WEBVTT
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People from Here
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Welcome back 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.
On the one hand, there is Adelina,
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a brilliant lawyer who works
at a prestigious legal firm in Milan.
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Then there is Ettore,
an industrial chemist.
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The future can only smile
upon Adelina and Ettore.
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Actually,
their future will be more turbulent
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than they could have ever imagined.
The fact is,
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in 1938 Ettore and Adelina are Jewish.
On September 18th,
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from the balcony of Trieste's town hall,
Benito Mussolini announced Racial Laws
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for the first time
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 Ettore and Adelina
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and the eve of the day.
We will tell it with the son
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of Ettore and Adelina,
Daniele Finzi, who in 2011,
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decided to donate his parents letters
and documents
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to The Archives of Pieve Santo Stefano.
Shortly we will also discuss why
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this choice was made.
Now I would like to start precisely
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with September 1938,
with Mussolini's announcement
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of the laws for the defense of the race.
Ettore and Adelina immediately started
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to understand that there wasn't
a future 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 Ettore Finzi was
very knowledgable about history.
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Also because he knew German very well.
He had two aunts, aunt Genie
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and aunt Lazigudita Gentiluomo,
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 the contents were about
and he also hoped that Italy would be
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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 only
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a few months, and he returns
to these months of April 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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An ominous 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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Ettore and Adelina decide to leave.
Or rather, how do they depart?
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Because, in a sense,
they leave 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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However, to qualify for the entrance,
every person needed to have 1,000 stars.
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Because, like we said, they had chosen.
- To go to Palestine.
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The goal was Palestine.
- Yes.
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The choice was not a coincidence,
because my father had also thought
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about Latin America.
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But the idea of going
to Palestine was because it was nearby.
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He was from Trieste so it was close.
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 any.
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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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It was to put towards this large sum.
And I still remember two leather bags
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with thousands of little stars inside.
They were gold little stars.
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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 Haifa on April 6, 1939.
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Yes, because as of 1922,
the British controlled Palestine.
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There were Palestinian Arabs.
The Jewish Palestinians were organized
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by the Yishuv, who were more concerned
with the kibbutz and wanted
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to dedicate themselves
to agriculture, etc.
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But the foundation, the political one,
was led by the Arab agency.
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The Arab agency was, well,
I'll give you an example.
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Those who arrived in Tel Aviv
on April 7th were in school learning
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modern Hebrew twenty days after,
because there were various Jews
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in Tel Aviv from every part of Europe.
And so, it was necessary
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to learn this common language.
Therefore, there was some organization,
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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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Yes, they had to restart.
- from scratch.
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On the other hand, however,
there was a lot of bitterness
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that was left behind by the fact
of having to abandon...
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Yes.
- Italy.
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Having to leave Italy was stressful.
- Yes.
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In regard to this,
I will also read an excerpt
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from the letters
that have been donated to the archive,
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diaries in which Ettore specifically tells
about what he was feeling shortly after
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the time at which he abandoned Italy.
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We will read 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.
Through their conversations,
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"I felt they knew what sympathy meant,
and they only ended up making me withdraw.
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"They were whispered conversations solely
because they knew me
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"and thought highly of me.
For many, being an example against
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"the persecution of Jews not being born
in Italy, could also be considered fair,
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"because it is understood that they came
to the country to make a fortune
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"by going behind other's backs.
They had some expert 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 Ettore felt betrayed by Italy?
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Without a doubt.
As I was saying prior,
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also because my father was from Trieste.
From his father, my grandfather,
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he had also received an irredentist
and nationalist upbringing.
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Trieste has always been divided
between people from Trieste
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and 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 upbringing,
and so he was an irredentist nationalist.
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Additionally, he was a genius official,
and 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 Ettore's letters,
in this text, it also highlights
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a responsibility
by the Italian people themselves
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for what 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 Italian people's problem...
(Laughter)
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is living,
like saying living today like yesterday.
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In other words,
the lack of personal responsibility
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and accepting anything,
a leader or a guide,
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that which has
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.
