Italy: American WWII soldier reunites with Italians he met as children 77 years ago

Milan: A 97-year-old retired American soldier has been reunited at long last with three Italian siblings who he last saw in 1944, during world war two, in the Bologna area of northern Italy.

Martin Adler was put in contact with Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi – all in their 80s – last year, making touch with them for the first time in more than seven decades.

The search began when Adler asked his daughter Rachelle to try and track down the three children from a cherished black and white picture, taken with the then 20-year-old soldier in 1944, to see if any of them were still alive.

Within days the three “children” were tracked down, thanks to social media and good luck, and they held a virtual meeting with Adler at his home in Florida the week before Christmas.

The old soldier was unable to travel at the time, due to covid-19 restrictions, but vowed “to live long enough” to make the journey back to Italy.

On Monday, after 77 years, he met the Naldi siblings in an emotional reunion at Bologna airport. “My heart is bursting,” he said, wearing a t-shirt with an image of his treasured photograph.

Their first encounter in the autumn of 1944 was dramatic, to say the least. Adler, who fought along the Gothic Line as the Nazis retreated northwards, recounts that he entered a seemingly empty house in the village of Cassano di Monterenzio.

When he and fellow soldier John Bronsky heard a noise coming from a large wicker basket, they were on the point of shooting, thinking it might have been German soldiers in hiding.

Suddenly a startled mother ran into the house screaming: “Bambini, bambini!” The soldiers lowered their rifles and Adler recalls vividly the moment that the three “scared” children slowly came out of hiding. “God was really looking down on us”, he said, “because we were ready to fire.”

After identifying himself, the soldier gave the children chocolate and asked if he could take a photograph with them. Their mother agreed, so long as she could first dress them in their finest clothes.

Yesterday, still calling the octogenarian siblings “bambini”, Adler presented each one with a bar of chocolate, just as he did when they climbed out of that basket all those years ago.