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Italy still lagged behind other major European countries at the time of World War II. Education was one of these areas. Here we see Carmelo Puzzolo. He was born in 1934 in San Pietro in Bagno, a village 35 mi east of Florence. We know that his father came from Sicily. Carmelo attended the 5th grade, at the time the last of compulsory attendance, in the school year 1944-1945 and then started working as a house painter. Here we have a photo of Carmelo with two coworkers. Italy wascraveged by World war II after the Germans occupied Italy and the Allies invaded (1943). Florence is located in northern Italy and not liberated until August 1944. The Allies did not advance much further north until the next Spring (1945). The photograph of Carmelo here was probably taken around the time of liberation. Going barefoot was common in Italy among the working-class and peasantry, but as a result of the War many more Italian children, boys and girls, did not have shoes. Most advanced European countries had mandatory primary school programs to about 12-13 years of age. This changed very quickly after the War with the capitalist-generated Italian Economic Miracle.
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