Brave 17-year-old girl who saved her village from a Nazi massacre
When retreating Nazis hellbent on revenge rounded up 38 villagers accused of being resistance fighters on April 28, 1945, their deaths seemed certain.
The blood-hungry Germans had already massacred 31 men in a neighbouring Italian town and wanted further revenge on the partisans plaguing them before British forces arrived.
But young Gabriella Ezra, whose father Luigi was among the prisoners, bravely strode up to the Nazis and demanded to speak to their commander.
The 17-year-old held her nerve as he barked at her and then threatened her life like the men facing a firing squad, but she convinced him to stand down.
The amazing story of how she saved her village has only just come to light.
Now aged 91 and living in Brighton, Gabriella has finally been awarded Italy’s highest honour for gallantry after her son Mark alerted the government. The 65-year-old, a film director, said: “If my mother had not intervened they would all have been
killed. She showed such remarkable courage.
“My wife’s sister saw an article about a woman who got an award from the Italian government and I thought my mother deserved the same recognition. I wrote to the embassy and my mother was invited to receive the Star of Italy.”
The Germans arrived at Cappella di Scorze, near Venice, while they were in full retreat, with the British Eighth Army closing in on its way to Trieste. As they descended, partisans attacked them after warning locals to shutter their windows.
The incensed Nazis rounded up 38 men and locked them in a cowshed. Knowing of the previous massacre, Gabriella – who spoke fluent German sprang into action. She said: “The Germans arrested any men they could. They were all taken into the cowshed.
“We thought they were all going to be executed. It was terrifying.
“I told my mother I had to do some e- thing so I ran after a German officer and pleaded with him to let them go.
"He was shocked I could speak German but I pleaded with him to take me to his commandant because they were making a big mistake. He agreed to take me to the farmhouse where the commandant was having lunch. "I pleaded with him that the prisoners were not partisans and they were innot. I told him they just cared about their fields and cows.
“He said, ‘How does a girl know what is in their souls?’ But I kept saying they are innocent, please don’t kill them.”
The local men were indeed partisans and had tipped off the villagers.
But Gabriella remained calm and her quick thinking saved them – not before the Germans toyed with killing them all,
ON FEARS VILLAGERS WOULD BE SHOT
including her. She said: “He asked how come they closed their shutters before the attack and I said it was a tradition here when you finish cleaning a room. “Eventually, I was told to go with him outside where the prisoners had been lined up in front of a firing squad with men with machine guns. The commandant said, ‘This girl tells me you had nothing to do with the attack. If she is lying, she is the first to die’.
“They searched the men for partisan items but they had hidden their armbands in the shed. My father slipped me a watch and note for my mother. They thought they were going to die. But the commandant then gave an order to lower their guns and they were released. He said, ‘You have this young lady to thank for your lives’.”
Gabriella remembers embracing her father after the ordeal and him simply saying: “Let’s go home to mamma.” She said: “I sometimes think that, perhaps, because I was young, the commandant listened to me. Maybe he had a daughter my age.”
Gabriella was working as a translator in Mestre, just outside Venice, in 1946 when she fell for British Army officer Captain Peter Ezra.
They were married in Venice in 1949 and moved to Hove, East Sussex, where she worked as a language coach.
They had children Mark and Diana. Peter died in 2005.
When Gabriella returned to her village 25 years ago, she was greeted as a hero – with a meal laid out in the square in her honour.
She said: “I was showing my daughter around when a man spotted me and said, ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s Gabriella’.
“They made a meal for me in the square.
“They said they were very pleased to see me because I had saved the village.”
Dad slipped me a watch & note, they thought they were going to die GABRIELLA