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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,

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Daniele Finzi, who in 2011, decided
to donate his parents letters

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and documents
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.

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To leave their country was
a difficult decision,

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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 both 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, 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.

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He had known my mom only
a few month in 1938.

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It was love at first sight
and because of the race manifesto,

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the Racial Laws,
they decided to get married.

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They were married in Milan
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.
Or 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 from maybe February

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or March of 1939, 
allowed a total of 75,000 Jews

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to enter Palestine for five years.

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But to qualify, 
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 had also thought

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of Latin America.

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But the idea of going 
to Palestine was because it was nearby.

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He also hoped his parents could join him.

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In any case, 
the issue of money was really

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a huge problem
because they didn't have money.

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So, thanks to the lawyer Gianni Morandi,
who was the owner of the firm

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where my mom worked,
they went to Zurich for their honeymoon.

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Then they went to Lugano
to gather clients for the lawyer

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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.

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The Jewish Palestinians were organized
by the <i>Yishuv</i>, who were more concerned

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with the <i>kibbutz</i> and wanted
to dedicate themselves

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to agriculture, etc.

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But the harm, the political one,
was directed by the Arab agency.

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The Arab agency was, well,
I will give you an example.

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Those who arrived
in Tel Aviv on April 7th,

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were in school learning modern Hebrew
twenty days after arriving,

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

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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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In any case, where I mentally find...
- Ah, yes.

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...this small amount of protection.
However, 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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In regard to this,
I would also read an excerpt

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from the letters
that may have been donated to the archive,

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diaries in which Hector specifies
what he was feeling shortly after the time

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at which he abandoned Italy.

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We will read from this excerpt:
"When I left Italy four months ago,

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"feeling more disgusted by the burden
of having to leave the country

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"than for the imminent danger,
many of my colleagues

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"and friends were quick
to express to me their discontent

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"about what was happening.

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"Through their conversations,
I felt they knew what sympathy meant

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"and they only ended up withdrawing me.


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"They were whispered in room conversations
solely because they knew me

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"and thought highly of me.

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"For many, being an example against
the persecution of Jews not being born

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"in Italy, could also be considered fair
because it is understood that they came

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"to the country to make a fortune
by going behind other's backs.

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"They had some skilled political views.

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"The fascist government's right
to persecute people that it had let into

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"the country was generally recognized."

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Okay, so Hector felt betrayed by Italy?

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Without a doubt.

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As I was saying prior,
also because my father was from Trieste.

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From his father, my grandfather,
he had also received an irredentist

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and nationalist education.

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Trieste...
- Of course.

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...had always been divided
between people from Trieste

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instead of irredentists,
those who love Italy, Italian culture,

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Italian language,
like my grandfather and the Slovenians.

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He had received this education,
and so he was an irredentist nationalist.

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Additionally, he was a genius official,
and so he felt like an Italian.

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He loved Italy
and he felt betrayed by this terrible law.

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In addition, in Hector's letters,
in this text, it also highlights

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a responsibility
by the Italian people themselves

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for that which is happening.

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He writes:
"The political maturity

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"of the Italian people
is apparently that of government rule

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"that it has and that it deserves."

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There is a precise responsibility
by the people.

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Well, the problem of the Italian people...
(Laughter)

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is living, yes, it's like saying...

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living today like yesterday.

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In other words,
the lack of personal responsibility

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and...not this...

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in this way...y..., accepting anything,
a leader or a guide,

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that which has
an...an...uglier appearance, if you will.

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And that...Trieste,
not coincidentally Mussolini

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and September 18, 1938,
where they were

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at the Unity of Italy Square
to present the Racial Laws

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not only because of
the nationalism that was there,

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but because Trieste was
a very multiethnic, multicultural city.

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There were more than two centuries
in which ethnic groups were diverse.

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They coexisted.

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But at the very moment 
in which Mussolini was harsh towards Jews,

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who, I repeat, were profound Italians
and felt as such, and had also fought

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for Italy during the First World War,
at the point, everyone was inclined

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to accept the rule of fascism.

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We return to Hector and Adelina,
who, because of their decisions,

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leave the Second World War behind,
in which the persecution of Jews

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and the holocaust is about to start.

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They leave behind the errors of war,
however, like I said, they face a life

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that is not easy.

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Like we said,
Adelina was a lawyer with a great career.

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She finds herself having
to start her work up again.

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Yes, because the main difficulty was
a work shortage.

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There was an excess of workers
(Laughter)

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from Tel Aviv.

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And then, there were few jobs
or they were completely insecure.

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Another big problem was
a housing shortage.

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So much so that my parents were forced
to live with a family in an apartment,

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with a kind of Polish family.

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And so the difficulty was, above all,
the work shortage.

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Also because the two small bags
of two thousand stars were not

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to be touched at all.
My father was not flexible.

