Home of Vincenzo Piselli

In this house, during World War II, Vincenzo Piselli, a young Sandonatese remembered for his heroic efforts to help former Allied prisoners and foreign Jews hiding on the San Donato mountain, was arrested. During those months the town was the German rear of the Cassino front and the last inhabited town before the Gustav Line.

Vincenzo was born on June 22, 1910, in San Donato Val di Comino. Affectionately called "Pasquale" in honor of his paternal grandfather, Vincenzo was a kind and devoted man. He worked as a blacksmith and tinsmith in the artisan store on Via Duomo, together with his friend Nazzareno Cedrone. In addition to work in the workshop, the two also provided labor in the Duomo for daily maintenance.

In the spring of 1944, while fighting on the Gustav Line and at Cassino, Vincenzo was arrested by German military police. He was at home having dinner when he was picked up together with some escaped Sicilian soldiers. Taken with them to the German command post at the Casa del Fascio, he was transferred first to Alvito and then deported to the Dachau concentration camp. Vincenzo's family hoped for his release, which unfortunately never happened.

Vincenzo was arrested for bringing food daily to British soldiers and Jews hiding in the mountains of the village. Such solidarity actions were part of a larger plan organized by the parish of San Donato. He died in Dachau on March 7, 1945, at age 34, due to "physical exhaustion and torture."