Until September 2, 1943, there had been no bombings in the Trentino region, but afterwards twenty-five thousand people left the city and bomb shelters were built (the largest in Piazza Venezia). By May 3, 1945, the air raids had claimed a total of 400 victims.
Especially damaging was the bombing of Trent on May 13, 1944, when one hundred deaths were recorded.
Igino Giordani, recalling how Chiara lived that moment, wrote, “That night she slept outdoors, in Gocciadoro park, with her parents, who spent those hours thinking about how to get away. Chiara remembered that she had promised her spiritual director not to leave the city of Trent: hence her suffering at the thought of the imminent separation. She wept continuously. Her parents, not knowing why, tried to comfort her. She consoled herself by recalling the motto “Omnia vincit amor” (Virgil). And praying while looking up at the night sky, she saw the constellation of the Great Bear cross the sky. Shortly before dawn, when her parents, who were obliged to evacuate, had begun to gather the few salvageable things from their house, she told her father that because of the promise she had made, she could not leave. She knelt before him and looked at him with tears in her eyes. Her father gave his consent and blessed her. She repeated the gesture with her mother, but she resisted it. ”[1]
Her parents, with their packs on their backs, set out for the countryside. Distraught and crying, she set out for the city. Coming down Corso 3 Novembre, at Via Vittorio Veneto, she met a woman who seemed out of her mind with distress, shouting, “Four of my family have died”. Chiara consoled her and understood that she had to forget her own pain in order to welcome that of humanity.