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And so then my mom, in other words,
my mom, as long as my father remained

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in Tel Aviv until August 23, 1944,
when he then went to work

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at the British oil refinery... yes...
No, he also had my mom

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because then he had had my sister first
and then I was born in 1942.

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So then when my father left,
he felt the obligation to work

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to support the family
also because he liked the idea

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of having money...
(Laughter)

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to freely spend.

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As mentioned, your mother was free...
- Yes, free.

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in Palestine.
- Yes.

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Your father, on the other hand,
had to move abroad to Persia

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because meanwhile he found work
with an oil company.

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So two lovers who find themselves
far apart in a foreign land,

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and the only point of contact
between these two people becomes

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the writing, the letters
that will then become so important

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for documentation, for their memories.
- Yes.

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In fact, if my father accepts
this two year contract

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with this Iranian company,
from Abadan and in Persia,

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he would do his work
as an industrial chemist

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in this precise military zone.

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He certainly separated from,
he left his wife, his children,

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in Tel Aviv.
Then, although very tired,

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every evening my mom wrote
and reported what had happened

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during her workday,
because she had found work

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with a company that was part
of the Tel Aviv pharmaceutical industry.

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After then being fired,
she went into a...into a house to iron...

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So, she could do anything.
And so she reported with great ability,

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descriptive, careful about everything
that went on during the day.

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Rather, my father sometimes wrote letters
with extensive description.

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He explained to her a bit about his duty,
weather problems because it was very hot,

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relationships with the British,
that local population that was

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in truly devastating conditions.
Okay so they were letters that,

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among other things... If you permit me...
- Sure.

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a tangent... Things one absolutely knew
but I didn't even know

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the letters existed.

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Then perhaps we can also elaborate
on how they were found.

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Then also about how the decision
to publish them came about.

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Let's go back.
We had said that while Hector

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and Adelina were in Palestine,
their children were born.

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Yes, my sister...
- You were born

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and your sister Ana was born.

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It is fitting that the future
of these two children is often focused

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on in these letters that Hector
and Adelina exchange.

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I would like to read another
particularly significant passage

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that is again written by Hector
in Abadan in February 23, 1945:

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"If on one hand, the war tends
to be nearing its end, on the other,

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"for us, the situation in Palestine
is taking a favorable turn.

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"These days, I am overthinking
and continuously thinking

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"about the problem and worried,
not so much about our personal future,

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"but the future of our children.
I feel irresistibly carried towards

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"a solution that,
although never once explored,

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"today seems inevitable to me.
Perhaps in a year's time we will find

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"the need to have to return to Italy.
Then they will return

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"to being one hundred percent Italians."

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Probably if your father could have chosen,
he would have never...ah...wanted

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to return to Italy.

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Yes, I would have wanted to also.
Rather no, because of having been betrayed

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by Italy, my father deeply desired
to return to Italy.

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Apart from the experience in Abadan,
also because life in Palestine was truly

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very hard, very difficult because of
the work problem, the problem

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of the...of the...the lack of apartments.
However, we can't forget

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that the attention, the attention
from the Palestinian Arabs and the British

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made life particularly difficult.

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If we could return back in time...
- Yes.

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In September 1940, Tel Aviv was bombed
by Italian planes, no?...

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Yes.
- They bombed Tel Aviv and it seems

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like there were one hundred
and fifty two deaths.

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So life was very hard.
Another tangent...uh... In other words,

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one of the big problems was also food.

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For example, myself sister and I went
to the <i>gan</i>, which was like kindergarten.

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To help you understand, at lunch they used
to give us half an egg to eat.

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On the other hand,
while you all faced this situation,

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the hope of returning
to Italy continuously remained.

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And how did Adelina live
with the hope of returning?

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I will read...
- Yes.

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...another passage that is significant:
"I will never ask myself

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"to take that step.
Here I feel undoubtedly hesitant

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"by instinct and by force of tradition.
And I won't ever ask myself not only out

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"of obedience, 
but because more than anything else,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"I am concerned
about doing everything possible

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"for the future of our children."

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's like saying,
she was also willing to do her part.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There was a sense of pride
to return to Italy, that country

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that had dismissed them
in order to then guarantee

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a future for you children.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Then here there is a...
(Laughter)

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There are many letters.
In any case, when my father says

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that they will be
one hundred percent Italians,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
he also proposes to my mom
the idea of converting to Catholicism,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because we were Jews.
- Of course.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Then, while the Finzis
of Trieste were assimilated

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almost completely...
In other words,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
they went to the temple twice a year.
Instead, my mom was from

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a much more orthodox family.
They came from the Parrdo,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a very important Iberian family.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Parrdo which was Prado then.
They came from Spain after the expulsion.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So my father proposes this idea
of converting to Catholicism

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in order for his children...
- To become...

