L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, R o s h H a s h a n a h , also known as "Jewish New Year", begins September 18 2020 at sundown and marks the beginning of the civil year according to the teachings of Judaism and is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, ac- cording to the Hebrew Bible. Rosh Hashanah customs i n c l u d e e a t i n g s y m b o l i c foods such as apples dipped in honey, hoping to evoke a sweet new year, as well as hearing or sounding the sho- f a r ( a c l e a n e d o u t r a m ' s horn). On Rosh Hashanah, Jewish tradition tells us that God opens up three books, o n e f o r t h o s e w h o w e r e righteous during the year, o n e f o r t h o s e w h o w e r e wicked, and one for those whose good and bad deeds balanced. *** A s R o s h H a s h a n a h begins, I thought I would share some "Righteous Ital- ian Gentile" info with you about ordinary people who helped save many Jewish lives during World War II. Approximately 80 percent of European Jews perished during WW II, 80 percent of Italy's 40,000 Jews were saved. After Germany occu- pied Italy, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini yielded to Hitler's request that Italy's J e w s b e d e p o r t e d , b u t throughout the country, in cities and in rural areas, in c h u r c h e s a n d i n p r i v a t e homes, Italians defied the Duce's orders and protected thousands of Jews until the armies of the Allies arrived. In Rome Vito and Tina Spin- gi, superintendents of an a p a r t m e n t h o u s e , h i d 1 3 Jews in their own apartment a n d a v a c a n t o n e e v e n though a Fascist official lived in the same building. A trol- l e y w o r k e r , w h e n approached by a Jewish man fleeing with his young son, h i d t h e t w o f o r e i g h t months until Rome was lib- erated in 1944. T h e e x p e r i e n c e o f o n e J e w i s h f a m i l y , t e l l s u s a great deal. Riccardo Pacifici, 39, was chief rabbi of Genoa when the Germans crossed t h e b o r d e r i n S e p t e m b e r 1943 and restored Mussolini to power after he had been d e p o s e d b y t h e F a s c i s t Council and the Italian king. Prior to this time, there had been no deportations from Italy of either Italians or for- eign Jews. But with the Ger- mans in Italy, it was likely that Jews who were not in hiding would be captured and deported. A r c h b i s h o p B o e t t o o f Genoa offered hiding places to the rabbi, his wife and their two sons. Rabbi Pacifici accepted for his family but refused for himself, saying that as long as there were Jews who needed him, he would not desert his post. On November 2, the Ger- mans threatened to kill the children of the Jewish custo- dian of the synagogue if he didn't summon the rabbi. Rabbi Pacifici was captured, imprisoned and tortured, despite pleas of Archbishop Boetto and his offer of gold in exchange for the rabbi's release. Even under torture, t h e r a b b i n e v e r r e v e a l e d what the Nazis wanted: the n a m e s a n d a d d r e s s e s o f other Jews. Rabbi Pacifici was delivered to Auschwitz on Saturday, December 11 and was seen entering the gas chamber on December 12, 1943. His wife, Wanda, 36, had been taken to the Convent of the Sisters of the Carmine in Florence. At 3 a.m. on her sixth night in the convent, the Germans broke i n , f o u n d t h e 5 0 J e w i s h w o m e n h i d d e n t h e r e a n d deported them to Auschwitz. There, she too died. Only the children were left, hidden just outside Flo- rence in a convent school for boys. E m a n u e l e w a s t w e l v e , R a f f a e l e f i v e . F o r n i n e months the nuns concealed the children's identity. Since Pacifici was a Jewish name, they called the boys by a dif- f e r e n t n a m e , a n d m a d e excuses for the boys never taking communion. In 1944, the Allied armies liberated Florence. The nuns entrusted the two Pacifici boys to one of the soldiers of the British Eighth Army's J e w i s h B r i g a d e . H e t o o k them to the rabbi's parents, who had survived the war and were living in Rome. Emanuele Pacifici became a buisinessman and unofficial archivist of the history and Advancing our Legacy: Italian Community Services CASA FUGAZI If you know of any senior of Italian descent in San Francisco needing assistance, please contact: ItalianCS.org | (415) 362-6423 | info@italiancs.com Italian Community Services continues to assist Bay Area Italian-American seniors and their families navigate and manage the resources needed to live healthy, independent and productive lives. Since Shelter-in-Place began in San Francisco, Italian Community Services has delivered over 240 meals, over 900 care packages and made over 2000 phone wellness checks for our seniors. culture of the Jews in Italy, and especially of events con- nected with the Holocaust. He amassed thousands of documents and slides, and has lectured widely on the subject. Pacifici singled out rail- r o a d w o r k e r s f o r s p e c i a l praise. The workers invoked endless red tape to delay car- rying out deportation orders, diverted trains, put equip- ment out of commission and, in one case, threatened to shoot the Germans escorting a train if they didn't allow the railroad workers to open the railway cars and give water to the deportees. As in the case of the Paci- fici family, the clergy played a significant role in saving t h o u s a n d s o f J e w s . P o p e Pius XII surely knew of these a c t i v i t i e s , a n d i t a p p e a r s that, after October 1943, he himself asked the churches and convents to hide Jews. The list of "Righteous Gen- t i l e s " i n I t a l y i s h e a v i l y weighted with the names of Catholic priests. Padre Cipri- ano Ricotti, recalled: "During the war I became involved with the Jews when I was c a l l e d b y C a r d i n a l d e l l a Costa and asked if I was will- ing to dedicate myself to the Jews who had come in from Yugoslavia and France. They c a m e w i t h o u t d o c u m e n t s and with no knowledge of the language, and it would have been easy for them to be picked up and persecut- e d . " C a r d i n a l E l i a d e l l a Costa, Archbishop of Flo- rence, also enlisted the help of a parish priest named Don Leto Casini and a Dominican monk. Together with other people, they dedicated them- selves to hiding Jews in con- vents, or, if they had some money, to finding private homes whose owners would rent space to them. In Assisi the clergy are more widely known for their r e s c u e o f J e w s a n d t h o u - s a n d s o f n o n - J e w i s h r e f u g e e s l a t e r p o u r i n g i n from the south, fleeing the b o m b i n g a s t h e A l l i e s a d v a n c e d n o r t h . T h e y expected that the birthplace of Saint Francis, patron saint of Italy, would be declared an open city and that neither side would bomb. ***

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