In 1916, Rodolfo Brunner had acquired the large compound of Forcoli in Pontedera, Tuscany, which almost three decades later would become a refuge for some family members while other members of the Brunner family escaped to Switzerland or left for England in time. After the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in September 1943, Rodolfo and his wife, Gina, his daughter-in-law Maria Teresa (“Tea”) Brunner, née Clerici (1908-1947), and her four children fled to Forcoli; here they did not raise the German invaders’ suspicions and survived war and persecution while Leone Brunner, Tea’s husband, was involved in the resistance against the National Socialists. In honor of the American liberators, Tea Brunner gave a dinner party for “Combat Command B” on August 18, 1944. Tea Brunner died at a young age, leaving behind five children. Her eldest son was Carlo Alberto Brunner.
