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People from Here

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Welcome to People from Here.

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What we want to tell you today
is the story of two young people,

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of two young people
with high hopes.

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There is Adelina,
a brilliant lawyer who works

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at a prestigious legal firm in Milan.

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Then there is Hector,
an industrial chemist.

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The future can only smile
at Adelina and Hector.

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Actually,
their future will be more turbulent

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than they could have ever imagined.

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As a matter of fact,
in 1938 Hector and Adelina are Jewish.

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On September 18th,
in the town of Trieste,

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Benito Mussolini announced Racial Laws
for the first time,

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for the defense of the race.

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The world of those two young people
suddenly collapses under their feet.

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We will tell this story
of Hector and Adelina

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about the eve of the day by memory.

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We will tell it with the son
of Hector and Adelina, Daniele Finzi,

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who in 2011, decided to donate
his parents letters and documents

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to The Archives of Pieve Santo Stefano.

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Shortly we will also discuss
why this choice was made.

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I would like to start precisely
with September 1938,

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with Mussolini's announcement
of the laws for the defense of the race.

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Hector and Adelina immediately started
to understand that there was no future

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for them in that country.
To leave their country

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was a difficult decision,
but one that will save their lives.

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Yes, my father Hector Finzi
had very deep historical knowledge.

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Also because he knew German very well.

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He had two aunts, aunt Genie
and aunt Lazagudita Gentiluomo,

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who lived in Vienna.

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He had followed all
the Nazi antisemitism up to March 1938.

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So when the race manifesto
was published in July 1938,

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he couldn't expect it.

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He knew what our limits were
and he also hoped

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that Italy was perhaps
a little bit different than Germany.

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And my father, more than my mother,
made quick and immediate decisions.

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He was also very intuitive.
He had known my mom

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only a few month in 1938.
It was love at first sight

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and precisely because of
the race manifesto, the Racial Laws,

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they decided to get married.
They were married in Milan

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on December 1, 1938.

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In 1938. We arrive in 1939.
- Yes.

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A manifest date for many.
- Yes.

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Very unjust, but there is a turning point.
- There is a turning point.

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Hector and Adelina decide to leave.
Rather how do they depart?

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Because, in a way,
they leave inquired.

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Yes and no.
So the problem is immediate

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and that of money
because of English with the white book,

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maybe in February or March of 1939.
They set up a number of 75,000 Jews

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that could go to Palestine
in five years.

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But to enter, every person needed
to have 1,000 stars.

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Like we had said, they had chosen.
The goal was Palestine.

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The choice was not a coincidence
because my father also thought

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of Latin America.
But the idea of going

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to Palestine was because it was close.
He also hoped his parents could join him.