On August 5, l944, during the war of resistance against German rule in Italy, five anti-Nazis partisans were taken from a truck in the center of Villar Pellice. Four were shot execution-style by Nazi soldiers. The fifth partisan, who had broken both his legs during an escape attempt, was simply left to die. The four who were executed were dragged through the streets of Villar Pellice and then left hanging in a public place as a lesson to any of the local population who might have been tempted to join the resistance movement.
Perhaps because their faces had been disfigured by bullets, the names of three of the dead partisans were never known. However, before the Nazis could dispose of the bodies, a fourteen-year-old boy was able to go through their cloths and bags. He found a Bible hidden on one of them. On the inside cover of the Bible, its owner had written a deeply moving message to his family. From that message, it was clear that the deceased partisan who was the owner of the Bible was Willy Jervis. Willy Jervis was well known and very much liked in the Pellice Valley.
A couple years later, the bodies were found and reburied. A second partisan was then identified as Angiolino Primela Miero. Angiolino came from Foresto de Bussoleno in the Susa Valley. He had been wearing distinctive shoes that led to his identification. He was only twenty years old when he died. He had been arrested five weeks earlier, on June 22, l944, by the Italian SS and handed over to the German SS.
(This account is based on a book by Federico Jahier.)