US WWII veteran reunites with Italians he saved as children

By CHARLENE PELE
Associated Press

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — For more than seven decades, Martin Adler treasured a black-and-white photo of himself as a young American soldier with a broad smile with three impeccably dressed Italian children he is credited with saving as the Nazis retreated northward in 1944. The 97-year-old World War II veteran met the three siblings — who are now octogenarians themselves — in person for the first time on Monday. It was a happy ending to a story that could easily have been a tragedy. When Adler first saw the children, in 1944, he had his gun trained on a wicker basket where they were hiding. He thought it might contain a German soldier. But the children’s mother ran in front of his gun, and he stopped to listen.