Echoes of war: objects and testimonies!
In the course of rearranging the Funds of the Venetian-Milanese Province and the Province of Turin, testimonies from the past emerge daily, not only related to the history of the Society but also to our national history.
Much of the documentation preserved in the personal files often concerns the correspondence of the Jesuit military chaplains at the front. These are completely unpublished letters that dwell on the life of the soldiers assisted and on daily life at the front. In addition to this type of ‘traditional’ documentation, various objects were also found.
What you see in the photograph is a small metal plate that contains some documents inside, in a reduced format.
The plate was worn – tied around the neck – by soldiers during the Great War.
It could be described as the ancestor of the metal dog tags that the army would adopt in the following decades and that soldiers sometimes still wear today on missions in war territories.
The plate was not only indispensable for recognising the soldier’s corpse, facilitating his identification, but could also be useful long before his death.
In the event of an injury, in fact, in the documentation inserted in the metal buckle, important information could be found regarding blood group, vaccinations taken and any known medical problems.
The plate is in good condition and has protected the documentation inside, which fortunately did not serve to identify the owner: the Jesuit who wore it returned from the front, only to leave the Company a few years later.
The plate is kept in his personal file.
The personal files also show numerous medals awarded to soldiers, before they joined the Society of Jesus, in recognition of their participation in the war.
The second photo shows the bronze medal awarded to Cesare Bulla for his participation in the First World War, attached to the certificate of recognition.
The inscription on the obverse of the medal reads “coined in the enemy bronze”: the theft of raw materials, metals and resources was one of the harsh conditions imposed on Germany, one of the defeated countries during the First World War.
Maria Macchi
