Anna Maria Giamberardino was born in May 1931 in Ventimiglia, Italy, near France. Her father worked for the railroad, which was a government job. The family moved around a lot and eventually settled in Genova [Annotator's Note: Genova Province, Italy]. Giamberardino was one of six children. One of her sisters died young and another brother also died. Despite being transferred somewhere else, the family liked Genova, so they primarily lived there. Her father had to be a supporter of Mussolini [Annotator's Note: Italian fascist dictator Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; also known as il Duce] so he could work for the railroad. He also sold fruits and vegetables to feed the family. Giamberardino's father went to Black Shirts [Annotator's Note: Camicie Nere; Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, or Voluntary Militia for National Security, Italian National Fascist Party paramilitary unit] meetings, even though he did not believe in their messages. He took care of the family well. During the war, there was starvation in the country, but her family was always fed. Giamberardino's brother would go to nearby towns to get flour so their mother could make bread and pizza. In 1943, the Germans took over Italy and that is when life got worse. The Germans and Italians were working together, but when Italy declared peace, the Germans took over the country. They tried to make the young kids join the Army. They would take teenagers and send them to Germany. One of her brother's friends was sent to a concentration camp. He returned home emaciated. Other people escaped the trains to Germany. One day, men were hiding in Giamberardino's building. The Germans looked for them but could not find them. Her father was reported for having ammunition in the house. The Germans came for her brother. The Germans threatened to shoot her mother and started looking for the ammunition but did not find any. Giamberardino was about ten years old at the time. The interpreter looked at one of her older sisters and tried to make her leave with the soldiers. Her mother refused to let her go with the Germans. Giamberardino was told to go with the Germans and her sister. Her sister was engaged, but the German interpreter wanted to date her. The sister accepted the date but was shaking badly. She said yes because she was afraid of what would happen. She did not go on the date and did not go out with her fiancée for three months. Giamberardino was the middle child and would help grocery shop. One day, she saw all the Germans in the town center. They were trying to block everyone and capture all the young men. Every day, she woke up and was told about how many men were killed by the Germans. Her sister's fiancée built ships. One day, the Germans started taking men near the ship building company. He locked himself in a machine for a full day with some other men to avoid capture. They could have been killed in the machine. On Sundays, the Germans would stand in front of the movies. People were not allowed to walk with their hands in the pockets out of fear of concealed weapons.

One night, Anna Maria Giamberardino and a friend decided to go see where the couples would hang out. They saw some men talking and wondered what they were talking about. She found out it was the Italian Underground [Annotator's Note: anti-fascist group of partisan fighters similar to the French Underground] talking about getting out of town. The Italian partisans liberated Genova [Annotator's Note: Genova Province, Italy] before the Americans got to town. One of Giamberardino's brothers was a member of the Italian Underground. She did not know he was a member until that moment. He returned home early in the morning. The partisans in town liberated the town, arrested the Germans, put them in a school, and then put them on a train bound for Germany. Not long after, the Americans came into the town. The underground went crazy with the local Fascists. The partisans in Milan [Annotator's Note: Milan, Italy] killed Mussolini [Annotator's Note: Italian fascist dictator Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; also known as il Duce] and hung his body. The partisans in her town did similar things to the local Fascists. They could not walk at night after a certain time. Giamberardino's sister worked as a typist for the train station and would stay at work at night. When the war ended, things were more okay. The partisans would sack Fascist's houses and beat them up. Her brother did not do any of that stuff. Some of the underground people tried to raid her house because her father was in the Black Shirts [Annotator's Note: Camicie Nere; Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, or Voluntary Militia for National Security, Italian National Fascist Party paramilitary unit]. When they found out who her brother was, they stopped. After the war, Giamberardino immigrated to the United States. She went to her aunt's house. She missed her family. She took a ship and her aunt paid for the trip. Giamberardino started working as soon as she arrived. Eventually, she moved back to Italy, but returned so she would not lose her citizenship. That is when she met her husband and started a family. Once the Americans arrived, things became freer. When the Americans left, the underground started their activities. People went out into the streets when the Americans arrived. The townspeople started punishing girls who had dated Germans. Giamberardino thinks people went overboard and treated the women as prostitutes. She was able to keep up with the war by listening to the radio, but she was not all that interested. Her family listened to Italian radio because they did not speak any other languages. Her father did what Mussolini told the country to do but did not believe in his message. He would work late and was not home that much. Giamberardino's father was strict with her older sister. Things in Italy were getting bad. Her father left the family, so she thought moving to the United States would help the family. Her mother did not want her to leave, but she did anyway. Giamberardino was forced to marry her cousin and after ten years, she decided to visit her family in Italy. She told her family she did not want to return, but her mother made her. After five years, she met her husband, which changed her mind about being married. Her husband was fixing her friend's ceiling when they met. Giamberardino was a beautician in the Bronx [Annotator's Note: the Bronx is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. The following day, they started dating. She was lucky she had food because it was a difficult time. Some kids told her they had nothing to eat and not to complain.