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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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The fact is,
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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and about the eve of the day.

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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 was

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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 didn'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 different from 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 well informed.

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Yes and no.
The problem is immediate

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and that of money.

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Because the White Paper
of the British, a policy

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from maybe February or March of 1939,
allowed a total of 75,000 Jews

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to enter Palestine for five years.
But to qualify, every person needed

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to have one thousand 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 had also thought

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of Latin America.
But the idea of going

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

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In any case, the issue
of money was truly a huge problem,

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because they didn't have money.
So, thanks to the lawyer Gianni Morandi,

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who was the owner
of the firm where my mom worked,

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they went to Zurich for their honeymoon.
Then they went to Lugano

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to gather clients for the lawyer
to put towards this large sum.

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I still remember two leather bags
with thousands of stars inside.

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They were gold stars.

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Okay, at this point, they reach Palestine.
The State of Israel still didn't exist.

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There wasn't any money to protect them.
Therefore, they had to start from scratch?

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Yes, and so, they started all over again
from January to April 1, 1939.

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They arrived in Jaffa on April 6, 1939.

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Yes, because by 1922
the British controlled Palestine.

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There were Palestinian Arabs.
The Jewish Palestinians were organized

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by the <i>Yishuv</i>, who were more concerned
with the <i>kibbutz</i> and wanted

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to dedicate themselves
to agriculture, etc.

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But the true damage, the political one,
was directly from the Arab agency.

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I will give you an example.
Twenty days after those who arrived

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in Tel Aviv on April 7th,
they were in school learning modern Hebrew

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because there were various Jews coming
from every part of Europe in Tel Aviv.

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And so, it was necessary
to learn this common language.

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Therefore, there was some organization,
but there were a lot of problems.

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Nevertheless, where I mentally find...
- Ah, yes.

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...this small amount of protection.
In any case, they had to start...

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They had to restart.
- ...from scratch.

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On the other hand, however,
there were also a lot of comforts

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that were left behind by the fact
of having to abandon...

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- Yes.
...Italy.

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Having to leave Italy was strenuous.
- Yes.

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Regarding this, I would also read an excerpt
from the letters that may have been

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donated to the archive, 
diaries from which Hector specifically

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describes what he is feeling at the time
in which he recently abandons Italy.