Immigrated to Canada in 1951.

 Guido Rugo RESIDENCE:  1963 - Algoma, Ontario, Canada

Lorenzo Rugo - June 2012
My father was born in Tramonti in 1916. My father was an idealist by the time he turned 20 years of age. Guido ran away from home at the age of 16 years to join the Italian Military under the Italian Fascists. Guido was in favor of national socialism at the time and believed in the Church, Family and the State. Guido joined the Italian fascists to counter wide spread poverty, corruption and organized crime that plagued Italy during the 1920s and 30s. Guido rose to the rank of Sargeant Major and was a crack combat officer. My father saw action in North Africa and Greece. He maintained an extensive war time photo album as he was an very good photographer. This album is maintained by my sister Lucy.  Guido never cared for the Germans nor the Nazis however he operated in close combat with the regular German military forces. When stationed in Greece at the time that Mussolini fell from power, thousands of Italian officers including my father were rounded up by the German SS to be executed on a grassy plain on a remote Greek island. My fathers life was spared when an SS officer responsible for carrying out this crime against  humanity deliberately skipped my fathers face in line and chose the Italian officers to Guido’s left  and right for immediate execution. The SS officer was my fathers friend. My father spent the remaining period of World War 2 in an Nazi prison until liberation by British forces. Guido returned to Italy in 1947 to Tramonti married to his first wife Maria (Greek national) and a little baby Lucy (his first daughter).