Italian village welcomes family of Colorado soldier who died there 80 years later

A group of American soldiers killed by the Nazis in a small town in Italy during World War II were honored by villagers this month 80 years after their deaths. Paul Valdez was one of those soldiers. A native of Colorado, he served in the Army’s 45th Infantry Division.

His second cousin lives in Denver and works for CBS Colorado. She was among the family members who traveled all the way to Montebuono from the United States for their remarkable memorial ceremony.

In 1944, the Allies drove the Nazis out of Italy when American troops bombed a German train. It transported hundreds of Allied prisoners of war who were taken to a concentration camp. Valdez was one of the survivors of the bombing. He and seven other Americans fled the scene and hurriedly traveled into the hills to Montebuono, 42 miles outside Rome.

One of them knocked on the door of Nello Luchetti’s house. He was 12 years old at the time.

“Mother gave them a loaf of bread because the poor things had nothing to eat,” he said in Italian this month when interviewed by CBS News.

The Americans eventually took cover behind the walls of a small medieval monastery on a hill. For a short time, villagers did their best to help them. The soldiers came out of the monastery and knocked on the door to get food. But the Nazis chased them and shot them all, some inside the monastery. Bullet holes are still visible in the walls.

Luchetti shuddered as he recalled the moment he saw the bodies of Valdez and the other Americans who had been killed.

“What cowards the Nazis were,” says Luchetti, who is now in his eighties.

Since the massacre, Montebuono has honored these eight GIs every year, and the 80th consecutive commemoration ceremony was one that Valdez’s great-niece Elaine Torres said she and other family members should not miss.

“They really kept their memories alive all these years. All those years we never even knew about Montebuono or anything that happened here,” she said. “So it’s extraordinary that they’ve all really embraced them. They’ve never forgotten it.”

Valdez’s relatives have kept his German prisoner of war tag, the letters he sent home and his prayer book. But for decades, they never knew the full story. That is, until five years ago, when the city of Montebuono worked with historians and contacted Valdez’s brother Reuben. Reuben shared the story with his daughter Peggy, Torres and other family members. He died a few months later.

“The city took care of him. People cared about him. Other mothers cared about him and his fellow soldiers,” Peggy said.

A few years later some family members came to Montebuono.

“It was great,” Torres said. “It was the second time we traveled to this particular city. My husband, son and I went there in July 2022. We just wanted to see the monastery and pay our respects to my great uncle Paul. And when we came, the city The red carpet was rolled out and the whole city welcomed us.”

For this year’s 80th ceremony, the villages wore special costumes and played the American national anthem on their musical instruments. Torres said she was again amazed when she heard the stories of the villagers who risked their lives to help Valdez and the other American fighters.

“Even though it was occupied by the Nazis, these families put themselves in danger by giving these soldiers food, by giving them bread, by giving them water and they really took care of the soldiers until unfortunately the Nazis found them and killed them.

Torres said she traveled with a group of 12 family members for the ceremony, some from Colorado and some from California.

“It was so moving to be there the first time and such an incredible experience and then to go back for this ceremony – for the 80th… for all of us to be there together to experience this very special ceremony and everything what the city has to offer together for these soldiers it was extraordinary,” she said.

Montebuono now has several plaques around town that recognize and honor the American soldiers.