Photo: AP Photo/Antonio Calanni
A World War II veteran has reunited with the children he saved from the Nazis in 1944.
Martin Adler, who helped rescue Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi decades ago, met with the siblings for the first time since the war after flying from Boca Raton, Florida, to Bologna, Italy, to see them, theAssociatedPressreported.
Adler, who was just 20 years old when he first met the trio, greeted them with bars of American chocolate, just as he did back in 1944.
“Look at my smile,” he said after reuniting with the siblings.
Rachelle Donley, Adler’s daughter, organized the reunion during the COVID-19 lockdown. Her father had always kept a photo of himself and the siblings, and Donley was determined to track down the three faces featured in the picture.
AP Photo/Antonio Calanni
When Matteo Incerti, an Italian journalist who has written books on World War II, spotted the photo, he was able to find out where Adler had been stationed. After the photo was printed in a local newspaper, the three children pictured in it were finally identified as Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana.
“The mother, Mamma, came out and stood right in front of my gun to stop me [from] shooting,” Adler said. “She put her stomach right against my gun, yelling, ‘Bambinis! Bambinis! Bambinis!’ pounding my chest.”
He added, “That was a real hero, the mother, not me. The mother was a real hero. Can you imagine you standing yourself in front of a gun and screaming ‘Children! No!’?”
Giuliana Naldi was just 3 years old during the incident, but she’s the only one of her siblings who remembers the day Adler entered their home. She recalled stepping out of the basket and seeing Adler and his fellow soldier.
“They were laughing,” Naldi, who is now 80, said. “They were happy they didn’t shoot.”
Donley said she is “so happy” and “so proud” of her dad for his actions that day.
“Because things could have been so different in just a second,” she said. “Because he hesitated, there have been generations of people.”
Roberta Fontana, Naldi’s granddaughter, agreed. Together, the siblings have six children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“Knowing that Martin could have shot and that none of my family would exist is something very big,” Fontana said. “It is very emotional.”
source: people.com
