Donato De Simone WORLD WAR II EVENTS NARRATED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE CHILDREN CAUGHT IN THE WEB OF ADULT INSANITY A young boy . . . a beautiful town . . . stalked by the Nazis
bombed by the Allies . . . hiding Jewish refugees
Abruzzo´s mini-holocaust . . . meeting Padre Pio
escape to a new life in America
Growing up in the tranquility of the Abruzzo region of Italy, Donato De Simone, Danny to his friends, was abruptly plunged into the violence of war as the Germans and Allies contested for the Sangro River in a major World War II battle. Now, after decades of pondering the meaning of these events, Danny recalls the drama of his times.
Mixing humorous touches with his graphic descriptions, he creates for his readers a vivid picture of life in wartime: the nomadic journeys trying to escape the Nazis; the drama of a downed British airman sheltered by his grandfather in a barn; the little-known story of Jewish refugees hidden from the exterminators by sympathetic Italians; watching Allied bombers shot down by German antiaircraft batteries and sent crashing into the Adriatic Sea; finally finding his home destroyed. These are the circumstances under which Danny grew up.
His shrewd mother's planning enabling her family to escape German terror, the family's hardships as they slept in a hastily-constructed air raid shelter, titanic efforts to avoid stepping on personnel or anti-car mines, praying that bombs from both sides would miss them--all are created anew by this masterful story-teller.
The normal educational patterns having been disrupted by war, Danny struggled to learn in makeshift classrooms. After finally succeeding in rejoining his father to America, Danny faced further challenges trying to adjust to a new life, a new culture and a new language.
Finally returning to Italy, he married Anna Maria, his childhood sweetheart and fellow war survivor. Returning to America at the urging of Anna Maria's father, former U.S. Army private Ernesto Fantini, Danny sailed the Andrea Doria--the trip before she sank! Danny and Anna Maria raised their family in Norristown, Pa., and on June 2, 2006, they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. "We must have done something wrong," Danny quips. "In fifty years we never even had a serious argument!"
Danny met Padre Pio da Pietrelcina, now Saint Pio, twice as a teenager before coming to America, and once in 1956 together with Anna Maria on their honeymoon. It was an unforgettable experience for both to go to confession and receive Holy Communion from the sainted man who bore on his body the signs of the crucifixion.
De Simone does a superb job personalizing the historical record, for his account teaches us what it means to suffer the concrete effects of the abstract decisions made by the generals and dictators and kings - what it means to be the family member whose home is bombed, to be the farmer whose field is mined, to be the child who has seen too much death.
Prof. Millicent Marcus
Yale University
His narrative is most interesting and disturbing at the same time as we realize that so many innocent people, especially the children, were caught in the middle of such insane violence. This is a book for all to read, especially the young.
Most Rev. Louis A. De Simone, D. D.
Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
. . . fascinatingly human, fast-reading, well-written.
Prof. James T. McDonough
St. Joseph´s University
Philadelphia
Donato De Simone was born in 1932 in Fossacesia, a small town on the Adriatic coast in Abruzzo, Italy. After completing the sixth-grade in Italy, his life was disrupted by the arrival of WWII to his area--the real war. After a seven-week odyssey dodging Nazis, bombs and hunger, the family returned to find a destroyed town. His family was forced to live in a one room hovel. In 1947, they finally succeeded in rejoining his father in Norristown, Pa. A year later, he lost his mother. After surviving the rigors of war, Maria Sorgini De Simone died at 41 of complications from childbirth. Left without guidance at 16, he continued his studies on his own until he was able to attend college. At 28, he pursued a college career, earning a BA and an MA in English from Villanova University and an MA in Italian from Rutgers University. He is fluent in English, Italian and French and has a working knowledge of Spanish, Latin and Classical Greek. After learning English, he taught it to American students both in high school and college. De Simone has been a language educator for 35 years. Married to his childhood sweetheart, the former Anna Maria Fantini, for 50 years, they've had four children and three grandchildren.