But at that very moment
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in which Mussolini was cruel towards Jews,
who, I repeat, were real Italians,
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and felt as such, and had also fought
for Italy during the First World War.
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At the point, everyone was inclined
to accept Fascist rule.
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We return to Ettore 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.
They leave behind the errors of the war,
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however, like I said, they face a life
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.
And then, there were few jobs
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or they were completely insecure.
Another big problem was
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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 Polish family.
The difficulty was then, above all,
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the work shortage.
Also because the two bags
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of the two thousand stars were not
to be touched at all.
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My father was not flexible.
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My mom then, as long as my father remained
in Tel Aviv until August 23, 1944,
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when he went to work
at the British oil refinery...
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No, he was also with my mom
because they then had my sister first
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and then I was born in 1942.
So when my father left,
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he felt the obligation to work
to support the family.
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He also liked the idea
of having money 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 in Persia,
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he would do his work
as an industrial chemist
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in this precise military zone.
Of course, he had to detach,
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he had to leave his wife,
his children in Tel Aviv.
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Then, although very tired,
every evening my mom wrote
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and reported what had happened
during her workday,
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because she had found work
with a company that was part
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of the Tel Aviv pharmaceutical industry.
After then being fired,
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she went to work at a house to iron.
So, she could do anything.
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And she reported with great ability,
descriptive, careful about everything
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that went on during the day.
Rather, my father sometimes wrote letters
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with extensive description.
He explained to her a bit about his duty,
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weather problems because it was very hot,
relationships with the British,
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with the local population that was
in truly devastating conditions.
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They were letters that,
among other things...
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If you permit me a tangent.
They were things one absolutely knew
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but I didn't even know 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 Ettore
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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 Ettore
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 Ettore
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.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"These days, I am overthinking
and continuously thinking
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"about the problem and worried,
not so much about our personal future,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"but the future of our children.
I feel irresistibly taken towards
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"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
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"the need to have to return to Italy.
Then they will become
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"one hundred percent Italians."
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Probably if your father could have chosen,
he would have never wanted
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to return to Italy.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yes, I would not have wanted to also.
Rather no, because of having been betrayed
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by Italy, my father deeply desired
to return to Italy.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Apart from the experience in Abadan,
also because life in Palestine was truly
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
very hard, very difficult because of
the work problem, the problem
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the lack of apartments.
However, we can't forget
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the attention
from the Palestinian Arabs and the British
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
made life particularly difficult.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If we could return back in time...
- Yes.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In September 1940, Tel Aviv was bombed
by Italian planes, right?
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yes.
- They bombed Tel Aviv and it seems
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
like there were one hundred
and fifty two deaths.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So life was very hard.
Another tangent.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In other words,
one of the big problems was also food.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For example, myself sister and I went
to the gan, which was like kindergarten.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To help you understand, at lunch they used
to give us half an egg to eat.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
On the other hand,
while facing this situation,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the hope of returning
to Italy continuously remained.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And how did Adelina live
with the hope of returning?
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I will read another significant passage:
"I will never ask those taking that step.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Here I feel undoubtedly hesitant
by instinct and by force of tradition.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"And I won't ever ask myself,
not only out of obedience,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"but because more than anything else,
I am concerned
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"about doing everything possible
for the future of our children."
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's like saying,
she was also willing to do her part.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was a sense of pride
to return to Italy,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that country that had dismissed them,
in order to guarantee
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a future for you children.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Then here there is a...
(Laughter)
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There are many letters.
In any case, when my father says
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that they will become
one hundred percent Italians,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he also proposes to my mom
the idea of converting to Catholicism,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because we were Jews.
- Of course.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Meanwhile, the Finzi from Trieste were
almost completely assimilated.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
That is to say,
they went to the temple twice a year.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Instead, my mom was
from a much more orthodox family,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They came from the Parrdo,
a very important Iberian family.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Parrdo which used to be Prado.
They came from Spain after the expulsion.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So my father proposes this idea
of converting to Catholicism
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in order for his children...
- To become...
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yes, to become complete Italians,
even as a religion.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
However my mom... Here it says
that she was reluctant.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Not because she was personally orthodox.
