Descendants of Colorado ski troops hike in the Italian mountains they helped liberate : NPR

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And my name is Juana Summers. Descendants of American soldiers who helped liberate Italy during World War II have visited the places where their fathers and grandfathers fought. Eighty years after the war ended, some fear their own country could descend into a fascism similar to the one their family members helped defeat. Colorado Public Radio’s Stina Sieg reports.

STINA SIEG, BYLINE: In the heart of the Tuscan hills, the summit of Mount Belvedere is lush and covered in a thick carpet of green trees. Nearly 100 descendants of American soldiers from World War II gather around a stone monument honoring America’s role in the liberation of Italy. Local mayor Barbara Franchi smiles in front of them.

BARBARA FRANCHI: You are always welcome here, on this land which will never forget your father and your grandfathers.

SIEG: Who stormed this and other nearby peaks and helped win World War II.

FRANCHI: On this mountain, they wrote a page of history which belongs not only to America, but also to Italy, to Europe and to all free peoples.

SIEG: And may their memory inspire more peace and solidarity in the future, she says.

FRANCHI: Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

SIEG: Mayor Franchi says she is sad to see fascism reappearing in governments around the world, including Italy.

FRANCHI: I think fascism is coming. This means that humanity is collapsing and we have learned nothing about the past.

SIEG: Eighty years ago, this green region was ravaged by tanks and bombs. The Nazis massacred the inhabitants. Today, these small towns are quaint and serene, like Lizzano at Belvedere, where American descendant Peggy Hall sits in a shady square. She is traveling to honor her father, William Parker, who left his small Utah town to enlist.

PEGGY HALL: We are here because we believe in defending our freedoms.

SIEG: Everyone on this trip is descended from the men of an elite fighting force called the 10th Mountain Division, which trained in the mountains of Colorado to fight in those of Italy. Rikki Swedhin’s father, Lloyd, was an army postal clerk here during the war.

RIKKI SWEDHIN: The Americans don’t understand. They are spoiled. They don’t understand.

HALL: My father, our fathers, fought against fascism. And we have a government, a presidency that is trying to lead our country towards fascism.

SIEG: The Trump administration has long rejected the label fascism, calling it baseless and dangerous rhetoric from its opponents. Both Hall and Swedhin’s fathers were lifelong Republicans, and both women have voted Republican in the past, but not for years. They think this president is a threat to democracy and hope their fathers do too.

SWEDHIN: Oh, I think Dad would be completely – based on what he experienced in World War II, he would be totally anti-fascist.

SIEG: And Hall is so afraid for the future of her country that at her home in Colorado, she flies her American flag upside down. She is particularly troubled by the deployment of American troops in American cities. She sees troops being used against their own people.

HALL: I never thought I’d see that. It doesn’t matter which political party you belong to. This is not something that should happen in our country.

SIEG: But other descendants of that journey have different fears about America.

ROSS RANEY: The current climate in the country is not fascist in any way.

SIEG: Ross Raney says Americans who cry fascism don’t even know what that means.

RANEY: But the country’s climate is more similar to that before the Civil War.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)

SIEG: He’s breathing hard on a steep trail near Lizzano, the last place his grandfather, Roy Moore, described in his journal before he was killed. A conservative, Raney sees dangerous divisions in America and says the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk is proof.

RANEY: Fixing the speech you don’t like is adding more speech, without killing the speaker. And that’s where we are, and it really scares me.

SIEG: Raney says it’s not fascism for Trump to float ideas like running for a third term or taking guns away from transgender people. It’s trolling. And Raney says Americans would not tolerate their leader becoming a dictator.

RANEY: Whether it was from Trump or Biden, the people would not have allowed a takeover because we are the power.

(CROSSTALK)

SIEG: After several days of touring the battle sites, the descendants are celebrated with a party in Vidiciatico, a village almost completely destroyed during the war. They sit at long tables in a square, right next to a medieval bell tower that has somehow survived. Barbara Franchi, mayor of a neighboring town, says she is eternally grateful for the help from the Americans.

FRANCHI: They crossed the ocean and they came here to save us. And this is very important, and we must continue to maintain this memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MILITARY SINGERS: (Singing in Italian).

SIEG: As military singers serenade descendants, Mayor Franchi says that while she fears fascism around the world, she doesn’t know the state of politics in the United States.

FRANCHI: But I believe in the soul of America.

SIEG: And she says it’s forever linked to this place. For NPR News, I’m Stina Sieg in Vidiciatico, Italy.

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