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Yes, to become totally Italians
even as a religion.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
However my mom... Here it says
that she was reluctant.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Not because she was personally orthodox.
But because, in that moment when

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it was known what was happening
in Europe, the extermination camps

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or also a difficult situation,
they absolutely didn't know

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where my paternal
and maternal grandparents were.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, however, the news arrived
even betraying the origin... In short...

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It was quite heavy.
- Very heavy.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
By the way, meanwhile how did the news
about the war circulate in Europe?

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Was there just an awareness
of what was happening?

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Was there an awareness
of the extermination camps?

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Yes.
- Most of all, also how did they live

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with these duplicate feelings?
Because, on the one hand,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there was this hope
of being able to return one day

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to a normal life in Italy.
On the other hand, however,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there was a lot of love
also for the fate of loved ones.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They knew everything.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Both about the Jewish institution
and the British.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The news arrived quite detailed.
I don't want to forget a noteworthy group

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of young Jews that were part
of the Jewish brigade.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They fought alongside the British
and they also fought in Italy,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in all of Europe.
It was them that said the news offered

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
details about what was taking place.
So they knew about everything

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about what was coming
to Italy and Europe.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The concerns were precisely
that my paternal grandparents,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
those who then were moved from Auschwitz,
they did not...

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The last official news was transmitted
by a type of telegram by the Red Cross

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in July of 1943.
Then my father knew absolutely nothing.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My mom didn't know.
She knew that her parents were hidden.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Her brother was in Switzerland.
But they had absolutely no news.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They couldn't say or write anything
because the mail was altered.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Outgoing and incoming mail was altered.
I found that at least some details

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the letters had been deleted precisely
by the person that did the alterations.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So my father needed to be careful
because they were altered by the British.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They were altered by the Persians.
Then they were altered on arrival

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in Palestine.
So they were...

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In this situation,
they also found themselves in a state

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of uncertainty being far from Europe,
far from what was happening in Europe,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
far from the war.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
For the moment, Adelina perhaps had hoped
that her family would be privileged

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the immense tragedy
that afflicted the Jews of Europe,

301
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that they would all find themselves
reunited upon their return.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There was almost this illusion, this hope.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Hope is often the last idea.
Hence, there was hope.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They didn't have detailed news.
My father's brother was a doctor

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who lived in Bologna
in the mountains of Monghidoro.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He knew
that his parents had been arrested,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that they had been deported.
However, he had not communicated anything.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Then, even though...
There could have always been

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the hope of return by being in Aushwitz.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Therefore, they hoped, they hoped.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Unfortunately, however,
the terrible news arrived.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They also arrived in Palestine while
the war...

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It was over.
- It was already over.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And like you said,
the terrible news arrived by mail.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
News so terrible
that Adelina cannot even transcribe them

316
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in a letter to Hector.
She writes:

317
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"My dear, unfortunately,
the dreary news has arrived.

318
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"I am sending you the letter
because I don't have the courage

319
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"to write to you
about it with my own pen."

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's terrible.
Unfortunately, they were effects

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of what had just happened
in the war in Europe.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In a communication letter separate
from the international cross.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Maybe in that exact moment Hector
and Adelina understood

324
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what they had escaped from?

325
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Yes without a doubt.
I will also tell you

326
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that when my father had
the idea of going to Palestine,

327
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
everyone criticized him;
friends, parents, brothers, the sister,

328
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because they said
he was always pessimistic.

329
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He would rather have wanted them all
to also come with him.

330
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
However, he expected it, also because
the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945.

331
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The news gets to him in August.
Given that months go by

332
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where he doesn't receive positive news,
he feared for the lives of his parents.

333
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Excuse me but if you permit me.
- Of course.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But before the communication
about the deaths of his parents,

335
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
he received communication from Sweden
that said his sister was saved.

336
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Then my aunt Yolanda Clara was part
of that group of prisoners

337
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that were moved
from Auschwitz in December 1944.

338
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They were moved west
so as not to leave a mass

339
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of prisoners in Auschwitz,
because the Red Army was coming.

340
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She was then liberated
in the north of Ravensbrück in April 1945.

341
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She was then transferred
to Sweden to recover.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We have said that at this point,
the war ended and Hector and Adelina

343
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
along with their children decide
to return to Italy.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
How difficult was it once again to start
from scratch because they actually had

345
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to start from scratch.

346
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Ah yes.
It was difficult.

347
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My father's brother,
who had worked in Sansepolcro,

348
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
helped him get a job at his work.
He spoke with Mr. Marco Vittoni

349
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and he said he was quite willing
to hire his brother because he was

350
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a chemist.
Mr. Vittoni wanted a change of pace

351
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for his company.
But when we arrived in Italy in May 1946,

352
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with a short stop in Bologna
and then to Parma at the home

353
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of my maternal grandparents,
and then to Sansepolcro precisely

354
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in November of 1946,
we had absolutely nothing.

355
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And there was nothing...
(Laughter)

356
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Without a doubt, a country in devastation.
- Yes a country in devastation.