But because, in that moment when
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it was known what was happening
in Europe, the extermination camps
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or also a difficult situation,
they absolutely didn't know
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
where my paternal
and maternal grandparents were.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
However, the news arrived
even betraying the origin.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It was quite heavy.
- Very heavy.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
By the way, meanwhile how did the news
about the war circulate in Europe?
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Was there just an awareness
of what was happening?
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Was there an awareness
of the extermination camps?
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yes.
- Most of all, also how did they live
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with these duplicate feelings?
Because, on the one hand,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there was this hope
of being able to return one day
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to a normal life in Italy.
On the other hand, however,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there was a lot of love
also for the fate of loved ones.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They knew everything.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Both about the Jewish institution
and the British.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The news arrived quite detailed.
I don't want to forget a noteworthy group
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of young Jews that were part
of the Jewish brigade.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They fought alongside the British
and they also fought in Italy,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in all of Europe.
It was them that said the news offered
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
details about what was taking place.
So they knew about everything
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
about what was coming
to Italy and Europe.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The concerns were precisely
that my paternal grandparents,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
those who then were moved from Auschwitz,
they did not...
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The last official news was transmitted
by a type of telegram by the Red Cross
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in July of 1943.
Then my father knew absolutely nothing.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My mom didn't know.
She knew that her parents were hidden.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Her brother was in Switzerland.
But they had absolutely no news.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They couldn't say or write anything
because the mail was altered.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Outgoing and incoming mail was altered.
I found that at least some details
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the letters had been deleted precisely
by the person that did the alterations.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So my father needed to be careful
because they were altered by the British.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They were altered by the Persians.
Then they were altered on arrival
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in Palestine.
So they were...
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In this situation,
they also found themselves in a state
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of uncertainty being far from Europe,
far from what was happening in Europe,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
far from the war.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
For the moment, Adelina perhaps had hoped
that her family would be privileged
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the immense tragedy
that afflicted the Jews of Europe,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that they would all find themselves
reunited upon their return.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was almost this illusion, this hope.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Hope is often the last idea.
Hence, there was hope.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They didn't have detailed news.
My father's brother was a doctor
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who lived in Bologna
in the mountains of Monghidoro.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He knew
that his parents had been arrested,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that they had been deported.
However, he had not communicated anything.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Then, even though...
There could have always been
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the hope of return by being in Aushwitz.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Therefore, they hoped, they hoped.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Unfortunately, however,
the terrible news arrived.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They also arrived in Palestine while
the war...
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It was over.
- It was already over.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And like you said,
the terrible news arrived by mail.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
News so terrible
that Adelina cannot even transcribe them
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in a letter to Hector.
She writes:
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"My dear, unfortunately,
the dreary news has arrived.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"I am sending you the letter
because I don't have the courage
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"to write to you
about it with my own pen."
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's terrible.
Unfortunately, they were effects
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of what had just happened
in the war in Europe.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In a communication letter separate
from the international cross.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Maybe in that exact moment Hector
and Adelina understood
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what they had escaped from?
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yes without a doubt.
I will also tell you
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that when my father had
the idea of going to Palestine,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
everyone criticized him;
friends, parents, brothers, the sister,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because they said
he was always pessimistic.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He would rather have wanted them all
to also come with him.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
However, he expected it, also because
the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The news gets to him in August.
Given that months go by
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
where he doesn't receive positive news,
he feared for the lives of his parents.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Excuse me but if you permit me.
- Of course.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But before the communication
about the deaths of his parents,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he received communication from Sweden
that said his sister was saved.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Then my aunt Yolanda Clara was part
of that group of prisoners
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that were moved
from Auschwitz in December 1944.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They were moved west
so as not to leave a mass
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of prisoners in Auschwitz,
because the Red Army was coming.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
She was then liberated
in the north of Ravensbrück in April 1945.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
She was then transferred
to Sweden to recover.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have said that at this point,
the war ended and Hector and Adelina
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
along with their children decide
to return to Italy.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How difficult was it once again to start
from scratch because they actually had
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to start from scratch.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Ah yes.
