A black and white photo. A doorway, in front of it eight children, three boys and five girls. Almost eighty years have passed since the day it was taken, but the memory is still vivid. Edward Roethel, a former American soldier, is now looking for those eight children, immortalized in San Miniato between 1944 and 1945, during the Second World War.

The appeal comes from the United States of America, from Holly Rotondi, executive director of the Friends of the National World War II Memorial, based in Washington. In Italy, it is the Municipality of San Miniato to make the appeal and to hope that someone of those little ones now, at about eighty years of age, will come forward at the behest of the former U.S. soldier.

Edward Roethel is over ninety years old and one of his last wishes is to track down the children in the photo, or at least some of their family members. "We are asking the citizenry if anyone recognizes themselves or any of their family members. Contact us" is the request of the municipality of the province of Pisa. The number to give info to is 3488160268, while the email to contact is ufficiostampa@comune.san-miniato.pi.it.

Roethel is a veteran of World War II. He was employed in the Fifth Army and arrived in Naples in 1944. Afterwards he was sent to San Miniato where he lived for a few months but he still carries it in his heart. He does not know the names of the children in the picture but he remembers well his period in San Miniato, when he served in the city that lived very bad pages during the conflict, just think of the Massacre of the Cathedral.

The little ones of the image should be about eighty years old and, inform the City, "may not be of San Miniato because at the time in the city there were many families displaced from other areas of Tuscany.

The appeal has already been made by the Municipality and by many San Miniato residents and a real tam-tam has started among Facebook groups and messaging services to help Edward Roethel.

The ex-soldier himself has made available some of his photos - one from the time of the war and one current - to help dig into the memory of the population of San Miniato and surrounding areas. It is not an easy task to find those people, but in the era of social networks it is less complicated.