler was equally happy that he hadn’t pulled the trigger.
The soldier wanted to immortalize that moment and took a picture with the three boys, although the mother demanded that the children pose in their most elegant costumes.
“It’s the happiest memory I have of that hell that was the war,” confessed Adler, whose daughter Rachelle wanted to post the old photo on the US veterans website in hopes of finding the children, despite the fact that his father did not remember the exact town name.
The veteran’s call got a response from Italy in less than three days.
“The clothes that I was wearing in the photo were made by my mother, so when I saw the photo I immediately said ‘that’s me” “, Bruno, the oldest, 83 years old, was interviewed by the public television news program Rai.
“Ciao bambini!” Adler exclaimed during the call Sunday.
“I am Mafalda,” revealed an 82-year-old woman with white hair, who wore a mask, as well as her younger sister Giuliana, 79.
“It was like going back to face the trunk,” said Adler, a native of the Bronx in New York, who fought in Italy in March 1944 in the 85th Infantry Division.
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