It was difficult.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My father's brother,
who had worked in Sansepolcro,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
helped him get a job at his work.
He spoke with Mr. Marco Vittoni
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and he said he was quite willing
to hire his brother because he was
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a chemist.
Mr. Vittoni wanted a change of pace
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for his company.
But when we arrived in Italy in May 1946,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with a short stop in Bologna
and then to Parma at the home
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of my maternal grandparents,
and then to Sansepolcro precisely
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in November of 1946,
we had absolutely nothing.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And there was nothing...
(Laughter)
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Without a doubt, a country in devastation.
- Yes, a country in devastation.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I remember the path with holes.
I remember the Tower of Berta Square
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in a pile of ruins.
- The Tower of Berta Square was destroyed.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I repeat, it was also a problem to eat.
I remember my father rented
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a furnished apartment
in Saint Claire Square
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in which the conditions were...
- Insecure.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Very, very insecure.
However, they were young
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and they wanted to start over.
There was my sister and myself.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So, they desired to put a painful time
of their lives behind them and start over.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You have previously already answered
that there was resentment towards
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that country that made them run away
and also towards those friends
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that...
- No.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
had put down the idea of the legeri...
- No, absolutely not.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Other than it being something
that is part of our DNA.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Resentment is useless.
It's best to move forward,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to have the will to start again
and to overcome difficulties.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Not resentment.
I never heard my father
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
nor my mother speak ill of Italians.
Yes, it was upsetting to have lost.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To having lost parents.
To having lost years of work.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My mom could not return to work
in Milan because there was no way
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to find a home.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In 2011, Hector Finzi's
and Adelina's epistolary was donated
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to the Pieve diary archives.
It's awarded the Premio Pieve.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
First and foremost, how were you able
to find these letters again,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because they were made public
by the decision of donating them.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My father dies on June 18, 2002.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We had an apartment in Parma.
In August I was ready to let go of it.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
By chance, I found a bag in his office,
a leather one that holds documents.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There were letters inside
this document holder.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And there were two notebooks,
black ones with a red border
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that were used in the past,
and they were diaries.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I understood right away
because I have done historical research
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for many years, so I understood
it was something interesting.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I found it strange
that my father never told me anything,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because he didn't say there are letters
and diaries.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And so I took them all to my house,
to my office and I left them there
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for a year, a year and a half.
Then I slowly began to read them
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with a bit of fear.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Because with letters and diaries...
- One will find...
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
always find something intimate.
Then I think in my family,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
nothing would ever be talked about.
No one had ever commented,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
made references.
Then gradually I began
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to transcribe these letters.
I can't tell you how I did so,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because they were truly written...
- Strictly handwritten.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Yes, handwritten with a fountain pen,
on tissue paper, because then
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it was airmail paper.
So it had... It was
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a remove your eyes type job.
In any case, I did this transcription job
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the diary, of the letters, etc.
I had the idea of publishing it.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The full version of this diary,
of these letters...
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Just to be certain, I collaborated
with the Diary Archives already
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for some time for my research.
In any case, just to be certain,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I went to Pieve Santo Stefano
and I had this volume on hand.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It was Cristina Cangi, who you know.
She asked me:
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"What is it professor?"
- "It's this work that I did."
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Why don't you submit for the award."
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I say I really had not thought
about wanting to publish it.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I start reading some interesting things
and then I submit it.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
...They asked me for the archive
and also for the letters,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I wasn't going to do that.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I remember that it's naturally possible
to read this publication
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that is titled "Transparent",
in which the documentation
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is precisely presented.
Published by Il Mulino.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Our arrangement time has ended,
although we would like to talk for hours
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
about this story that is a bit,
by certain passages and elements,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
similar to the story
of many other families,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
also of the province of Arezzo.
Perhaps there will be a a way
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to talk more about it in the future.
Thank you Daniel Finzi,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
thanks to all of you
who have followed our event,
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a special event
that was made possible in collaboration
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with The Archives of Pieve Santo Stefano.
I naturally thank you as well.
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In particular, the archives
for this episode were made available
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by Nadia Frulli.
Thank you to all of you
99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for watching the program with...