My aunts down in the old country and some of the older people here at the parish would say “Oh, those poor Italian boys! They missed their mothers and all they wanted was a nice meal and a sympathetic ear....Then the Germans came.”
It wasn't good at all. Not far north of my maternal village, there is a monument at the edge of a cliff in the mountains. It marks the spot were 90 men and boys were machine gunned by the Germans for two offenses, (1) partisan activities and (2) hiding Jews. Names of my relatives are on that monument. Members of my family were hiding Jews while their own house had been commandeered by the local head of the Wehrmacht.
May your family members be of blessed memory.