A 97 year-old World War II veteran was reunited with the three children he found hiding in a basket in an Italian village as the Nazi retreated in 1944 thanks to his daughter's social media sleuthing.
For more than seven decades, Martin Adler treasured a black-and-white photo of himself as a 20-year-old American soldier with a broad smile sitting behind three impeccably dressed Italian children.
On Monday, the 97-year-old met the three siblings - now octogenarians themselves - in person for the first time since the war.
Adler held out his hand to grasp those of Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi for the joyful reunion at Bologna's airport after a 20-hour journey from his home in Boca Raton, Florida.
Martin Adler (rear) sits behind Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi in Monterenzio, Italy in 1944
Adler (second from left) reunited with the three siblings at the airport in Bologna on Monday
Then, just as he did as a 20-year-old soldier in their village of Monterenzio, about 19 miles south of Bologna, he handed out bars of American chocolate.
'Look at my smile,' Adler said of the long-awaited in-person reunion, made possible by the reach of social media.
It was a happy ending to a story that could've easily been a tragedy.
The very first time the soldier and the children saw each other, in 1944, the three faces peeked out of a huge wicker basket where their mother had hidden them as soldiers approached.
Adler thought the house was empty, so he trained his machine gun on the basket when he heard a sound, thinking a German soldier was hiding inside.
Adler (center) found the three siblings hiding in a wicker basket as the Nazi retreated from Italy
He said the 'real hero' is the Naldis' mom, who stood in front of his gun after he aimed it at them
'She put her stomach right against my gun, yelling, "Bambinis! Bambinis! Bambinis!" pounding my chest,' Adler recalled
On Monday, Adler traveled to Monterenzio, where he took the 1944 photo with the Naldis, and touched a rock where he sat to pose with the children
'The mother, Mamma, came out and stood right in front of my gun to stop me (from) shooting,' Adler recalled.
'She put her stomach right against my gun, yelling, "Bambinis! Bambinis! Bambinis!" pounding my chest,' Adler recalled.
'That was a real hero, the mother, not me. The mother was a real hero. Can you imagine you standing yourself in front of a gun and screaming, "Children! No!"' he said.
Adler still trembles when he remembers that he was only seconds away from opening fire on the basket. And after all these decades, he still suffers nightmares from the war, said his daughter, Rachelle Donley.
The children, aged 3 to 6 when they met, were a happy memory. His company stayed on in the village for a while and he would come by and play with them.
In April 1945, Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini was captured by the Italian resistance and executed. German forces in Italy finally surrendered on May 2, 1945, two days after the collapse of Berlin, according to the History Channel.
Giuliana Naldi, the youngest, is the only one of the three who remembers Adler and the basket. She recalls climbing out and seeing Adler and another US soldier, who has since died.
'They were laughing,' Naldi, now 80, remembers. 'They were happy they didn't shoot.'
She, on the other hand, didn't quite understand the close call.
'We weren't afraid for anything,' she said.
She also remembers the soldier's chocolate, which came in a blue-and-white wrapper.
'We ate so much of that chocolate,' she laughed.
Donley, Adler's daughter, decided during the COVID-19 lockdown to use social media to try to track down the children in the old black-and-white photo, starting with veterans' groups in North America.
Adler still trembles when he remembers that he was only seconds away from opening fire on the basket. Above, he holds the hand of Giuliana Naldi, the only one who remembers him
Adler was reunited with the children, now in their 80s, thanks to his daughter's social media sleuthing during the COVID-19 pandemic
During his trip, Adler will travel to Florence, Naples and Rome - and he hopes to meet the pope
Eventually the photo was spotted by an Italian journalist who had written a book on World War II.
He was able to track down Adler's regiment - the 339th Infantry, according to the New York Times - and where it had been stationed from a small detail in another photograph.
The smiling photo was then published in a local newspaper, leading to the discovery of the identities of the three children, who by then were grandparents themselves.
They shared a video reunion in December, and waited until the easing of pandemic travel rules made the trans-Atlantic trip possible.
'I am so happy and so proud of him. Because things could have been so different in just a second. Because he hesitated, there have been generations of people,' Donley said.
The serendipity isn't lost on Giuliana Naldi's 30-year-old granddaughter, Roberta Fontana, one of six children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren who descended from the three children hidden in the wicker basket.
'Knowing that Martin could have shot and that none of my family would exist is something very big,' Fontana said. 'It is very emotional.'
During his stay in Italy, Adler will spend some time in the village where he was stationed, before traveling on to Florence, Naples and Rome, where he hopes to meet Pope Francis.
'My dad really wants to meet the pope,' Donley said. 'He wants to share his message of peace and love. My dad is all about peace.'
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