Granai della Memoria

Germano Angelo Bione was born in Corsione d’ Asti on March 24,1939; he was interviewed for The Granaries of Memory in 2013.

Mr Bione narrates his life starting from the end of World War II when, due to the economic conditions of his family, he was welcomed in an orphanage in Asti, where he stayed until the age of 11 and received a catholic education.

After a couple of years spent working in the fields of the Langhe, he went back to Asti where he started working as a carpenter, at the beginning as a simple trainee and than, standing out for his ability, as a worker.

After that he started working for a big engineering industry, where he engaged politics and trade unionism: this interest grew insomuch as he became, in a few years, an executive of an importing trade union, FIOM.

His interest for politics, very close to Marxism, made him to be active on public life, in particular in education. He fought for changing the history book of the children attending the 5th year of elementary school, in order to have one that contained the 20th century history and, in particular, the one of World War II. He highlighted its importance also entitling Asti’s primary school to Eo Baussano, a partisan who spent four years in a nazi concentration camp.

During the meeting, Mr Bione narrates also about his trips to Russia and India, where he met Mother Teresa, with whom he had the possibility to discuss and talk over.

The interview ends with Bione’s opinion about the present time socio-economic condition of Langhe, focusing on the crisis of Asti’s area and the rise of Cuneo’s one.