Love Amid Danger

The little-known story of five Indian prisoners of war who escaped from a World War II German camp, and the strangers in an Italian village who risked their lives to keep them safe

- Ashok Mahadevan

Samarjeet and Bijal Salvi were tired and disappointed. For nearly an hour, they had been driving around the Italian village of Villa San Sebastiano without seeing any signs of life. Even the village's only restaurant was shut.

The couple had come to Villa San Sebastiano on that Sunday afternoon in June 2010 on a very special mission. Nearly 70 years earlier, Samar's late grandfather, Lieutenant Ramachandra Salvi, an Indian Army officer fighting for the British, had been captured by the Germans in World War II and incarcerated in a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in central Italy.

In mid-September 1943, Salvi and four other Indian POWs had escaped from the camp and a few hours later stumbled upon Villa San Sebastiano. Its villagers had welcomed them warmly and, risking execution or other savage punishments, had hidden, fed and looked after the five Indians for months.

From childhood Samar had been enthralled by this story, and yearned to visit the village and thank its residents for saving his grandfather. But now that he was here, he hadn't seen a soul on the streets. He could, of course, knock on a door. But it was afternoon and Italians love their siesta.

Just then a car passed Samar and parked in front of a house. Two men got out. Samar immediately drew up alongside them.

"Excuse me, sir," Samar said, jumping out of his car, and addressing the younger of the two men, "but do you know English?"

The man, whose name Samar soon learnt was Luciano Gargano, nodded. "A little," he said.

As Samar explained the reason for his visit, Luciano grew more and more excited. Turning to the older man-his father and telling him in Italian what Samar had related, Luciano asked him if he'd heard the story of the Indian POWS. The old man shook his headhe hadn't been in the village during the war. But the people in the house across the road had.